Cerberus-Backed Chrysler To Sell 33% Fewer Cars

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. car maker Chrysler LLC, run by private equity house Cerberus, expects to sell 33 percent fewer cars this year, German magazine auto motor und sport reported, citing a Chrysler manager.

Unit sales will drop to 1.8 million cars this year, down from 2.7 million cars last year, and Chrysler plans to bring them up again to some 2.5 million a year in the long term, Jim Press, co-president and head of sales, told the magazine.

Press said Chrysler would not plan to sell its Jeep unit and declined to predict if Chrysler would be profitable again in 2010, auto motor und sport reported. (Reporting by Peter Dinkloh; Editing by David Cowell)