Chrysler starts shipping Jeep Cherokees CHRYSLER has begun shipping the new Jeep Cherokee, giving dealers a long-awaited entry in the fast-growing compact crossover SUV market. Distribution of the Cherokees had been delayed while Chrysler engineers tinkered with the new nine-speed automatic transmissions to make them shift more smoothly. Company spokesmen confirmed that trucks hauling Cherokees began leaving a Toledo, Ohio, factory on Tuesday morning, heading for Jeep dealers across the nation. At Golling Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, north of Detroit, employees waited eagerly for the first truckload of Cherokees to arrive on Tuesday afternoon. Owner Bill Golling said the delay in shipping probably cost Chrysler hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because the company books the sale when it ships cars to dealers. It shows the company is more concerned about quality than short-term profits, he said. "The temptation would have been there in the old days to ship the car and get the money," he said. That's not the way it is any more. Cherokees are far more sleek-looking than the boxy model they replaced, the Jeep Liberty. That will help them go head-to-head with the top sellers in the compact crossover market, the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape. The compact crossover segment is among the fastest-growing in the US, with sales more than quadrupling in the past 13 years to more than 1.6 million, according to LMC Automotive, an industry data and research firm. The segment is important to US automakers trying to take sales from the Japanese companies that have long have dominated the market. The segment's growth rate is second only to midsize crossovers such as the Toyota Highlander and Ford Edge. Delivery delays were responsible for a 65 per cent decline in Chrysler's first-quarter earnings. Along with the Cherokee issues, the delays caused Chrysler to cut its sales and earnings forecasts for the year. The company now expects to ship 2.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2013, at the low end of its goal of between 2.6 million and 2.7 million. It expects to earn between $US1.7 billion ($A1.76 billion) and $US2.2 billion, down from its previous target of around $US2.2 billion. CEO Sergio Marchionne said after the second-quarter earnings that the delays were due to growing pains as the company moved from making one million cars and trucks in 2010 to more than two-and-a-half times that this year.