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DaimlerChrysler No. 1 in Every Category for Getting Orders to Customers

1 September 1999

DaimlerChrysler No. 1 in Every Vehicle Category for Getting Commercial Orders to Customers, Survey Finds

    AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Aug. 31 -- Fleet customers across the
U.S. are getting faster order to delivery service on Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth
and Jeep vehicles than they are on any another automakers' cars and trucks,
according to a national survey published this month in Automotive Fleet
Magazine.
    DaimlerChrysler vehicles were named No. 1 in order to delivery
time for every vehicle segment, averaging just 47 days, versus competitors'
73, according to the study, which culled data from over 300,000 vehicle orders
from the nation's six largest leasing management companies.
    "DaimlerChrysler is building vehicles very quickly and (servicing its
fleet customers) very quickly," U.S. Fleet Leasing's vice president Gary
Taylor told the publication.
    Chris Cortez, Vice President of DaimlerChrysler's Fleet Operations,
credits continuous process refinement and teamwork to the sweep of the top
spots in the survey, which ranked the delivery time of 61 popular fleet
vehicles in eight segments, including compacts, (winner: Chrysler Cirrus);
intermediate sized (Dodge Intrepid); full-sized (Chrysler Concorde), executive
cars (Chrysler 300M); pickup trucks (Dodge Dakota); vans (Dodge Caravan); and
sport utility vehicles (Jeep Grand Cherokee).
    "From manufacturing to distribution and every stop in-between,
DaimlerChrysler's processes are built around the idea that customers come
first," Cortez said.  "This acknowledgment that we service our fleet
customers' faster than competitors is one of the payoffs of that focus,"
Cortez said.
    DaimlerChrysler's Southfield, Michigan-based Fleet Operations division
services more than 2,800 commercial customers nationally and internationally,
providing services from special equipment needs to limited production option
availability on Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth and Jeep vehicles.