Cheap Leases, Free Cash and Slashed Stickers as GM Tries to Move Slow-selling Passenger Cars

Pity the poor passenger car. Once on top, now increasingly being spoke of in sentences that use the word “endangered.”

If last month’s sales figures tell us anything, it’s that the current trend towards spacious crossovers and SUV shows no signs of abating. With the segment now relegated to second-class status, passenger car makers face rising inventories and a growing need to sweeten the sales pot.

General Motors recently idled some plants and cut shifts to draw down a glut of unsold vehicles, but February’s dismal sales did nothing to help. Well, it’s March now, so bring on the crazy sales!

If you’re the owner of a 2008 or newer Japanese or Korean vehicle and are looking to lease a 2017 Chevrolet Cruze LT this month, congratulations. You’ve selected a very opportune time. According to manufacturer deals posted to the GM Inside News forum, GM wants those drivers to have $3,000 in competitive lease cash, after which a 24-month lease of a Cruze rings in at $99 a month (with $969 due at signing).

Going into February, GM’s Cruze inventory stood at 101 day’s worth of vehicles. That’s down from the 121-day supply seen before Christmas, but still well above healthy levels. At 15,367, last month’s sales topped 2016’s 12,998 units, but that second figure is from a time of changeover between the previous and current generation of vehicles. Before that, all February sales range from just under 18,000 to over 21,000 vehicles.

Similar deals are offered on several other 2017 models — Malibu, Trax, Camaro, Volt, Colorado, Equinox and Traverse.

For three bowtie-bearing vehicles, GM will chop 20 percent off the MSRP between now and March 13. And it just so happens that those models are excluded from the lease deal: Spark, Impala and Sonic. Impala sales are dropping especially fast. Last year’s tally didn’t clear the 100,000 marker — the first time that’s happened since GM resurrected the model for the 2000 model year. It’s also less than a third of the model’s 311,128 sales recorded in 2007.

In February, Impala’s 7,165 U.S. sales were markedly lower than the 9,147 and 9,065 sales recorded for the same month in 2016 and 2015. Going back to 2011 shows February sales at a lofty 16,290 units.

Chevy’s Sonic fared no better. Despite a styling refresh, its 2,140 February sales fell by half, year over year, from the 4,241 recorded in 2016. For the model’s first three full years on the market (2012-2014), U.S. February sales didn’t fall below 6,000.

Only the sub-subcompact Spark has remained consistent in sales, recently buoyed by a styling makeover and the addition of a larger 1.4-liter engine. February’s 2,139 sales topped last year’s 1,761, but still came in lower than all years prior to that.

[Image: General Motors]