GM May Sales Down 30 Percent

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

GM sales dropped last month by 29.6 percent compared to May 2008, according to GM’s press release. Sales volume was up 11 percent compared to April 2009 though. Guess which number GM’s release latches onto with boa constricter force?

GM’s cars continue to take a savage beating, down 37.7 percent compared to just a 20.8 percent drop for light trucks.

By brand, Buick sales dropped the least, shedding only 17 percent of its sales. Of carry-forward brands, Cadillac fared the worst, down 40 percent. Dying brands Saab, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn were all down by 40 percent or more, with Saab selling only 783 vehicles.

Camaro is selling strong in its honeymoon period, with 5,463 deliveries. Enclave is up nearly 40 percent, Escalade is up 21.3 percent, G8 is up 68.3 percent and Saab’s 9-7X is up 4.6 percent.

Otherwise, everything is down. Way down in some cases (STS -61.6, Aveo -73.6, Cobalt -52.2, G6 -66.7, G5 -70.9, and 9-3 -72.8). Still, this was GM’s best month all year. Not bad for a zombie.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Lw Lw on Jun 02, 2009

    KixStart: "Stop whining. Do the country a favor… drive to Detroit, pick a GM exec at random and kick his ass until he gets something right." LMAO... The eternal question... How many kicks in the ass of a GM exec does it take to get to a good decision?

  • Campisi Campisi on Jun 03, 2009
    Even if TTAC were treating GM unfairly in reporting sales (I don’t think so), TTAC hardly has the power to do something like that to GM by reporting sales differently. GM did that to itself with decades of customer abuse, arrogance, insulating itself from the real world, inferior product and bad businesss practices. All he pointed out was number-futzing. How is an editorial choice by an independent website GM's fault?
  • Buickman Buickman on Jun 03, 2009

    perfume on a pig.

  • Redwood Redwood on Jun 03, 2009

    The month to month sales matter more to me, personally. The year to year percentages seem designed to just grab headlines at this point. Car sales are in the dumps and nowhere near where they were last year. That much has been clear for a long time. What I want to know is the month to month sales. Are they going up? Getting worse? I'm glad that number was included in the article. Also, as far as the G8 sales go, they have heavy incentives on them right now. That's partly why they are selling so well now. That and more people are probably finding out about the car now. I'm amazed at how many people have never heard of the G8.

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