February 2013 - General Motors Co

[William Maley]

GM’s U.S. Sales Increase 7 Percent in February

2013-03-01

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced today that it sold 224,314 vehicles in the United States in February, up 7 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales and fleet sales were both up 7 percent. The fleet mix was 25 percent of total sales, equal to a year ago.

“The housing sector has now joined auto sales in propelling the U.S. economy forward,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations. “More importantly, the recovery in new home construction is reinforcing the underlying improvement in auto buying conditions, especially for pickups.

“Light vehicle sales have now been running at a mid-15 million unit annual rate since November,” he added. “This sets us up well for the launches of key new products this year, including an all-new generation of Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickups and an all-new Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CTS.”

The Cadillac CTS, along with the redesigned Buick LaCrosse and Regal, will be unveiled at the New York International Auto Show later this month.

Highlights

• All four GM brands posted higher year-over-year sales: Cadillac was up 20 percent; Buick was up 15 percent; GMC was up 10 percent, and Chevrolet was up 5 percent.
• Crossover sales increased 17 percent and compact crossovers had their best month ever; truck sales were up 14 percent and car sales were down 4 percent.
• Sales of GM’s full-size pickups were up 28 percent to 58,039 units.
• The Chevrolet Equinox , GMC Terrain and the redesigned Buick Enclave had their best-ever February sales.
• The Chevrolet Spark and Cadillac ATS had their best sales months yet.

[Lamar]

I always chuckle when some months bring out the buyers of the new cars that have been discontinued for 2 model years.

[smk4565]

I suspect when the new CTS comes out, CTS sales go up but at the expense of the XTS. I figured the XTS would sell about 25k units a year when new, but I think as that car gets dated, and a new CTS arrives that is priced closer to the XTS, that the XTS may drop to 10,000 or so a year. Big front drive luxury cars don't sell, GM may be able to fake it in the short term, but long term that car is a Lincoln MKS and will be a one and done.

Interesting that the SUV's and pick ups are doing well since gas prices have been going up, perhaps people are accepting $4 a gallon now. The Impala outsold the new Malibu, I assume from fleet dumping the Impala, but that is scary sign that this Malibu just isn't cutting it.

[balthazar]

^ CTS and XTS sales cannot intermingle on any level, as you are fond of repeating; one is FWD, hence no buyer of a RWD car would ever consider one.