July 2009 Sales: General Motors - 189,443

[Z-06]

Source: GM

FOR RELEASE: 2009-08-03

GM July Sales of 189,443 Marks Month-over-Month Sales Increase

• July month-over-month retail sales increase led by core brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac which were up 12 percent collectively compared with June
• Chevrolet led by the Camaro and the all-new Equinox had a year-over-year retail sales improvement
• All-new model pushes Chevrolet Equinox sales up 78 percent compared with July 2008
• CARS (Cash for Clunkers) program driving showroom traffic to GM's strong portfolio of fuel-efficient new vehicles; Chevrolet Aveo total sales up 124 percent, crossovers Equinox and HHR up 164 and 36 percent respectively, Cobalt up 38 percent. GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado mid-pickup sales climb 38 percent compared with June

DETROIT - General Motors dealers in the United States delivered 189,443 total vehicles in July, results in a month-over-month retail sales increase. The July total, when compared with a strong July last year and lower fleet sales this year, was down 19 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales were down 9 percent while fleet sales declined 47 percent. However, when comparing GM's strong July retail sales with June, volume was up nearly 12,000 vehicles. Large pickup retail sales began to recover in July with a 16 percent increase compared with June, driving total GM truck retail sales improvements of 12 percent when compared with the prior month.

"Our performance is being driven by the outstanding products in our core Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick brands. While still challenging, the market is firming and GM sales are still tracking ahead of what we projected in our reinvention plan," said Mark LaNeve, vice president, U.S. sales. "In July we are projecting our retail market share to exceed our year-ago performance. From great new products, like our Cadillac SRX and CTS Sport Wagon, Chevrolet Camaro and Equinox, to attractive financing and new leasing opportunities and to the Cash-for-Clunkers program that helps reduce the cost to buy a new vehicle - customers have unprecedented opportunities to get into a new GM car or truck. We anticipate an additional sales lift in August if Congress approves more funding for the wildly-popular Cash-For-Clunkers economic recovery program."

Compared with last July, GM overall sales declined 45,741 vehicles driven largely by a planned reduction in fleet sales of 30,423 vehicles (down 47 percent). This drop in fleet sales was a direct result of a strategic decision to tightly control production and inventories that better enable GM dealers to reduce their stock of vehicles to align with market demand. Retail sales of 155,569 vehicles were down 9 percent. GM total truck sales in July were down 18 percent, and car sales of 83,736 were off 21 percent compared with a year ago. However, when compared with a year ago, GM total crossover sales of 39,937 were up 6 percent, driven by the strong performance of Chevrolet Traverse which contributed more than 6,600 sales.

When compared with June's retail performance, there were several product highlights in GM's core brands to note:

• Chevrolet Aveo, Cobalt, Impala and Malibu contributed to a Chevrolet car retail increase of 8 percent. Chevrolet truck sales increased 27 percent, led by increases by Silverado, Suburban, Avalanche, Colorado, HHR and Equinox.
• GMC sales increased 8 percent, led by Sierra, Canyon and Yukon XL.
• Cadillac Escalade ESV sales increased 32 percent while Escalade sales increased 3 percent.

"Assuming the Cash-For-Clunkers program stays in place, we look to continue this positive momentum in August," LaNeve said. "We offer twice as many vehicles that qualify for the Cash-For-Clunkers program than any other manufacturer - vehicles such as Chevrolet Aveo, Cobalt, Malibu, HHR, Silverado and GMC Sierra. Additionally, we have the best selection of crossovers in the industry with Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave, and the all-new GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Equinox and Cadillac SRX. Clearly, GM dealers have the cars and trucks that customers demand."

A total of 1,487 GM hybrid vehicles were delivered in the month. So far, in 2009, GM has delivered 9,836 hybrid vehicles.

Non-core brand sales declined when compared with June as Pontiac dipped 7 percent; Saturn was down 21 percent, and HUMMER and Saab declined 26 percent.

GM inventories dropped compared with a year ago, and dipped below the half-million mark as planned, to historically low levels. In July, GM dealers had an average 76 day supply of vehicles. At the end of July, about 466,000 vehicles were in stock, down about 281,000 vehicles (or 38 percent) compared with last year, and down approximately 20 percent compared with June. There were about 202,000 cars and 264,000 trucks (including crossovers) in inventory at the end of July.

GM Certified Sales

GM Certified Used Vehicles, Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, and HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, combined sold 29,211 vehicles.

GM Certified Used Vehicles posted July sales of 25,441 vehicles, down 29 percent from July 2008. Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 829 vehicles, down 29 percent. Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 2,383 vehicles, down 35 percent. Saab Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles sold 371 vehicles, down 52 percent. HUMMER Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles posted an increase with 187 vehicles sold, up 16 percent.

"We are confident in the new GM and are committed more than ever to sell our comprehensive line-up of cars, trucks, SUVs and crossovers, whether new or used. Our Certified Used Vehicles offer a worry-free purchasing experience - a tremendous value to our customers," LaNeve said. "GM's national network of dealers will continue to honor warranties on current and future General Motors Certified Used/Pre-Owned vehicles, which demonstrates the durability and reliability of our products. GM Certified offers wide-ranging and long-term warranties such as the 12-month/12,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and the industry-leading 100,000 mile/five-year (whichever comes first) limited powertrain warranty on the largest selection of Certified Used vehicles in the industry."

GM North America Reports July 2009 Production; Initial Q3 2009 Production Forecast at 535,000 Vehicles, a significant improvement from Q1 and Q2 2009 levels.

In July, GM North America produced 102,000 vehicles (39,000 cars and 63,000 trucks). This is down 136,000 vehicles or 57 percent compared with July 2008 when the region produced 238,000 vehicles (116,000 cars and 122,000 trucks). (Production totals include joint venture production of 11,000 vehicles in July 2009 and 14,000 vehicles in July 2008.)

The region's 2009 third-quarter production forecast is initially set at 535,000 vehicles (210,000 cars and 325,000 trucks), which is down about 42 percent compared with a year ago. GM North America built 915,000 vehicles (436,000 cars and 479,000 trucks) in the third-quarter of 2008. However, Q3 2009 production volumes have substantially increased versus Q1 and Q2 2009 production volumes of 371,000 (up 44 percent) and 395,000 (up 35 percent), respectively.

[gm4life]

Not a bad month. Not bad at all. Malibu and Impala sales were very good as well! Hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

[CK001]

It looks as if the Cobalt and Aveo did not even participate in the Cash for Clunkers program. This could be good for GM in coming months, assuming the Senate approves the additional funding for CARS. Ford is essentially out of the Focus. I suspect Honda is running a little low on the Civic and Fit as well. Toyota is being quite as to their sales so it's too soon to say how their C and B cars are looking. I'm hoping their silence is due to the embarrassment of not keeping up with the overall market in July.

Chrysler totally jumped the gun on their $4,500 doulbe the rebate program. I'd bet all other manufacturers used the government's money as an opportunity to back off a little on their own rebates. But then again, only $4,500.00 from Chrysler probably is alot less than normal for them.

[Justin Bimmer]

Toyota was doing the double the CARS money too. At least in California they were. Ads are non-stop here.

[smk4565]

Cadillac was down 53% from last July, they need better products, mainly a small car, and where is the CTS Coupe? Chevy did alright, but Ford and Hyundai posted sales increases, so the competition is getting stronger. It seems that cash for clunkers isn't helping GM and Chrysler as much as the other brands, although Chrysler has a horrid product lineup, I am surprised they sell anything at all.

[A Horse With No Name]

Not a bad month. Not bad at all. Malibu and Impala sales were very good as well! Hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Hopefully indeed.

I could stand a better 2010.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

Cadillac was down 53% from last July, they need better products, mainly a small car, and where is the CTS Coupe? Chevy did alright, but Ford and Hyundai posted sales increases, so the competition is getting stronger. It seems that cash for clunkers isn't helping GM and Chrysler as much as the other brands, although Chrysler has a horrid product lineup, I am surprised they sell anything at all.

Interestingly, I think Ford may be eating into GM's sales.

My local nearby GM store is also a Ford store (no import sales). Company I used to work for did the electrical work when it was built, and I have been stopping in once in awhile during the 13 years since we built it.

It usually runs 2 to 1 GM to Ford, but right now Ford has GM covered two to one.

YMMV.

Chris

[Drew Dowdell]

Cadillac was down 53% from last July, they need better products, mainly a small car, and where is the CTS Coupe? Chevy did alright, but Ford and Hyundai posted sales increases, so the competition is getting stronger. It seems that cash for clunkers isn't helping GM and Chrysler as much as the other brands, although Chrysler has a horrid product lineup, I am surprised they sell anything at all.

And now for a dose of common sense. Do you honestly think that if someone is turning in a car on Cash for Clunkers because they can't get at least $3500 for it that they're going to be trading it in on a new CTS or SRX? Srsly?!

[smk4565]

And now for a dose of common sense. Do you honestly think that if someone is turning in a car on Cash for Clunkers because they can't get at least $3500 for it that they're going to be trading it in on a new CTS or SRX? Srsly?!

No, I think most cash for clunkers deals are on 4-cylinder cars. The Focus is the #1 purchased car under cash for clunkers, and I think it helps Toyota, Honda and Hyundai who have good low priced cars. Cash for clunkers doesn't help Chrysler who has the Nitro and Sebring or GM with the Aveo, Cobalt, Saturns, G5s, G6s, etc. The Malibu is GM's best offering for Cash for clunkers, but most of GM's good products are large SUVs that don't qualify.

Cadillac's dismal sales have nothing to do with cash for clunkers and everything to do with a dated STS and DTS, gas hungry Escalade, and lack of a small luxury car and lack of a coupe. There is too much competition in the $35-50k segment to have stale product, especially during a recession when the entire segment is down.

[A Horse With No Name]

I can see both sides of this. Cadillac builds great cars but they can't rest on the CTS and the Escalade.

Would LOVE to see the small Caddy we have talked about...RWD...nimble...handles well.

THAT car would be a dream. And even as good as the BMW 1 series is, you know the caddy would be better.

Let's hope they can get a car like that to market.

Chris

[gmcbob]

Yeah, I really wonder what happened with Caddy this past month. To lose 53% over the year before is just plain horrible. GM needs to beef that "brand" up big time. They need that smaller Alpha based Caddy here like yesterday - along with the CTS Coupe and a replacement for that large fwd tank on wheels otherwise known as the DTS (i.e - a real honest to God rear drive flagship that can compete with the Lexus LS and GS models would have been a no brainer - say, like back in 2002 or so?????).

Cadillac is a one trick pony right now (CTS) and it shows. While I really do like the current CTS a lot, I still think Caddy is a shining example of how GM totally screwed themselves up over the last dozen years or so. I just can't get over how GM has really let Cadillac go so far down the pooper when it comes to lineup "depth". Un-freakin-believable. There was no reason they should have let that happen over the years. They essentially let the (Asian) imports totally have that extremely profitable and prestigious market. Wow. Unreal.

Caddy isn't the only luxury marque surprise for me though for July. I'm a little shocked to see Infiniti down so much. It could be argued that Infiniti has a somewhat superior line up of vehicles compared to Caddy, but they only sold 1000 more cars than Caddy did last month.

I truly hope that they put a solid effort into completely restocking that brand with compelling, innovative models that can live up to how great that division once was. It's an important brand - it needs more models - all of them as good (or better) than the current CTS.

Edited August 4, 2009 by gmcbob

[Satty]

Cadillac doesn't have any vehicles that qualify for the CARS program.

The only BMWs that do are the diesels, not even the tine 128i does.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Satty

[smk4565]

Cadillac doesn't have any vehicles that qualify for the CARS program.

The only BMWs that do are the diesels, not even the tine 128i does.

The 128i and 328i get 22 mpg combined, thus meet the CARS program. Plus the diesels. But I doubt BMW or any other luxury maker is getting much of CARS, it is Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota, Honda and Ford that benefit because they make a lot of 4-cylinder cars.

Cadillac to recover has to reinvent themselves, again. The DTS and Escalade must die. The Escalade might sell and make profit, but the Escalade in a couple years is going to be thought of how the Hummer H2 is thought of now. Cadillac can't have a gigantic gas guzzler in their brand portfolio, it is going to create a bad image. If they are going to be a global luxury brand, they have to build products that work everywhere.

Problem is, GM thinks that Cadillac has a great product lineup, and they think what they are doing will work. It won't. And the second problem is the money isn't there to develop what they need. The beancounters aren't going to give $1-2 billion to develop a Cadillac flagship when they only allocated $750 million to the Volt. A bankrupt automaker can survive, but it can't win.

[Chicagoland]

One problem with Cadillac is the fading DTS [DeVille] customer base. Current 60-somethings buy small SUVs, compacts, mid sized cars. They are not the 'floaty boat', column shift, bench seat driving generation who have bought their last new cars. They need a good D class car to reaplce both STS/DTS, and move forward.

Also, a good C class car, and those that don't think a Caddy should be this size, too bad, it's the real car world now. It ain't 1959 or even '99.

[Satty]

The 128i and 328i get 22 mpg combined, thus meet the CARS program.

The 128i automatic gets 22, the manual (which is what I checked last night) gets 21, same with the 328i. If Cadillac did have something to offer CARS buyers, they'd at least be at a marketing advantage. It may not net them many buyers, but at least they could run commercials saying "We have fuel efficient cars available" which might help shake the stigma of the old boat Caddy.

[Z-06]

But I doubt BMW or any other luxury maker is getting much of CARS, it is Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota, Honda and Ford that benefit because they make a lot of 4-cylinder cars.

Excuse me, are you talking about European Ford?

Because as far as I know GMNA makes same or more 4-cylinder vehicles than Ford NA does.

Let us see:

Small Vehicles:

Ford: Focus

GM: Chevy Aveo/Cobalt

Advantage GM:

Midsize:

Ford: Fusion

GM: Malibu

Tie

SUV:

Ford: Explorer

GM: Equinox

Truck:

Ford: Ranger

GM: Colorado

I am counting all the badge jobs of same size as one, before you get too excited and start showing me Mercury and Lincoln, I will show you Saturns and Pontiacs.

[siegen]

General Motors dealers in the United States delivered 189,443 total vehicles in July, results in a month-over-month retail sales increase. The July total, when compared with a strong July last year and lower fleet sales this year, was down 19 percent compared with a year ago.

"Strong July last year"? How is down 26.7% strong?

[Lamar]

"Strong July last year"? How is down 26.7% strong?

Compared to this July?

[smk4565]

Excuse me, are you talking about European Ford?

Because as far as I know GMNA makes same or more 4-cylinder vehicles than Ford NA does.

Let us see:

Small Vehicles:

Ford: Focus

GM: Chevy Aveo/Cobalt

Advantage GM:

Midsize:

Ford: Fusion

GM: Malibu

Tie

SUV:

Ford: Explorer

GM: Equinox

Truck:

Ford: Ranger

GM: Colorado

I am counting all the badge jobs of same size as one, before you get too excited and start showing me Mercury and Lincoln, I will show you Saturns and Pontiacs.

I didn't mean quantity, I meant quality. Ford has more desirable 4-cylinder products, especially since the Fusion was just redesigned, and has the 41 mpg hybrid that gets an additional $1700 tax credit. So that car is $6200 off on Cash for clunkers and it is a good buy even without the gov't rebate. Plus Ford has the Escape which had a huge sales month.

The Cobalt/Aveo/HHR/G5/G6, etc are mostly dated products that have needed heavy incentives to sell, or are heavily fleeted. Ford's offerings are more up to date, Kia has the new Soul and Forte, etc. The other brands have fresher and better 4-cylinder small to midsize cars, so they can benefit more from Cash for Clunkers is all I meant.

[CK001]

Excuse me, are you talking about European Ford?

Because as far as I know GMNA makes same or more 4-cylinder vehicles than Ford NA does.

Let us see:

Small Vehicles:

Ford: Focus

GM: Chevy Aveo/Cobalt

Advantage GM:

Midsize:

Ford: Fusion

GM: Malibu

Tie

SUV:

Ford: Explorer

GM: Equinox

Truck:

Ford: Ranger

GM: Colorado

I am counting all the badge jobs of same size as one, before you get too excited and start showing me Mercury and Lincoln, I will show you Saturns and Pontiacs.

Small Vehicles: Neither an Aveo or a Cobalt holds any advantage over a Focus other than price.

Midsize: Malibu and Fusion are close.

SUV: I think you meant Escape and the current gen Equinox can't hold a candle to the Escape. The next gen Equinox yes.

Truck: The Ranger 4-cyl gets 26 mpg on the hwy. Best truck mpg on the market. The Colorado doesn't. Even though the Ranger is running on twenty years of the same tech, the consumer sentiment leans towards a Ranger over a Colorado. Or so it would appear.

However, it is shocking that the Aveo and Cobalt performed as poorly as they did but as I stated in an earlier post they will both do well in August as they are some of the few small cars that have any inventory left on the ground.

[Drew Dowdell]

Small Vehicles: Neither an Aveo or a Cobalt holds any advantage over a Focus other than price.

Midsize: Malibu and Fusion are close.

SUV: I think you meant Escape and the current gen Equinox can't hold a candle to the Escape. The next gen Equinox yes.

Truck: The Ranger 4-cyl gets 26 mpg on the hwy. Best truck mpg on the market. The Colorado doesn't. Even though the Ranger is running on twenty years of the same tech, the consumer sentiment leans towards a Ranger over a Colorado. Or so it would appear.

However, it is shocking that the Aveo and Cobalt performed as poorly as they did but as I stated in an earlier post they will both do well in August as they are some of the few small cars that have any inventory left on the ground.

The current gen Equinox is the next gen Equinox. It's on the lots today.

[CK001]

The current gen Equinox is the next gen Equinox. It's on the lots today.

What do you think made up the majority of Equinox sales in July? The new or old one? The ratio was probably 5 to 1 in favor of the old.

If I'm wrong about this ratio, I could very well be wrong about the new Equinox holding up well against the current Escape. Because if the new Equinox wasn't in limited supply it does not bode well for that model in the future. And that is a shame since I actually thought the Equinox was a model that could really take share back from the CRVs and RAV4s of the world.