Dec 2006 Sales: General Motors Corp

[Northstar]

GM Reports 341,327 Deliveries in December

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...amp;docid=31596

-December Exceeded Expectations, Led By Strong Full-Size Truck and Utility Sales

-2006 Turnaround Plan Retail Sales Objective Achieved

-Residual Values and Transaction Prices Up

-Incentive Discipline Continues - Annual Incentive Spend Down $700 Per Vehicle

DETROIT - GM dealers in the United States delivered 341,327 vehicles in December, an increase of 10 percent (43,771) compared with November, but a reduction of 9.6 percent on a sales-day adjusted basis compared with a strong year-ago December. GM's total annual U.S. sales of 4.1 million vehicles in 2006 were down 9 percent compared with last year's 4.5 million, due to planned reductions in daily rental and other marginally-profitable sales.

"December was a very solid sales month for GM, exceeding our expectations, especially in full-size trucks and SUVs," said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North American Sales, Service and Marketing. "In 2006, despite challenging conditions, we stuck to the game plan and achieved our stated goals in support of Rick Wagoner's turnaround plan for North America. Specifically, we exceeded 3 million retail sales and stabilized market share, improved residual values and transaction prices, lowered daily rental sales, and we accomplished all of this while being the only major manufacturer to substantially lower incentive spending (down $700). For 2007, we'll continue our plans to stabilize retail volume, improve our mix, reduce sales to the daily rental market, exercise strategic and tactical incentive programs and strengthen average transaction prices. We will continue to provide customers with the best coverage in the industry, including our 5 year/100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation."

"As we move to the next phase of the turnaround plan, we plan to win by offering our customers the best products with industry-leading value and dealer service," LaNeve added. "So we are optimistic as we introduce exceptional new vehicles - such as the GMC Acadia and Sierra, Saturn Aura and Outlook, Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Silverado and the all-new Cadillac CTS."

December sales were up 10 percent compared with November, driven by a surge in full-size trucks that offer outstanding fuel economy and value. Highlights include:

* Best sales month of the year for Cadillac (22,715 vehicles) with a 65 percent increase in truck sales compared with December 2005

* Saturn total December sales up 42 percent

* Saab total and retail sales were up 33 percent

* Saturn and Saab saw car sales increases, and total GM car sales in December were up 2 percent on a sales-day adjusted basis.

For calendar year 2006, GM noted several significant achievements that point to strong consumer acceptance of its new products:

* Including the GMC Sierra, GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado, GM sold more than a million pickup trucks in 2006. GM moved the much-anticipated launch of the all-new full size 2007 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks ahead 13 weeks.

* Sales of the Chevrolet Equinox and HHR, Pontiac Torrent and Saturn VUE drove GM's small utility and crossover sales up 27 percent in 2006, with 346,952 total deliveries.

* HUMMER had a record sales year with 71,524 deliveries, up 26 percent. H3 sales were up 63 percent, to 54,052 deliveries, compared with 2005.

* Saturn sales for 2006 totaled a record 226,375 vehicles, a 6 percent increase on a sales-day adjusted basis compared with 2005. The Aura, Sky and VUE led this improvement. The new Saturn Outlook crossover is being launched now.

* Pontiac G6 had a 26 percent sales increase in 2006, compared with 2005. Chevrolet Impala sales were up 18 percent, with 289,868 vehicles sold. Chevrolet HHR sold 101,298 vehicles and Buick Lucerne sold 96,515 vehicles in 2006, each building on their launch momentum.

As GM executes the North America turnaround plan, much media attention has focused on the sales races between GM and its competitors. "We are obviously competing in a fiercely contested global marketplace," LaNeve said. "We're optimistic that our newest generation of products will continue to drive revenue growth and brand image."

Certified Used Vehicles

December 2006 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 41,800 units, down nearly 6 percent from last December.

GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling certified brand, posted December sales of 35,774 units, down 8 percent. Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles posted strong December sales of 3,948 units, up 18 percent. Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 1,341 units in December, down nearly 18 percent. Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 607 units, up 9 percent, and HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 130 units.

Total 2006 sales for all certified GM brands were 520,189 units, down 2 percent from last year's total. Annual sales for GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling manufacturer-certified brand, were 449,461 units, down 1 percent from its category record sales results in 2005, while Chevrolet again finished the year as the industry's top-selling single-make certified used vehicle brand.

Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned finished 2006 with sales of 42,143 units, up 9 percent over the previous year. Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 8,330 units in 2006, down nearly 4 percent, while Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 19,244 units, down 35 percent. HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 1,011 units in its first year of operation.

"Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles posted another strong month, with December sales of 3,948 units, up 18 percent from last December, and total annual 2006 sales up 9 percent from 2005," said LaNeve. "GM Certified Used Vehicles finished 2006 as the industry's top-selling certified brand for the fifth consecutive year, while Chevrolet ranked as the top-selling single-line make certified used vehicle brand. Certified GM brands, including GM Certified Used Vehicles, Cadillac, Saturn, Saab and HUMMER Pre-Owned Vehicles, again led all manufacturers with total 2006 sales of 520,189 units."

GM North America Reports December and 2006 Fourth-Quarter Production, 2007 First-Quarter Production Forecast is Revised at 1.120 Million Vehicles

In December, GM North America produced 319,000 vehicles (125,000 cars and 194,000 trucks). This is down 42,000 vehicles or 12 percent compared to December 2005 when the region produced 361,000 vehicles (139,000 cars and 222,000 trucks). (Production totals include joint venture production of 16,000 vehicles in December 2006 and 24,000 vehicles in December 2005.)

Also, GM North America built 1.107 million vehicles (447,000 cars and 660,000 trucks) in the fourth quarter of 2006. This is down 174,000 vehicles or 14 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2005 when the region produced 1.281 million vehicles (483,000 cars and 798,000 trucks). Additionally, the region's 2007 first-quarter production forecast is revised at 1.120 million vehicles (455,000 cars and 665,000 trucks), down 20,000 vehicles from last month's guidance. The majority of the production decrease is attributed to GM's ongoing efforts to reduce low-margin daily rental fleet sales. The remainder of the cuts is attributed to shifting production to the company's new full-size pickups and the ongoing management of inventories.

[Northstar]

There wasn't much to cheer about outside of full-size trucks and SUVs. The Aura is doing alright, though it hasn't yet reached a 100k/year (about 8k sales per month) pace.

I'm sure GM is making tons of money on the T900s. The Escalade line sold over 8k (!), Suburban, Tahoe, and Yukon (not XL), were all up vs. last year when there was blow-out pricing. The Silverado and Sierra were both down, but I think that is due to not having a good selection yet.

It's interesting that the Acadia sold so much more than the Outlook even though it seems more people on the board have seen Outlooks at dealers. Acadia must be really hot.

It wasn't a good month, but I'm guessing GM made money based on the T900 figures.

[Flybrian]

Well, the CTS took a dump.

[sciguy_0504]

Well, the CTS took a dump.

People waiting for the next-gen?

[Northstar]

I think last year's total was just really high. 7500/month is 90k/year.

[I hope GMRULES again]

Another ugly month with sales off 50K compared to last year. There wasn't even any PR bull about retail sales being up either in December so they probaly sucked too. The only Vehicle worth mentioning for GM in 06 is the Impala. With sales up by 43K for the year the Impala is the MVP for 06. Too bad the Impala's gains came at the expense of the Malibu which was down 40K.

Edited January 4, 2007 by I hope GMRULES again

[evok]

I'm sure GM is making tons of money on the T900s. The Escalade line sold over 8k (!), ...

Someone pass that bit of info onto Turbo200 - SRX did not do to bad either.

Impala did not have a bad month either. I just am still wondering how GM is going to swap the volume between the Impala and the Malibu when the Impala goes RWD.

But for the most part - all the new product including the Aura had a pretty good month. Even the CTS is still strong at 4800 units.

Just a quick look I would say the sales look very good for the company overall. I just have no idea how the Buick and Pontiac brands are going to survive until their new product arrive. But they managed to do it with both Cadillac and now Saturn.

Edited January 4, 2007 by evok

[Northstar]

evok - do you think the Malibu can take most of the Impala retail sales? Perhaps some buyers will want something a bit bigger, but I do think X386 (and definitely the EPII model) can satisfy most current Impala owners.

[evok]

evok - do you think the Malibu can take most of the Impala retail sales? Perhaps some buyers will want something a bit bigger, but I do think X386 (and definitely the EPII model) can satisfy most current Impala owners.

My expectations based upon some forecast models is that GM is in the process of getting out of fleet with both the Malibu and Impala within reason of course.

Without exact numbers those two vehicles do about 250k retail. From those models I would expect the two Next Gen vehicles to sell about 250 - 300 retail with about 25k - 50k retail sales shifting to the Malibu from the Impala.

The catch is - the vehicles will not be fleeted like they are today to keep the plants operational because of UAW agreements. Therefore, total sales for these vehicles will be about 250 - 300k vehicles. This compares to about 450k today.

Right now - GM can cut back on Malibu Fleet from last year because the Aura is in production and can pick up the slack in sales and keep the plant up and running. That is some of the reason why we have seen a drop in Malibu year-to-year sales.

But - if this new product does not hit these retail targets (which I think they should because they are so modest), GM better hope they get a new cost structure with the UAW next September or you can throw all of the above out the window.

Remembering currently it is cheaper to fleet than to lay off workers because of the current labor agreement. Or I should say, loose less money at fleeting 50% of Malibu and Impala sales than to shut the plants down to control inventory and pay laid off workers.

The catch 22 is this - these fleet sales have helped GM stay ahead of Toyota globally. So how does GM bite the PR bullet of being numero 2.

Edited January 4, 2007 by evok

[turbo200]

Someone pass that bit of info onto Turbo200 - SRX did not do to bad either.

Impala did not have a bad month either. I just am still wondering how GM is going to swap the volume between the Impala and the Malibu when the Impala goes RWD.

But for the most part - all the new product including the Aura had a pretty good month. Even the CTS is still strong at 4800 units.

Just a quick look I would say the sales look very good for the company overall. I just have no idea how the Buick and Pontiac brands are going to survive until their new product arrive. But they managed to do it with both Cadillac and now Saturn.

I'm here, but I don't get it.

[ZL-1]

The catch 22 is this - these fleet sales have helped GM stay ahead of Toyota globally. So how does GM bite the PR bullet of being numero 2.

I think they'll go for the 'cost structure restructuring, return to profitability, higher shareholder value creation, blah, blah, blah' speech. It's the only thing they can say about being nr.2 without sounding ridiculous.

[evok]

I'm here, but I don't get it.

Go read some of you recent comments in the SRX/CTS wagon thread.

[turbo200]

I know exactly what was said. SRX did well this month, but not as well as some of its main competitors, and for the year it's flat. IMO, it's doing good enough numbers that it merits a generation 2, but apparently Cadillac feels there isn't enough room in its lineup for it. I think that now that Escalade has moved up to mid to upper 50s base, SRX could serve as in between, it and the BRX. MB has a crapload of SUVs. I never debated that Escalade isn't doing phenomonally well, but that isn't the balance between Cadillac and other luxury SUV makers. Escalade just can't pull in X5, MDX, RX buyers, but the SRX could. If it looked more like the Vizon, perhaps, or just less awkward. Again, let me reiterate that I actually find it to be a very appealing looking SUV with some mistakes in the lines and perhaps a flawed vision. You yourself have said as much, alluding to the crash redesign to include the third row that, imo, totally messed up the lines of the Vizon concept.

[evok]

I know exactly what was said. SRX did well this month, but not as well as some of its main competitors, and for the year it's flat. IMO, it's doing good enough numbers that it merits a generation 2, but apparently Cadillac feels there isn't enough room in its lineup for it. I think that now that Escalade has moved up to mid to upper 50s base, SRX could serve as in between, it and the BRX. MB has a crapload of SUVs. I never debated that Escalade isn't doing phenomonally well, but that isn't the balance between Cadillac and other luxury SUV makers. Escalade just can't pull in X5, MDX, RX buyers, but the SRX could. If it looked more like the Vizon, perhaps, or just less awkward. Again, let me reiterate that I actually find it to be a very appealing looking SUV with some mistakes in the lines and perhaps a flawed vision. You yourself have said as much, alluding to the crash redesign to include the third row that, imo, totally messed up the lines of the Vizon concept.

And you have seen the vehicle assumed to be called the BRX and know how it will be sized, optioned and priced? Your statements are baseless.

I know what I said about the rebuild of the SRX - I was there. But again the Escalade sold 8000 copies last month and the SRX did not do to bad compared to the R and FX.

[Northstar]

10k SUV sales is certainly impressive (Escalade + SRX). How many did Lexus sell?

[turbo200]

And you have seen the vehicle assumed to be called the BRX and know how it will be sized, optioned and priced? Your statements are baseless.

I know what I said about the rebuild of the SRX - I was there. But again the Escalade sold 8000 copies last month and the SRX did not do to bad compared to the R and FX.

i stated opinion, it doesn't matter that I'm wrong, it was just an opinion, I'm no expert, you are! I think it's great that the BRX is coming to possibly supplant the SRX, at least to fill that role in the lineup and guarantee Cadillac doesn't leave a huge segment. I remember ah-ha saying it was really good looking. That should be enough to sell, but I would have preferred if it was on sigma.

SRX did not bad compared to FX, but I don't think that's good enough. Look at FX dealer base compared to Caddy, and R is a whole different beast, it really can only be compared to the SRX based on the weird style premise, but where Caddy took it far, MB developed a minivan. So I don't believe R is a good comparison to SRX, a better one would be XC90 since it is a three row 7 passenger crossover.

[Northstar]

The problem with comparing SRX sales figures with other similar vehicles is that none of those brands have an Escalade. Sure, they might have a big SUV, but none of them have the appeal of the Escalade. Give each of the other brands their own Escalade for a similar price (to the FX, RX, etc), and watch sales of the SRX-like vehicles plummet.

[evok]

i stated opinion, it doesn't matter that I'm wrong, it was just an opinion...

Again - you cannot have an intelligent opinion on something you do not know about.

I think it's great that the BRX is coming to possibly supplant the SRX, at least to fill that role in the lineup and guarantee Cadillac doesn't leave a huge segment.

As I have said above, I will expand upon for clarification, the GMT-166, could be called anything at this point. It could be called BRX or SRX.

I remember ah-ha saying it was really good looking. That should be enough to sell, but I would have preferred if it was on sigma.

You do not remember him saying anything because as far as I am aware, I am the only one on the boards who has seen the vehicle or what at the time was the direction for the GMT-166.

SRX did not bad compared to FX, but I don't think that's good enough. Look at FX dealer base compared to Caddy, and R is a whole different beast, it really can only be compared to the SRX based on the weird style premise, but where Caddy took it far, MB developed a minivan. So I don't believe R is a good comparison to SRX, a better one would be XC90 since it is a three row 7 passenger crossover.

Really you just like to argue and keep moving the discussion around in circles. Here are my final thoughts unless someone brings up actual holes in my story that I need to address:

I have already outlined in the CTS wagon thread that the SRX appears to be making money on product mix instead of the original volume targets for the vehicle at launch. But you continue to fail to realize the significance of that. Especially in light of the fact the CTS did better than expected in volume and LGR is running efficiently. And you continue to fail to accept the significane of the Escalade to the Cadillac showroom.

So in summary, volume is great but profitability is that much greater. Jim Taylor recently said, though volumes are down for Cadillac in 2006, cash flow is significantly up.

Edited January 5, 2007 by evok

[Drew Dowdell]

So what if sale volume is down 9%, by how much are profits up?

also, I wouldn't care if Cadillac only sold 500 SRXes a month as long as they made $5,000 net profit on each one.

[evok]

So what if sale volume is down 9%, by how much are profits up?

Revenue alone could be up by 25% on the Escalade alone. And that does not factor reduced incentives and the higher MSRP compared to the 800.

Edited January 5, 2007 by evok

[trinacriabob]

Yeah, I may originally be from LA, but I'm boring...so I'll comment on the "W-bodies." What a nosedive for LaCrosse sales? Novelty may have worn off. What are the blue hairs buying, anyway? They are living longer. Impy is showing well, given that it's a good package for the money and now looks better than it did in 2005. Platform mate MC is just inching along. Oh, well, full-size coupes are a tough segment, though, I really do like them - especially when I see a pristine and properly equipped 1997-2002 GP coupe, for example.

What? Still some new Aleros and Sevilles hanging around to be sold? Interesting.

[enzl]

Yeah, I may originally be from LA, but I'm boring...so I'll comment on the "W-bodies." What a nosedive for LaCrosse sales? Novelty may have worn off. What are the blue hairs buying, anyway? They are living longer. Impy is showing well, given that it's a good package for the money and now looks better than it did in 2005. Platform mate MC is just inching along. Oh, well, full-size coupes are a tough segment, though, I really do like them - especially when I see a pristine and properly equipped 1997-2002 GP coupe, for example.

What? Still some new Aleros and Sevilles hanging around to be sold? Interesting.

They cut down on fleeting the LaCrosse & took up the producion slack by cranking out Impalas, IIRC.

The Monte sold 25k IIRC, within a few grand of the last few years.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

I would also be willing to bet that the Lucerne is cannabalizing some of the Lacrosse sales. As it rightfully should since it's a MUCH better car for the money.

[enzl]

I would also be willing to bet that the Lucerne is cannabalizing some of the Lacrosse sales. As it rightfully should since it's a MUCH better car for the money.

100%. Can't imagine anyone not trying to stretch to a lucerne if they could. The problem for Buick is that the LaCrosse must last 2 more model years as is...the 'Super' notwithstanding, this car is a legacy of shortsighted beancounter-ism...perhaps the last (hopefully) of that type of vejhicle to be intro-ed into the GM line-up.

[Sempuukyaku]

I never debated that Escalade isn't doing phenomonally well, but that isn't the balance between Cadillac and other luxury SUV makers. Escalade just can't pull in X5, MDX, RX buyers, but the SRX could. If it looked more like the Vizon, perhaps, or just less awkward. Again, let me reiterate that I actually find it to be a very appealing looking SUV with some mistakes in the lines and perhaps a flawed vision. You yourself have said as much, alluding to the crash redesign to include the third row that, imo, totally messed up the lines of the Vizon concept.

You know, I think the Buick Enclave is going to be GM's premier vehicle in the mid-size luxury SUV market. I think the styling has more of a mainstream appeal than the SRX does and it's going to be very competitively priced.

Just my .02