GM October Sales Off 45%

“General Motors dealers in the United States delivered 170,585 vehicles in October, down 45 percent compared with a year ago. GM truck sales of 97,119 were down 51 percent and car sales of 73,466 were off 34 percent.” And so the death knell sounds for what was once America’s largest automaker, the world’s largest automaker and the world’s most profitable company. As I stated previously, GM is now practically begging for a government bailout. Needless to say, the situation isn’t their fault. “We are obviously disappointed in our results which reflect a difficult comparison with a strong year-ago October performance,” writes Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. “More importantly, it also reflects an unprecedented credit crunch that is dramatically impacting the entire U.S. economy – from the housing market to big and small companies to banks to family run businesses. The credit freeze has also had a very negative impact on consumers’ confidence and their purchase behavior across America.” Oy. Anyway, in the search for good news, GM points to the new fleet queen Malibu, sales of which are up 129 percent, and the truck sales, which are… at 45k. But then GM really reaches, with hybrid numbers that are, frankly, embarrassing…

“GM hybrids continue to build sales momentum and the company has broken through the 10-thousand vehicle sales mark. A total of 1,496 hybrid vehicles were delivered in the month. Hybrid sales included: 372 hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe, 193 GMC Yukon and 230 Cadillac Escalade 2-mode SUVs delivered. There were 325 Chevrolet Malibu, 22 Saturn Aura and 354 Vue hybrids sold in October. GM has sold 10,549 hybrids so far in 2008.”