By Frank Williams
February 15, 2008
In January '08, GM told the world that Buick sold 12,749 vehicles, an increase of 6.1 percent over last year. But wait a minute– if you look at sales per franchise, they racked-up just four sales each (three cars and one truck) in January of both years. Multiplying the four sales per franchise by the 2700 dealers Autoweek says hang out the Buick shingle gives a total of 10,800 sales in January. So where did the other 2k cars go? My bet's on fleets, even though GM says their sales numbers are dropping because they're going through fleet withdrawal. You also have to wonder about the other lot queens that suddenly had a sales spike in January, like the Pontiac G5 (up 50.2 percent) or the Chevrolet Equinox (up 47.7 percent). Further stretching GM's tenuous credibility: their insistence that the Buick Enclave is such a hot seller they can't produce enough and have to put customers on waiting lists. If that's so, why did they start January with a 26-day supply on the dealer lots and end the month with a 41-day supply? I know: looking for transparency from GM is like fishing in a pile of dirt.
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POWERED
February 15th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Chevrolet. Cadillac. Everything else is noise.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
The pictured Lacrosse went up 69% c/w 1/2007: 4,376 vs. 2,585.
What rhymes with weep?
February 15th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I actually think that the current range of buicks are kinda cool lookin. They are right on the edge of sexy. A little Italian design magic could push them right into cool lookin in a voluptious way.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:31 am
The truth lies in the Impala’s sales figures. GM said that the sales decline wasn’t due to cannibalizing from the new Malibu (the opposite is probably true because the Impala works out to be cheaper due to incentives)but a purposeful reduction in in fleet sales.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Hmm. This is my strategy to tell when GM management is lying – it’s when their lips are moving.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
It matters not if GM declares that the Enclave is the second coming of Christ. They’d have to load if full of strippers and Bordeaux to get me to set foot in the dealership.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I purchased vehicles for a primarily GM 800+ fleet, though most brands were available. Vehicles were ordered through a local dealer at manufacturer-set prices. One would think the sales would be included in dealer statistics.
GM wouldn’t fib, would it?
February 15th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Gardiner – I KNEW IT. I knew that the Big 3 were moving fleet sales from a more direct and arranging them through their dealers so they count as “retail” shipments to dealers and not direct fleet sales.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Oh Frank.
Here you go again analizing the numbers.
Where is that simple idylic trust in dear Uncle Rick and crazy (but lovable) Uncle Bob?
I swear, you are the only “market analyst” I’ve seen actually analize the market. Keep it up.
Bunter
February 15th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Gardiner- Interesting.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Classic headline. It has gotten that bad hasn’t it?