GM "Core Brand" Sales Up 30 Percent, Reported Retail Sales Up Only 3 Percent
Corporate fleet sales were back with a vengeance last month, as GM admitted that these lower-profit fleet sales made up a full 29 percent of its total sales in January. Those total sales, including the winding-down Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and HUMMER brands were up only 13.6 percent. Core brand sales were up 30 percent in total, but again, most of those gains were in fleet sales, as core brand retail sales gained only 3 percent over GM’s moribund performance in January 2009. Zoinks! Full release in PDF format here, details after the jump.
Chevrolet saw total sales rise 36.4 percent (105,294 units), with its car sales up 102 percent, truck sales falling 11.9 percent and CUVS up 68 percent. Cobalt was a strong seller, up 149.7 percent to 12,962 units, likely driven by fleet sales. Malibu (+76.5%, 16,439 units) and Impala (+55%, 10,939 units) were the other major drivers of Chevy car volume. Avalanche and Silverado dropped single-digit percentages, while Suburban (+8%, 2,315 units) and Tahoe (+18.4%, 4,556 units) rescued Chevy trucks from disaster. Equinox (+76%, 9,513) and HHR (+220%, 5,452) enjoyed robust growth, while Traverse increased slightly to 5,724 units.
Buick was up 44 percent altogether, with cars up 40 percent and CUVs up 50 percent. Predictably, the new LaCrosse (+185%, 4,246 units) and the Enclave (+50%, 4,075) were up, and Lucerne (-37, 1,740) was way down.
Cadillac actually dropped .7 percent, as it continues to be one of GM’s most problematic brands sales-wise. Every Caddy car nameplate was down by double digits, from CTS (-25%, 2,565) to DTS (-54%, 618). Collectively the Escalade triplets were off 25.7 percent with total volume of 1,754 units, but SRX made up for the drop, rising 264 percent to 3,234 units.
Overall GMC sales volume was up 11 percent, with core truck sales falling 27 percent and CUVs making up for them with 201 percent growth. Canyon fell below 1,00 units, Sierra slid 9.3 percent to 7,271 units, while Yukon and Yukon XL fell by about a third, ending up with 1,503 and 1,222 units respectively. Acadia was up 68 percent to 5,460, while Terrain logged 4,302 units.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Please explain to me how "3% RISE IN RETAIL SALES" can be credited to fleets. I understand I am an evil GM fanboy/apologist (LOL) but I cannot understand how this can be a negative somehow. Sure it's against a horrible jan 2009 but then again aren't every automakers stats versus a horrible 2009? Deal with it GM haters! GM took 1 small step in the right direction this month. Get over yourselves, we (GM employees/supporters) understand there is a LONG, LONG road ahead. Also, just to clarify something GM isn't exactly at the brink any longer now that they have been restructured/propped up (whatever you wanna call it) with YOUR generous donations. Remember this is the exuse the Ford haters use to explain why Ford is doomed. YOU GOTTA KEEP YOUR DOOMSDAY STORYLINES STRAIGHT!
"And, let’s face it, 535xi is a far more sophisticated car – drivetrain speaking." Yes, the BMW breaks a lot more!