DETROIT – Chrysler Group has taken another step toward reviving its leasing business by signing an agreement to offer leasing through US Bank, Automotive News reported.

The automaker announced the arrangement in an e-mail to dealers. Dealers now can offer customers two leasing options: U.S. Bank and Ally Financial.

The company is offering leasing only on select models using either finance source: the Chrysler 300 and Town & Country; the Dodge Charger, Grand Caravan, Journey and Nitro, and the Jeep Wrangler and Liberty.

“Starting today, your customers now have a choice of finance sources to lease select vehicles. Special lease rates and residuals are now available through US Bank,” the e-mail said. It is signed by Fred Diaz, Ralph Gilles, Michael Manley and Olivier Francois, CEOs of the Ram, Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler brands, respectively.

“While Ally remains our preferred lender, this new relationship with US Bank will now give your customers a choice in lenders and will continue to allow you to write your leasing deals at the most competitive rates and residuals available in the market today,” the message said.

Ally has financed about 50 percent of all Chrysler Group’s retail sales so far this year, according to a company statement.

The move comes a month after Ally Bank announced it was opening leasing to a wider range of customers. Ally lowered the FICO score threshold for lease customers to 620 from 660. A 660 score is on the lower end of prime credit, while a 620 score is on the upper end of subprime.

Chrysler has gradually been rebuilding its leasing business after it collapsed during the credit crisis of 2008. In 2006, when Chrysler Financial was still Chrysler’s captive finance company, leases accounted for about 22 percent of the automaker’s new-vehicle sales transactions. After Chrysler Financial left the leasing business in 2008, along with most of Chrysler’s lenders, the percentage of leases plummeted to under 1 percent of all sales by mid-2009.

Leasing has slowly come back since then, accounting for between 4 and 6 percent of Chrysler sales now.

DETROIT – Chrysler Group’s 7 percent sales increase in August bucked the industry’s 21 percent tumble.

There are several reasons Chrysler was able to enjoy its fifth straight month of year-over-year sales increases, reported Automotive News.

First, last August was terrible. Jesse Toprak, analyst for TrueCar.com, says: “Last August, when cash for clunkers was at its peak, Chrysler had the fewest eligible vehicles of any manufacturer.” So its sales last August “were abysmal.”

Also, fleet sales were strong this August. Thirty-six percent of Chrysler’s sales last month were to fleets, or about 36,000 of Chrysler’s 99,611 units for the month, according to Automotive News estimates. Chrysler’s reliance on fleet sales, though still fairly high, dropped from 39 percent in the January-July period.

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. also reduced their reliance on fleets in August. Fleet sales accounted for 28 percent of GM’s August sales, down from 31 percent in the January-July period, and for 26 percent of Ford’s, down from 35 percent. All three automakers had said fleet sales would decline in the second half.

Toprak says Chrysler also is beginning to see some payoff from new products, along with decent performance from the existing lineup.

“The new Grand Cherokee is having initial success,” he says. “The Wrangler continues to do well. Some of their halo cars like Charger and Challenger are doing decent.”

Chrysler Group recorded its fifth consecutive month of year-over-year increases, as August sales rose 7 percent.

Fresh from its bankruptcy exit a year earlier, Chrysler had a 15 percent August decline while the industry advanced 1 percent, thanks to the U.S. incentive program designed to spur sales of fuel-efficient vehicles, Automotive News reported.

The Jeep brand led the way last month with a 17 percent increase. The Wrangler was the hottest-selling Jeep, up 37 percent. Dodge sales rose 8 percent, while Ram pickups were up 5 percent. The Chrysler brand dropped 4 percent.

Chrysler still relies on light trucks for most of its sales. The company sold 72,270 minivans, pickups and SUVs in August compared with 27,341 cars. But car sales grew 36 percent for the month while trucks advanced just 2 percent.

As usual, Ram full-sized pickups were Chrysler Group’s top seller — 18,995 units in August, up 8 percent from a year earlier. The Chrysler Town & Country minivan was the company’s No. 2 seller, with a 26 percent gain.

Sales to fleets account for much of Chrysler’s recent sales increases. According to internal documents obtained by Automotive News, 39 percent of Chrysler’s sales from January through July were non-retail. Like most automakers, Chrysler doesn’t break out fleet sales from the total.

Chrysler said it finished August with a 50-day supply of vehicles, or 197,987 units.

The sales increase comes as Chrysler is rolling out a number of new or refreshed products following its 2009 bankruptcy hiatus — 16 vehicles in all this year by the company’s count.

DETROIT – Chrysler Group dealers who initially get Fiat franchises will be expected to start with small showrooms — 2,500-3,000 square feet — enough to display three or four cars, reported Automotive News.

Such a small showroom will be sufficient to sell the Fiat 500 minicar, which will arrive in dealerships at the end of this year. Chrysler expects to initially name 165 dealers in 119 U.S. markets to sell the Fiat 500. The network could expand to about 200 locations as more products become available, according to Ralph Kisiel, Chrysler spokesman.

Chrysler unveiled its plans for the Fiat franchise to about 400 dealers this morning at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The dealers were chosen from markets around the country that Chrysler has identified with strong growth potential for small-car sales over the next five years.

“We have determined the areas of the country where they can succeed and grow,” Peter Grady, Chrysler’s vice president for network development and fleet, said in a statement today.

Chrysler anticipates selling 50,000 Fiat 500s in the United States next year, and about 78,000 units by 2013 after additional models are added, according to one dealer who attended the meeting.

About 400 Chrysler Group LLC dealers from across the United States are expected to gather at the Detroit Institute of Arts for an intensive session intended to help them decide whether to make the investment needed to sell the Fiat and Alfa brands, The Detroit News reported.

A pillar of the success of the partnership between Chrysler and Fiat SpA, which was formed in June 2009 when the Auburn Hills automaker emerged from bankruptcy, was that the two companies would develop vehicles together and take advantage of their respective distribution networks to sell each other’s products.

Fiat has a strong dealer network in Europe and South America and already has started selling Chrysler’s vehicles abroad.

The Italian automaker stopped selling Fiats here in 1983, and ceased mainstream Alfa Romeo sales in 1995. Sales continue of the more exotic Ferrari and Maserati brands and the low-volume Alfa Romeo 8C sports car.

Fiat will return to the U.S. market in December with a North American version of the tiny Fiat 500. It will be produced at Chrysler’s Toluca, Mexico, plant, which will make about 120,000 of A-segment-sized cars annually. That output will be split between North America and South America.

The Alfa brand will return with a mid-size car and crossover in 2012, followed by a larger SUV and luxury sedan.

Dealers from 119 select U.S. cities will be briefed Monday on vehicles in Fiat’s five-year plan.

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive for both Chrysler and Fiat, will not attend.

Presenters will include Laura Soave, head of the Fiat brand for North America; and Peter Grady, Chrysler vice president of Network Development & Fleet.

Including Chrysler staff, about 600 people are expected to attend, said Chrysler spokesman Ralph Kisiel.

Dealers are paying their own travel costs but Chrysler is providing ground transportation and food.

As Chrysler Group LLC prepares to lay out its strategy for selling a subcompact car from partner Fiat SpA, the move is raising concerns among some dealers struggling to sell the vehicles already on their lots, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The launch of the Fiat 500 would introduce a fifth brand into the Chrysler family, alongside the Chryslers, Dodges, Jeeps and Ram trucks most dealers carry now.

Chrysler and Fiat hope the tiny Fiat 500 becomes a sales and pop-culture hit along the lines of the Mini Cooper.

But the new nameplate comes to the U.S. as the company’s rivals are paring down the number of brands they offer, not adding to them, to contend with a shrunken car market.

General Motors Co. now fields only four makes—down from eight—while Ford Motor Co. will have just two after it shutters its Mercury division by year end.

Some Chrysler dealers also say they are concerned about investments those chosen to sell the Fiat 500 will have to make. Chrysler, for instance, wants dealers to build separate showrooms for Fiat, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

“The enthusiasm for the Fiat coming to the market has diminished,” said one East Coast Chrysler dealer who is still weighing whether he will apply to sell the 500.

“At first, it was something that would be mixed in” among Chrysler’s current models on the showroom floor, this dealer said. Now, “they are going to have to present a compelling story and product to back me investing at least $1 million to build a new showroom.”

Chrysler spokesman Ralph Kisiel had no comment regarding showroom costs.

Chrysler plans to outline its strategy for the Fiat 500 at an Aug. 30 gathering of 600 dealers at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The goal is to pick 200 dealers from the group to sell Fiats in selected markets.

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both Chrysler and Fiat, said Monday “the multibrand experience is already a way of life in the U.S.” despite GM and Ford paring offerings.

“In the case of GM, they had brands that were overlapping. Chrysler doesn’t have that problem. Jeep is unique, Dodge is a widely popular brand and Ram is about truck,” he said at Chrysler’s Toledo, Ohio, operations during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

Dealers will have until Sept. 22 to make a formal proposal on how they will achieve the Fiat franchise requirements, such as building a separate showroom and appointing a separate staff to showcase Fiats. Chrysler is offering no financial aid to dealers to comply.

The Fiats will start with the 500 model arriving in December from a Chrysler plant in Mexico. A convertible is expected in 2011.

Plans also call for the sale of Fiat’s Alfa Romeo vehicles in the U.S., which Mr. Marchionne said on Monday most likely would happen through the Fiat showrooms. Chrysler said it will locate Fiat dealers in top urban markets with the strongest small-car sales.

If 200 suitable Fiat dealers can’t be found within the 600 selected to attend next week’s presentation, Mr. Marchionne said he will shop the idea around outside the Chrysler dealer network.

Some Chrysler dealers support the Fiat plan. Alan Helfman, in Houston, said he is interested in a Fiat franchise and plans to come to Detroit to learn more. “It sounds like an excellent opportunity,” he said.

Other dealers who plan to attend the presentation said they want Mr. Marchionne to clarify how the five brands are supposed to fit together long term.

One Chrysler dealer in Florida said he was spooked by the experience of dealers who sunk money into selling the Smart, a tiny car made by Daimler AG, and the Mini Cooper, from BMW AG, and haven’t seen a payback.

Smart is sold through dedicated dealerships. Sales fell from 24,000 in 2008 to about 14,000 in 2009 and are down 61 percent this year through July. Mini has seen its sales languish since peaking at 54,000 in 2008. BMW dealers sold 45,225 last year and sales year to date through July were down 1.9 percent.

The Fiat 500′s arrival is being planned as industry sales are tepid. J.D. Power and Associates last week cut its 2010 U.S. sales forecast to 11.6 million vehicles, down from 11.7 million. Gas prices, which helped pushed many Americans into smaller cars in 2008 when they topped $4 a gallon, remain below $2.50 on average.

Another potential problem for some dealers is franchise placement. In some markets Fiat dealers could compete for the same customers, according to franchise-placement maps viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

For instance, in the Phoenix area Chrysler plans four franchises, double the number of Mini dealers. Three of the four would compete in the suburban Scottsdale market. In Las Vegas, Mini has one dealer while Chrysler wants two selling Fiats. Chrysler’s Kisiel had no comment on franchise locations.