Oct. 2006 Sales: General Motors Corp

[Mr.Krinkle]

the numbers are up now.

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...n=6&docid=30092

GM's U.S. Divisions Deliver 301,317 Vehicles In October

GM Retail Sales Up 36 Percent Compared With Last Year

Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado and GMC Sierra Pickup Trucks On A Roll -- Retail Sales More Than Doubled

For The Second Consecutive Year, GM Offers More Vehicle Models Achieving 30 MPG Highway Than Any Other Automaker

DETROIT - General Motors dealers in the United States sold 301,317 new cars and trucks in October, a 22 percent increase compared with last year. Retail sales were up 36 percent on a sales-day adjusted basis. Retail truck sales were up 52 percent, led by a doubling of full-size pickup retail sales such as Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra and a 46 percent increase in luxury utility retail sales, including the entire Cadillac Escalade lineup. Retail car sales were up 9 percent, led by Chevrolet Impala, Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura.

"GM's industry-leading truck business was boosted in October by lower fuel prices - that's one reason our trucks, SUVs and crossovers are gaining share. Of course, offering customers great fuel economy coupled with having the industry's most comprehensive coverage, including the 5-year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty, helps too," said Mark LaNeve, General Motors North America vice president, Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. "Consumers are responding to our lineup of new vehicles, including Saturn Aura, Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, and we'll have even more new products arriving soon, including our mid-crossovers -- Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave."

GMC, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Saturn, Pontiac and Saab all had retail sales increases in October. GMC was up 75 percent retail, with sales more than doubling for the Sierra, Yukon and Yukon XL.

The all-new 2007 Sierra pickups arrived at dealerships in October. Chevrolet retail sales were up 39 percent, with double-digit retail jumps by Silverado, up 107 percent; Tahoe, up 104 percent; and Suburban, up 83 percent. The all-new 2007 Silverado pickups also arrived at dealerships in October. Buick retail sales were up 28 percent, led by Lucerne. Cadillac retail sales were up 30 percent, with a 14 percent increase in CTS, a 28 percent increase in SRX and triple-digit increases for the entire Escalade lineup. Saturn retail sales were up 16 percent as the all-new 2007 Aura and Sky continue to bring new customers into the Saturn family. Pontiac retail sales were up 1 percent due to sales increases for the new G5, G6, and Solstice. Lastly, Saab retail sales were up 83 percent, driven by a 54 percent retail increase for 9-3, an 80 percent hike for 9-5 and a 338 percent increase for 9-7X.

"We continue to experience strong customer demand for our lineup of fuel efficient vehicles and new launch products," LaNeve said. "In October we were very pleased to learn that for the second year in a row, according to the U.S. EPA, GM offers more vehicle models (23 total) that achieve an estimated 30 mpg on the highway, or higher, than any other automaker."

GM continues to reduce its reliance on daily rental sales. Sales to daily rental companies were down 14 percent compared to year-ago levels, while non-daily rental fleet business was up 6 percent. Overall fleet sales of 75,000 vehicles were down 8 percent compared with last October.

Certified Used Vehicles

October sales for all certified GM brands, including GM Certified Used Vehicles, Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles and HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, were 42,839 units, comparable to last October's sales. Total year-to-date certified GM sales for all brands are 436,383 units, down 2 percent from the same period last year.

GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling certified pre-owned brand, posted 37,222 sales in October, down 1 percent from October 2005. Year-to-date sales for GM Certified Used Vehicles are 377,203 units, comparable to last year's results for the same period.

Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles posted 3,652 sales in October, up 30 percent from last October. Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 1,289 units, down 32 percent. Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 594 units, down nearly 2 percent. In its tenth month of operation, HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned sold 82 units.

"Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles had an outstanding sales month, up nearly 30 percent over October 2005, with year-to-date sales up nearly 8 percent from the same period last year," said LaNeve. "Through October, GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling certified brand, sold 377,203 units, comparable to its category record annual sales in 2005."

GM North America Reports October 2006 Production; 2006 Fourth Quarter Production Forecast Remains Unchanged at 1.110 Million Vehicles

In October, GM North America produced 427,000 vehicles (174,000 cars and 253,000 trucks). This is down 62,000 units or 13 percent compared to October 2005 when the region produced 489,000 vehicles (174,000 cars and 315,000 trucks). Production totals include joint venture production of 19,000 vehicles in October 2006 and 29,000 vehicles in October 2005.

The region's 2006 fourth quarter production forecast is unchanged at 1.110 million vehicles (450,000 cars and 660,000 trucks). In the fourth quarter of 2005 the region produced 1.281 million vehicles (483,000 cars and 798,000 trucks).

GM also announced 2006 final third quarter and revised fourth quarter production forecasts for its international regions.

GM Europe - GM Europe built 374,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2006. In the third quarter of 2005, the region built 412,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 fourth quarter production forecast is unchanged at 445,000 units. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the region built 443,000 vehicles.

GM Asia Pacific - GM Asia Pacific built 433,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2006. In the third quarter of 2005 the region built 409,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 fourth quarter production forecast is revised at 504,000 units, up 8,000 units from last month's guidance. In the fourth quarter of 2005 the region built 420,000 vehicles.

GM Latin America, Africa and the Middle East - The region produced 215,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2006. In the third quarter of 2005, the region built 207,000 vehicles. The region's 2006 fourth quarter production forecast is unchanged at 215,000 units. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the region built 188,000 vehicles.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Mr.Krinkle

[sciguy_0504]

Pontiac and Buick, to an extent, are starving for some product. Saab was a nice surprise last month, wasn't it? The new SRX interior, the best in GM's lineup, is already having an impact.

It's nice that gas prices have gone down during the past couple of months. I doubt we'd be seeing these sales numbers if they were still at $3.50 a gallon. I hope they don't rise any time soon. I'd like to see car retail sales up 52%.

[hdmax]

I wonder why they (Media.GM.com) didn't give the breakdown like they always have done in the past! You know, the boxed table of each vehicle, that compares them to last month, and last year.

[ZL-1]

I wonder why they (Media.GM.com) didn't give the breakdown like they always have done in the past! You know, the boxed table of each vehicle, that compares them to last month, and last year.

211251[/snapback]

If you click on the link, you'll find the table after the PR.

[Northstar]

Sales really weren't that great. LaCrosse, Lucerne, CTS, DTS, STS, Aveo, Cobalt (WTF happened with those two? Less than 13k combined sales?), Malibu, and Monte Carlo all had below-average sales. Also, the Aura isn't selling nearly as well as most of us thought it would. This is the 3rd month of sales I believe, and if it averages that same volume it would end up selling less than 60k units for a year. Not good when the target is 100k. Unless the dealers don't have sufficient inventory yet (though they should after 3 months of production). Or, maybe the buying public doesn't know about it yet and it will be a late bloomer.

Truck sales seem to only be good due to low inventories last year. The Escalade is way up, but it's numbers last year were terrible. The SRX really wasn't up much, and I don't think many '07s have gotten to dealers yet since it was a late SOP.

I guess the T900s still did pretty good though, even if the increase is a little overblown. The Tahoe+Suburban easily beat the Expedition (Tahoe alone beat Expedition (I would assume regular and EL) by 3600 units, and that doesn't even count Yukon/XL.

What happened to the HHR? Low inventories hopefully.

[turbo200]

With Saturn being a brand with little to no presence in any market, it's understandable that unless we're talking about a completely radical design like the Sky, they are going to have trouble getting word of mouth going. The brand is small, dealers are not plentiful, customer base is not even like a Hyundai at this point.....customers are not used to having a Saturn on thier shopping list. Give it six months, Outlook and Aura will be out and they will both be creating buzz and letting everyone know Saturn is really a car brand that means something. It isn't just a joke. Cause that's what Saturn has been up until now, to many.

[turbo200]

So Impala seems to be doing well. I wonder what the fleet rate of sales for this car is this year; it's pretty far above the number it was at last year.

Escalades did crazy good numbers, along with Tahoe and Suburban. Everything else seems pretty flat.

Edited November 1, 2006 by turbo200

[Mr.Krinkle]

down is down. it looks as if all the trucks, from everyone, got a kick in the ass from lower gas prices. sales are also up in general.

i guess its an improvement, but from what and when?

[Chicagoland]

Monte C. is a lame duck, don't expect it to break any records. It's for old timers who listen to disco all day.

Also, Pontiac and Buick are one division now, so don't expect both of them to match Chevy's lineup, 'with more trim' again. "Buickman" would expect a Buick version of the Cobalt, Aveo, and HHR, with chrome.

[thegriffon]

This time last year GM was running out of vehicles to sell. Compared to Oct. 2004 sales have fallen 6.8% p.a.

Compared to Oct 2004:

Hummer has gained 47.6% p.a. (entirely H3 sales)

Saturn is up 13.3% p.a. (Aura and Sky)

GMC was down but Yukon and Sierra were up.

At Chevy, Uplander, Avalanche and Silverado are up, as was Corvette.

At Cadillac the highlight was the Escalade. All variants were up: 4.7% p.a. for the EXT, 9.8 for the standard model and 14.4% for the ESV.

At Buick W-body sales are up 18.7% p.a. from Oct 2004.

[Matt276]

My concern is the Cobalt/HHR. Why they are down that much?

[hdmax]

My concern is the Cobalt/HHR. Why they are down that much?

211578[/snapback]

I am not sure, but last month (September!) it was that there was a shortage of those and a few other vehicles, I expect that October had the same problem.

[enzl]

I am not sure, but last month (September!) it was that there was a shortage of those and a few other vehicles, I expect that October had the same problem.

211697[/snapback]

Less Fleet sales. Production numbers were sufficient to keep up with retail demand, as of the last AutoNews with production and sales figures...

[drew770]

For every sales increase in an important GM vehicle there is always a disappointment.

GM just can't seem to keep everything floating at one time!

Good Impala sales = lousy Malibu, Aveo, Cobalt-HHR monthly sales.

[Newbiewar]

For every sales increase in an important GM vehicle there is always a disappointment.

GM just can't seem to keep everything floating at one time! 

Good Impala sales = lousy Malibu, Aveo, Cobalt-HHR monthly sales.

212133[/snapback]

i havent counted recently...

but your talking 84 different models they are floating...

i remember even in GM's hay day... never did they have all brands profiting all at once... just some months your going to lose here or there... some months your going to gain...