June 2006 Sales: General Motors Corp.

[sciguy_0504]

DETROIT - General Motors' dealers in the United States sold 413,473 new cars and trucks in June, the company's best sales performance year-to-date, up 15.2 percent, or about 68,000 units, compared with May.

"I am proud of our June sales results, especially since they reflect our highest sales month so far this year," said Mark LaNeve, General Motors North America vice president, Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. "Our launch vehicles had their best sales results so far this year, as evidenced by the sales gains of our all-new full-size utilities. We also had strong sales of the Chevrolet Impala (30,716 vehicles), HHR (9,503), Buick Lucerne (10,690), Pontiac G6 (17,074) and Torrent (4,789)."

GM posted strong passenger car sales with Pontiac leading the way, up 28.7 percent over May and up 12.1 percent over June 2005 on the strength of G6 and G6 convertible hardtop sales. G6 set an all-time sales record and is up 39.9 percent for the first six months of the year. Solstice continues to be one of the hottest cars in the country, and the Torrent crossover also achieved an all-time sales record, up 35.8 percent over May. Other GM divisions posted solid results with Saturn sales up 49.1 percent over May levels. Chevrolet small cars posted robust sales with Cobalt up 21.9 percent, and Aveo up 23.5 percent, compared with May. Also, Impala sales were up 24.6 percent over May.

On the truck side of the market, GM sold 33,148 2007 full-size utilities (including Luxury) in June. Total sales of all GM launch vehicles were up 21.8 percent compared with May and accounted for 25.5 percent of GM's total deliveries for the month. The success of GM's launch vehicles is one of the key components of GM's North America turnaround plan.

"Our customers have told us that success in the marketplace depends on a combination of great new products, strong brands and segment-leading fuel economy, and that is exactly the turnaround strategy we are executing," LaNeve said.

Chevrolet HHR, Equinox, Saturn Vue and Pontiac Torrent pushed total small utility sales up 25.3 percent compared with a year ago. HHR had its best retail sales month since launch setting an all-time sales record for June and CYTD.

GM sports cars also posted solid June sales results, with a 60.1 percent improvement compared with year-ago levels. Corvette sales were up 21.6 percent and Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky continue their brisk sales, with Solstice remaining on dealers' lots an average of 13 days and Sky remaining on lots 10 days.

GM's luxury utilities posted strong sales in June, with the all-new 2007 Cadillac Escalade selling 2,604 units; 2007 Escalade ESV selling 1,782 units; and Cadillac SRX sales increasing 31.6 percent compared with one year ago with 2,489 units sold.

GM will continue to introduce an array of new vehicles throughout 2006, including the Saturn AURA, all-new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups, the fuel-efficient Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid, and GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook crossovers.

June 2005 was the strongest sales month in 19 years with 558,092 deliveries. Compared with last year, June 2006 sales were down 25.9 percent with total car sales down 2.3 percent, and truck sales down 36.8 percent.

"By any measure... quality of share, launch performance, mix and revenue ... June was a very solid month for GM. Comparing our total volume with last year's employee discount-driven phenomenon is like comparing a home run to a grand slam. Either way, you are scoring runs," said LaNeve.

Certified Used Vehicles

June sales for all certified GM brands, including GM Certified Used Vehicles, Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, Used Cars from Saturn, Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles and HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, were 43,352 units, equivalent to results last June. Total year-to-date certified GM sales are 263,597 units, up 1.5 percent from the same period last year.

GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling certified pre-owned brand, posted 37,155 sales in June, up 4 percent from June 2005. Year-to-date sales for GM Certified Used Vehicles are 228,678 units, up 4 percent.

GM Certified Used Vehicles, which sells Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Oldsmobile models, reached a major milestone in June with the sale of its 2 millionth unit. GM Certified, the first manufacturer-certified brand to cross the 2 million sales threshold, set new category records for certified sales each of the last four years, and Chevrolet has been the industry's top-selling single-line make certified used vehicle since 2004. More than 1 million GM Certified units have been sold since 2004 and GM Certified is on track to set another annual sales record for the category this year.

Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles posted 3,618 sales in June, up 6 percent from last June. Used Cars from Saturn sold 1,631 units, down 51 percent. Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 857 units, down 10 percent. In its sixth month of operation, HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned sold 91 units.

"June was another strong month for GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling certified pre-owned brand, with sales up 4 percent over last June and up more than 4 percent year-to-date over the same period last year," LaNeve said. "This month GM Certified Used Vehicles became the industry's first manufacturer-certified brand to reach 2 million sales and is key to our strategy to give customers terrific value on both new and certified used vehicles."

For more info visit http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076

[Chicagoland]

Good to see G6 finally selling well, and the Vue family SUV's.

The HHR is kicking tail. Wonder what the naysayers of the HHR think now? If they say it is a 'fad', notice that the PT Cruiser, at 6 years old, is still selling over 10K a month. Pretty good for a 'fad' huh?

[Flybrian]

Good to see G6 finally selling well, and the Vue family SUV's.

The HHR is kicking tail. Wonder what the naysayers of the HHR think now? If they say it is a 'fad', notice that the PT Cruiser, at 6 years old, is still selling over 10K a month. Pretty good for a 'fad' huh?

If it looked like the Caliber, it wouldn't have been called a 'fad'. People lumped the PT and HHR in with the Thunderbird and the like as short-lived retro cars. Unlike the T-Bird, these lil' wagons have utility.

[VenSeattle]

Posted in another topic but I'll do it here also:

June 2004 vehicle total: 380,267

June 2005 Vehicle total: 558,092 (Fire sale - Employee Pricing)

June 2006 vehicle total: 413,473

[Drew Dowdell]

Not so bad after all. That's a fairly sizable increase for a month of minimal incentives.

[Northstar]

I think GM moved a lot of cars in the last couple days of June, we sure did. And as Ven posted, sales vs. 2004 were up a good margin. It's interesting that the Aveo, Impala, and HHR all had good months because we were selling a ton of each, it will be interesting to see if what the dealership I work at sells in July is up everywhere or not.

The G6 convert must be helping sales a lot, and for some reason the GTO is now starting to sell pretty well. Maybe the Solstice is drawing buyers in?

The Escalade line is kicking tail, and the SRX seems to have finally gained a tiny bit of momentum?

The Colorado/Canyon suck.

[jbartley]

the LUCERNE is a hot piece! look at that sucker sell!

i bet 12k+ a month by september!

the SUV's are doing pretty well. Specially since there aren't alot of EXT's and Avalanches to go around yet.

go G6 and Malibu, HHR, and the roadsters!

[ZL-1]

Seems like good news, when compared to June 2004 which didn't have any firesale effects.

Any info on fleet/retail mix, or will we have to wait until the Q2 earnings report is released?

[CSpec]

I think the G6 and Impala must be fleets...

[Northstar]

We sold a lot of Impala's in the two and a half weeks I've been working, probably more than anything else, but some of the increase is probably fleets.

The G6 probably got at least 1500 sales from the convertible, and it's been about 11k units for a while now, so I'm not so sure it's fleets.

[I hope GMRULES again]

Not as bad as I thought they would be. Trucks took the bad hit compared to last year but cars held steady only down 2% compared to last year.

[bowtie_dude]

The Colorado/Canyon suck.

Are they going to do ANYTHING to help these two POS trucks? I mean really, they were outclasses the minute they went on sale.

[toyoguy]

here's June 2004

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076

[bowtie_dude]

here's June 2004

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076

Thats the 06 press release.

[VenSeattle]

Here's June 2004

[thegriffon]

Note that Pontiac sales were up over 12%, and of all the models, only three can boast a full sales month in both 2005 and 2006 for comparison—Grand Prix, GTO and Vibe. Everything else is in limited supply runout (Bonneville, Grand Am, Sunfire, Aztek and now Montana) or a new model with no or limited availability in 2005 (G6, Solstice, Torrent, G5). They're completely replacing more than half their volume.

[Newbiewar]

Posted in another topic but I'll do it here also:

June 2004 vehicle total: 380,267

June 2005 Vehicle total: 558,092 (Fire sale - Employee Pricing)

June 2006 vehicle total: 413,473

thats something to look at...

wasnt June or July 2005 the best selling month for GM in like 18 years or something?

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Good to see G6 finally selling well, and the Vue family SUV's.

The HHR is kicking tail. Wonder what the naysayers of the HHR think now? If they say it is a 'fad', notice that the PT Cruiser, at 6 years old, is still selling over 10K a month. Pretty good for a 'fad' huh?

They knew it had potential for the heart of the market and THAT'S WHY they were naysayers in the first place...

You'll never hear them apologize for or backtrack on their efforts to kill the vehicle BEFORE THE PUBLIC EVEN GOT A LOOK AT IT. But, let it stumble one month and by god we'll be flooded with articles bout it.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

The Escalade line is kicking tail, and the SRX seems to have finally gained a tiny bit of momentum?

Now that GM is FINALLY starting to market it right, it's making a difference... If only they could get this through their heads for ALL of their other offerings.

The G6 convert must be helping sales a lot, and for some reason the GTO is now starting to sell pretty well. Maybe the Solstice is drawing buyers in?

The Solstice is doing exactly what it was supposed to do... Making Pontiac cool again.

[enzl]

Seems like good news, when compared to June 2004 which didn't have any firesale effects.

Any info on fleet/retail mix, or will we have to wait until the Q2 earnings report is released?

I could only find the following rumor as to the mix...but Numbers are not verifiable....

http://news.google.com/news?q=GM+and+Fleet...i=news&ct=title

No context, but it may be a holiday glitch....

Sales are good in a historical context....however. As you've outlined.

[zete]

Posted in another topic but I'll do it here also:

June 2004 vehicle total: 380,267

June 2005 Vehicle total: 558,092 (Fire sale - Employee Pricing)

June 2006 vehicle total: 413,473

There's all this talk of "sales" but the real issue is profits. The fire sale via the employee pricing last year resulted in poor profit margins. If we're looking at June 2006 and we're getting 413,473 cars and trucks with little to no incentives then we're looking at more profit than June 2005. That's the numbers I want to see. I really don't care if GM sells 1,000,000 cars in June if they lose money on each one. I'd rather they sell 400,000 and make $1,000 per vehicle!

And that's the only measure that matters and we won't know that number until the quarter is up and GM issues their quarterly report. The goal is to be a profitable automaker. And as soon as GM is profitable quarter over quarter suddenly the news will switch from "plummeting sales" to "rising profits" irrespective of the actual number of cars sold. That's what Wagoner is up to. He knows that to save GM it isn't about sales but about profitability. What's amazing is that they sold 413,473 cars and trucks with little to no incentives as compared to 2004!

That's yet another figure I'd like to see: average incentive per sale in 2004 vs. 2005 vs. 2006. I think it would be a startling number, especially considering the give away in 2005.

[enzl]

There's all this talk of "sales" but the real issue is profits. The fire sale via the employee pricing last year resulted in poor profit margins. If we're looking at June 2006 and we're getting 413,473 cars and trucks with little to no incentives then we're looking at more profit than June 2005. That's the numbers I want to see. I really don't care if GM sells 1,000,000 cars in June if they lose money on each one. I'd rather they sell 400,000 and make $1,000 per vehicle!

And that's the only measure that matters and we won't know that number until the quarter is up and GM issues their quarterly report. The goal is to be a profitable automaker. And as soon as GM is profitable quarter over quarter suddenly the news will switch from "plummeting sales" to "rising profits" irrespective of the actual number of cars sold. That's what Wagoner is up to. He knows that to save GM it isn't about sales but about profitability. What's amazing is that they sold 413,473 cars and trucks with little to no incentives as compared to 2004!

That's yet another figure I'd like to see: average incentive per sale in 2004 vs. 2005 vs. 2006. I think it would be a startling number, especially considering the give away in 2005.

Incentive spending is down, avg. transaction price is up. That's good.

Momentum seems decent, although from what I know of retail reports in my region, I think a portion of this sale rate is fleet. Still looking for a breakdown.

[TheMattMan]

An even better breakdown.................

June 2004 vehicle total: 380,267

June 2005 Vehicle total: 558,092 (Fire sale - Employee Pricing)

June 2006 vehicle total: 413,473

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...in=6&docid=5608 - Link to June '04 sales.

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076 - Link to June '06 sales.

Yearly sales (Total GM Sales):

June 2004 - 2,295,621 (incentives averaged $4,312 per vehicle)

http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/102483/article.html - Link to June '04 #.

June 2006 - 2,066,957 (incentives average $3,122 per vehicle)

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060703/20060703005077.html?.v=1 - Link to June '06 #.

[Flybrian]

Add to the lowered incentives and reasonable sale days the dimished fleet sales across the board and the outright dumping of several popular models since mid-2004.

[VetteZ06]

Add to the lowered incentives and reasonable sale days the dimished fleet sales across the board and the outright dumping of several popular models since mid-2004.

Anybody know by exactly how much fleet sales have been lowered?

[jrockb4]

An even better breakdown.................

June 2004 vehicle total: 380,267

June 2005 Vehicle total: 558,092 (Fire sale - Employee Pricing)

June 2006 vehicle total: 413,473

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...in=6&docid=5608 - Link to June '04 sales.

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076 - Link to June '06 sales.

Yearly sales (Total GM Sales):

June 2004 - 2,295,621 (incentives averaged $4,312 per vehicle)

http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/102483/article.html - Link to June '04 #.

June 2006 - 2,066,957 (incentives average $3,122 per vehicle)

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060703/20060703005077.html?.v=1 - Link to June '06 #.

So if my math is correct an additional 33,000 sales with $1200 less in rebates is over $39 million to the good for GM. Over the course of a year that is a good piece of change $475 million. If the transaction price went up and employee costs go down, there just may be hope

Also does this mean that the regions are all out pacing their totals from last year?

GM Europe - The region's 2006 second quarter production forecast remains unchanged at 502,000 vehicles. In the second quarter of 2005 the region built 501,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 third quarter production forecast also remains unchanged at 372,000 vehicles. In the third quarter of 2005 the region built 412,000 vehicles.

GM Asia Pacific - GM Asia Pacific's 2006 second quarter production forecast is revised at 489,000 vehicles, down 15,000 units from last month's guidance. In the second quarter of 2005 the region built 398,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 third quarter production forecast is revised at 506,000 vehicles, down 10,000 units from last month's guidance. In the third quarter of 2005 the region built 409,000 vehicles.

GM Latin America, Africa and the Middle East - The region's 2006 second quarter production estimate is revised at 207,000 vehicles, down 8,000 units from last month's guidance. In the second quarter of 2005 the region built 195,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 third quarter production forecast remains unchanged at 217,000 vehicles. In the third quarter of 2005 the region built 207,000 vehicles.

Edited July 5, 2006 by jrockb4

[ZL-1]

I could only find the following rumor as to the mix...but Numbers are not verifiable....

http://news.google.com/news?q=GM+and+Fleet...i=news&ct=title

There's something along those lines re the fleet increase at GMI... Interesting...

Maybe GM's increasing fleet sales during summer months so overall sales don't look that bad compared to last year's firesale numbers? When they report 1st half earnings the release we'll have fleet/retil mix figures.

[LTB51]

Anybody know by exactly how much fleet sales have been lowered?

162811[/snapback]

I suspect that if they had been lowered then GM would have been shouting the numbers from the roof tops. Instead they are giving no guidance (at least none that I have seen). Therefore I suspect that fleet sales went up in June.

I believe it was about a week ago that I was on the GM fleet site and they were offering up to 5,500 (IIRC) off 2006 models. That is now up to 6,500.

I believe the 2007 model incentives have gone from $500 to $1,000 in the same time.

http://www.gmfleet.com/gmfleetjsp/sitemap/.../incentives.jsp

I have no idea how these numbers fair when compared to historic rates.

If they really are trying to lower fleet sales, they have a strange way of doing it.