May 2013 - General Motors

[William Maley]

GM Reports its Highest Monthly Sales Since September 2008

• Cadillac up 38 percent in 2013; Largest increase since 1976

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) sold 252,894 vehicles in the United States in May, up 3 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales increased 9 percent, fleet sales were down 10 percent and the fleet mix was 26 percent of total sales.

“Cadillac is growing faster than it has in almost 40 years, the pickup rebound is in full swing and we’re seeing strong retail demand for our crossovers” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations. “These are all powerful signs that the gradual recovery in the economy is becoming more broad-based. That’s great news for the auto industry and General Motors.”

GM’s trucks sales were up 15 percent versus a year ago, including a 23 percent increase for large pickups and a 30 percent increase for large SUVs.

Crossover sales were up 3 percent. Compact crossover sales were up 10 percent and set a monthly record behind the Chevrolet Equinox, which had its best month ever. The Equinox has now posted 17 consecutive monthly sales increases.

Retail passenger car sales were up 2 percent while total sales were down 6 percent. Lower fleet sales were due primarily to the timing of customer deliveries.

May Highlights (vs. 2012)

• Cadillac’s 40 percent sales increase marked its best May since 2007.
• Chevrolet had its best retail sales month since August 2009.
• Retail sales of GM’s redesigned medium crossovers were very strong: the Chevrolet Traverse was up 14 percent, and GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave were up 15 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

May Highlights (vs. 2012) - continued

• Strong Chevrolet Spark sales and double-digit increases for the Buick Verano, Chevrolet Sonic and Cruze drove a 27 percent increase in sales of mini, small and compact cars.
• The Chevrolet Cruze had its best May sales ever, and the Sonic had its best month ever.
• Chevrolet dealers delivered more than 2,350 all-new 2014 Impalas.

Calendar Year-to-Date Highlights (vs. 2012)

• The last time Cadillac delivered a larger year-to-date sales increase was in 1976.
• Buick retail sales have increased for 13 consecutive months.
• Truck sales were up 12 percent, including a 22 percent increase in sales of large pickups and a 23 percent increase for large SUVs.
• Crossover sales were up 17 percent and car sales were essentially equal to a year ago.
• GM’s fleet mix was 26 percent, which is in line with the company’s full-year strategy.

[smk4565]

Cadillac's gains seem to be at the expense of Infiniti, who really dropped. Even though Cadillac is shooting for the Germans, I think their sales growth will come form the decline of Acura, Lincoln and Infiniti. The luxury market is only so big, and Mercedes and BMW are still growing in the USA, however those other 3 brands are weak and ripe for the picking.

I've seen a couple new Impala's on the road, so I wonder what the mix of old and new is in that 10,000 sold. Nevertheless, the execs have to be worried about over 30% drops for the Impala and Malibu and they are brand new vehicles. Although the Impala should drop in sales but go up in profit.

[regfootball]

Buick's drop is alarming.

Very few Corvettes!

Fleet sales existed for a reason. To help with Volume.

[Lamar]

Cadillac's gains seem to be at the expense of Infiniti, who really dropped. Even though Cadillac is shooting for the Germans, I think their sales growth will come form the decline of Acura, Lincoln and Infiniti. The luxury market is only so big, and Mercedes and BMW are still growing in the USA, however those other 3 brands are weak and ripe for the picking.

I've seen a couple new Impala's on the road, so I wonder what the mix of old and new is in that 10,000 sold. Nevertheless, the execs have to be worried about over 30% drops for the Impala and Malibu and they are brand new vehicles. Although the Impala should drop in sales but go up in profit.

Lincoln improved for the 2nd month in a row. So it's not them.

Look at it this way though. The two newer cars from Caddy (ATS, XTS) are more than making up for the volume lost from the two dead models (STS, DTS).

Can't wait to see the new CTS hit lots though. Then we'll know if the other two cars are cannibalizing it... or if everyone's waiting for the new one.

[Z-06]

GM needs to find ways to bring volume to its main stream cars (Cruze, Malibu and Impala). GMC and Buick and Cadillac will be volume restricted icings on cake.

GM needs a strong Chevy. The entire Chevy lineup barring the C7 is nothing to brag about; everything is 90 - 95% cooked with missing final attention to details.

Ford is strikingly close without Lincoln helping it.

[Drew Dowdell]

Impala drop was to be expected.

Sonic, Spark, and Cruze are doing their jobs. Cruze and Equinox each are looking at over 200k for the year.

Someone needs to be fired over the Malibu... I vote DA.

GMC is rather alarming too. Their entire numbers are propped up on Yukon XL and Sierra with everything else being down... a lot.

ATS cooking right along. CTS at the end of its model run... last ones of current generation have already been built or will be rolling off the line this week.

Regal and Lacrosse both at the end of the current body-style... hopefully those will pick up, but GM needs to market them again. They market the hell out of the Verano and Encore.. and oh gee wiz! Sales!

In other news. Congrats to the one new Chevrolet Aveo driver in May.

[Z-06]

The industry grew by an average 8% for the month of May, GM grew by only 3% in the same duration. The industry outgrowing GM has been the case over the last couple of years. Last year lack of inventory from Japanese car manufacturers prevented GM from losing (in fact gaining) market share. GM needs to seriously think of the root causes and find fixes.

[vonVeezelsnider]

Cadillac's really on fire. Will be interesting to see where things are next year with the CTS online.

[regfootball]

The industry grew by an average 8% for the month of May, GM grew by only 3% in the same duration. The industry outgrowing GM has been the case over the last couple of years. Last year lack of inventory from Japanese car manufacturers prevented GM from losing (in fact gaining) market share. GM needs to seriously think of the root causes and find fixes.

Example: no Chevy Trax here. It would sell 80k here

[regfootball]

Impala drop was to be expected.

Sonic, Spark, and Cruze are doing their jobs. Cruze and Equinox each are looking at over 200k for the year.

Someone needs to be fired over the Malibu... I vote DA.

GMC is rather alarming too. Their entire numbers are propped up on Yukon XL and Sierra with everything else being down... a lot.

ATS cooking right along. CTS at the end of its model run... last ones of current generation have already been built or will be rolling off the line this week.

Regal and Lacrosse both at the end of the current body-style... hopefully those will pick up, but GM needs to market them again. They market the hell out of the Verano and Encore.. and oh gee wiz! Sales!

In other news. Congrats to the one new Chevrolet Aveo driver in May.

GM's biggest need right now is to replace the Malibu and the epsilon platform with a new lighter and better packaged platform. This should arrive in 3 years or less. They can sell the current bu with incentives till then, but will not be atop te class until a completely new car with killer styling and packaging arrives like the fusion did for ford.

Then GM can redo all the mid size cars on the new chassis with no restrictions on past chassis.

Cruze needs work too. I recommend a new platform too to cut weight but well see.

Buick updated regal and lacrosse. Is it enough? Yes they need to advertise, lower some prices too. AWD is a Buick exclusive, might help.

[smk4565]

GM still has a lot of brands and models to advertise, and it still seems like they focus on the new ones and forget the others. I'd take the money wasted on GMC Sierra advertising and send that to Buick. Double spending to advertise the Sierra and Silverado so they can compete against each other still makes no sense to me. I know GM will argue they need both, but people used to say they needed Pontiac because Pontiac buyers won't buy a Chevy now Pontiac is gone and Chevy and GM are stronger for it.

[Drew Dowdell]

While GM may be stronger, they have lost those customer (along with the Saturn customers, previously the most loyal in the industry) to other manufacturers. GM's plan seems to be "get 'em while they're young and don't know our history". Good thing they have decent entries in the small car market with the Sonic and Cruze, and again in small premium with Encore and Verano for when those kids get their first real job.

[balthazar]

Buick's drop is alarming.

Buick is flat May vs. May and solidly up 2013 vs. 2012.

[Z-06]

The industry grew by an average 8% for the month of May, GM grew by only 3% in the same duration. The industry outgrowing GM has been the case over the last couple of years. Last year lack of inventory from Japanese car manufacturers prevented GM from losing (in fact gaining) market share. GM needs to seriously think of the root causes and find fixes.

Example: no Chevy Trax here. It would sell 80k here

Practically a HHR replacement. GM lost 100,000 units per annum sales by removing HHR. Cruise did not have coupe or hatchbacks, which would have notched another 50,000 in sales, given success of Ford Focus. Now Avalanche will lose another 30,000 units. These quantities, which GM calls small suddenly add up. Totalling them is ~180,000, which is February 2013 sales!

While GM may be stronger, they have lost those customer (along with the Saturn customers, previously the most loyal in the industry) to other manufacturers. GM's plan seems to be "get 'em while they're young and don't know our history". Good thing they have decent entries in the small car market with the Sonic and Cruze, and again in small premium with Encore and Verano for when those kids get their first real job.

The problem is GM did not offer comparative replacements for those brands in other existing brands.

[regfootball]

Buick's drop is alarming.

Buick is flat May vs. May and solidly up 2013 vs. 2012.

see regal, lacrosse, enclave

[Drew Dowdell]

Regal and Lacrosse are both at the end of a model cycle

[smk4565]

But the Camry and Accord at the end of their life cycle were still 1-2 in sales. If you advertise a car throughout and do some updates you keep it selling. Old GM was guilty of doing a new model, advertising it a ton for a year or 2, then letting it site there for 5 years. If you didn't have to advertise 5 GMC models, they could spend those dollars on Chevy or Buick products.

[regfootball]

Regal and Lacrosse are both at the end of a model cycle

so then where are the all new products. 4 year cycles to survive these days

[Z-06]

But the Camry and Accord at the end of their life cycle were still 1-2 in sales. If you advertise a car throughout and do some updates you keep it selling. Old GM was guilty of doing a new model, advertising it a ton for a year or 2, then letting it site there for 5 years. If you didn't have to advertise 5 GMC models, they could spend those dollars on Chevy or Buick products.

Get off your bi-brand theory because it is working so well for Ford (May 2013 - Ford Brand ~240,000, Lincoln 7,000)! VW has 7 brands passenger car brands in EU with a similar sized market as US. Both those examples hurt your theory. And if you missed previous iterations, GMC has little investment with much better margin than other way around.

It is management of resources NOT number of brands which GM is poor at. What makes you think GM will be better of with even TWO brands if the mentality of marketing you are depicting above is true?

[smk4565]

I suppose, but they are better managing 4 brands than there were managing 8. The problem is their managing of resources, but the fewer brands or models to advertise the simpler it gets. VW doesn't advertise Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, it isn't like they need TV campaigns to sell those cars. Porsche needs little advertising too since they basically have a 4 model lineup and get lots of free press from magazines and TV shows anyway. VW mainly has to advertise VW, Skoda, Audi.

GM advertises it's pickups every year of the life cycle, but most cars get forgotten about, then the sales really drop off. In the case of the Cobalt or STS/DTS, so forgotten about that they have to dump the product and release an all new one. I mean how many compacts has Chevy gone through in the time Toyota has had the Corolla nameplate. Cadillac's oldest name plate is the Escalade at 15 years, compared to the S-class at over 40 years, or the 3-series at over 30 years.

[Lamar]

GM advertises it's pickups every year of the life cycle, but most cars get forgotten about, then the sales really drop off. In the case of the Cobalt or STS/DTS, so forgotten about that they have to dump the product and release an all new one. I mean how many compacts has Chevy gone through in the time Toyota has had the Corolla nameplate. Cadillac's oldest name plate is the Escalade at 15 years, compared to the S-class at over 40 years, or the 3-series at over 30 years.

Building brand equity is a concern with GM, I agree. The Cobalt name only lasted a year before they went with Cruze (but to be fair, Cavalier did last several generations).

I'm hoping that when the new Caddy flagship comes, they revive STS. People who are at least somewhat familiar with Cadillac know that STS is the car slotted above CTS. A new name would likely leave them wondering (see Lincoln).

[G. David Felt]

GM advertises it's pickups every year of the life cycle, but most cars get forgotten about, then the sales really drop off. In the case of the Cobalt or STS/DTS, so forgotten about that they have to dump the product and release an all new one. I mean how many compacts has Chevy gone through in the time Toyota has had the Corolla nameplate. Cadillac's oldest name plate is the Escalade at 15 years, compared to the S-class at over 40 years, or the 3-series at over 30 years.

Building brand equity is a concern with GM, I agree. The Cobalt name only lasted a year before they went with Cruze (but to be fair, Cavalier did last several generations).

I'm hoping that when the new Caddy flagship comes, they revive STS. People who are at least somewhat familiar with Cadillac know that STS is the car slotted above CTS. A new name would likely leave them wondering (see Lincoln).

Valid points but then we need to ask is this a bigger issue of GM marketing over all as in SMK's comment, I never see advertising for the S series just the 3 series and corolla. In fact, the whole BMW line and MB line really pales in comparison as they built up the marketing as the name plate equals Luxury and as such your entry is the 3 series to BMW and C series to MB. I do not see television or print advertising for any other market segment auto except these companies SUV's. The only time I see a print / some other form of advertising for the other segment auto's is either in the luxury magazines or at specific places that only cater to the upper 1%.

I would say GM needs to have a balanced Marketing approach for all models in Chevy/Buick/GMC and then with Cadillac, they market the hell out of ATS and entry CTS/Escalade and then focus the high end products to the proper 1%. This does not mean you do not occasional mix in a V edition in the background of the CTS or ATS marketing images, but I do agree that GM has run through a number of name plates recently rather than realizing how much loyalty they build up by building up a name plate that inspires confidence, quality and Reliability.

[Drew Dowdell]

GM didn't need to dump Cobalt nor STS nor DTS... they just didn't have the stones to put those names on new vehicles that could improve the image behind them. There is no reason the Cruze couldn't have been the Cobalt or the XTS couldn't have been the DTS. Both cars would still be superior to their predecessors

[Lamar]

Valid points but then we need to ask is this a bigger issue of GM marketing over all as in SMK's comment, I never see advertising for the S series just the 3 series and corolla. In fact, the whole BMW line and MB line really pales in comparison as they built up the marketing as the name plate equals Luxury and as such your entry is the 3 series to BMW and C series to MB. I do not see television or print advertising for any other market segment auto except these companies SUV's. The only time I see a print / some other form of advertising for the other segment auto's is either in the luxury magazines or at specific places that only cater to the upper 1%.

I would say GM needs to have a balanced Marketing approach for all models in Chevy/Buick/GMC and then with Cadillac, they market the hell out of ATS and entry CTS/Escalade and then focus the high end products to the proper 1%. This does not mean you do not occasional mix in a V edition in the background of the CTS or ATS marketing images, but I do agree that GM has run through a number of name plates recently rather than realizing how much loyalty they build up by building up a name plate that inspires confidence, quality and Reliability.

Over the past few years, these are the German and Japanese luxury models I've seen advertised on tv (to my recollection):

BMW: 3, 5, X3, X5

MB: C, E (I did find a much more recent S-Class commercial on Youtube, but that was for the UK)

Audi: A4, A5, A6, A8

Lexus: All of them except for the BOF SUVs

Infiniti: G, M, FX, JX

(Acura: TL, MDX, RDX)

[smk4565]

Mercedes and BMW advertise the low end cars because that is where the volume is, and people in the masses can afford them so they do mass advertising. You don't need to advertise a $100,000 car during a football game to get a lot of eyeballs to see it, you can put a small ad in the Wall Street Journal and the one percenters know the S-class is there anyway, you hardly have to advertise it. Mercedes and BMW have bot always done a good job of advertising the brand, with luxury goods, the brand is often more important than the actual product.

If GM can keep 4 vehicles lines fresh and advertise all 4 then they should keep all 4. But if they advertise the Impala a ton this year, then for the next 5 quit and don't offer any updates and just let it get out dated, they are hurting core products to chase after niche markets. I'd rather have class leading Cruze-Malibu-Impala than making a GMC clone of a Chevy SUV to cater to a few people that want a different badge on the front of their Tahoe.

[Z-06]

SMK, marketing is a small part of the equation. What part of that you don't understand? You make it sound like products make or break because of marketing alone. That is not the case. GM's lack of advertising products after initial blitzkreig is more of a company's cultural issue than a monetorial issue, which cannot be fixed even if there is one Brand and tons of money to waste on.

And for your information about Bentley, Porsche not marketing look at Forbes, Kiplinger other financial magazines you will realize how much marketing those companies do.

[Drew Dowdell]

If SMK doesn't see it, it doesn't exist.

[smk4565]

SMK, marketing is a small part of the equation. What part of that you don't understand? You make it sound like products make or break because of marketing alone. That is not the case. GM's lack of advertising products after initial blitzkreig is more of a company's cultural issue than a monetorial issue, which cannot be fixed even if there is one Brand and tons of money to waste on.

And for your information about Bentley, Porsche not marketing look at Forbes, Kiplinger other financial magazines you will realize how much marketing those companies do.

It is a cultural thing for sure. It is marketing and product both, I get that. Vehicles GM spends money on developing and then advertises every year sell. But some cars are done a shoe string, get advertised then forgotten about and left to die. I haven't seen many Regal ads on TV lately, and they ran all the time when it first came out.

VW can advertise the luxury brands in Kiplinger because that is cheap to do and it is targeted. GM has to buy ads during NBA finals, prime time sit-coms, NFL games, etc, they are buying high dollar media because they need to hit mass market eyeballs. Ford and Toyota are in the same boat, but I think Ford does a better job of keeping a fresh and well advertised line up than Chevy does.

[Robert Hall]

In this era of time shifting w/ DVRs, streaming shows, etc TV commercials seem like a dying medium...about the only time I see tv ads is when I'm watching a live sporting event....otherwise, I fast forward through them...doesn't seem like a great investment.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Z-06]

SMK, marketing is a small part of the equation. What part of that you don't understand? You make it sound like products make or break because of marketing alone. That is not the case. GM's lack of advertising products after initial blitzkreig is more of a company's cultural issue than a monetorial issue, which cannot be fixed even if there is one Brand and tons of money to waste on.

And for your information about Bentley, Porsche not marketing look at Forbes, Kiplinger other financial magazines you will realize how much marketing those companies do.

It is a cultural thing for sure. It is marketing and product both, I get that. Vehicles GM spends money on developing and then advertises every year sell. But some cars are done a shoe string, get advertised then forgotten about and left to die. I haven't seen many Regal ads on TV lately, and they ran all the time when it first came out.

VW can advertise the luxury brands in Kiplinger because that is cheap to do and it is targeted. GM has to buy ads during NBA finals, prime time sit-coms, NFL games, etc, they are buying high dollar media because they need to hit mass market eyeballs. Ford and Toyota are in the same boat, but I think Ford does a better job of keeping a fresh and well advertised line up than Chevy does.

Again none of your points above support your earlier point of marketing makes or breaks a product. You are now just beating the dead horse.

Back to the topic, for starters, GM historically has sucked at successfully packaging, placing and delivering FWD sedans and in modern cars, nothing dramatic has been improved to take that statement away. The 2008 Malibu and the Cruze came close, but not complete.

Second, GM lack of direction in finishing the product also hurts. Case in point ATS. There are smaller chinks in ATS' armor which are now being picked on such as lack of manual transmission, small trunk and back seat, gearing of the automatics, etc. I am going to ignore the rants about the CUE and interior quality (latest from Car and Driver), which I believe is far superior than the Tupperware products placed in the BMW 3 series. Another examples - the new Silverado and the limited "you order we build only" SS sedan.

Third, GM's marketing is still a mess.after many heads, agencies, consultants getting a chance.

Finally, the most important, GM needs to redefine its values and core. You cannot not have those before defining your business. And in fact after bankruptcy, I am yet to see those in GM.

[G. David Felt]

In short GM needs to focus on their strength and have a marketing company that can build the story of each divisions strengths.

Chevy - Value, Built like a Rock trucks. Long lasting.

GMC/Buick - Professional Grade, Luxury step up from Chevy, growth vehicles for your Growing Career.

Cadillac - Luxury standard to show you have arrived.

A marketing plan that would actually show how each division can help people meet their needs for their life style choices is sorely needed. I believe you can have great product and have an advertisement that covers a life style that can be addressed by the trucks, or SUV's or cars and invite people to stop by and test drive a ride that is right for them.

Have the dealerships train and focus their sales people on better job of qualifying the customer and you will find more satisfied customers.

Today's customers are looking for a certain life style and want to know what works for them. Perfect example is Subaru does a great job of advertising their whole company as a auto company for those living the great out doors. So even a person who might be grossly over weight and never would go out to the woods but wants this image style will go to look at the Subaru. I have plenty of coworkers who seem to fit this mold in owning a Subaru but have never been out of the city with it.

GM can do a better family advertising than they are currently doing in my personal opinion.

[Drew Dowdell]

Buick is Luxury without Pretentiousness.

[regfootball]

Chevy needs to do what ford is doing, which is attacking all the mainstream segments with 100% effort. Chevy just is not addressing the markets as well as Ford on most levels.

Cadillac should then be doing what they are doing, and not in any way emulate Lincoln.

Buick / GMC is a bit of a tweener...........

You could say Buick should die, but there is always someone who won't want a chevy but still stay GM. Ford is precisely opposite now. They can grab buyers to compete with toyo honda etc. with just the Ford product. Chevy is improving, but there are still GM fans and non GM fans that think they can't buy a GM car and go with chevy. They need the Buick or Caddy so they don't feel like they have second best.

[Drew Dowdell]

GM needs a platform replacement/consolidation program.

[Z-06]

Agreed there Reg.

GM is playing a little too defensively that it's hurting the creativity and bringing mediocrity. It wants to make money from these vehicles, but it does not want to put too much efforts and money that if the vehicles become polarizing they will fail to deliver. But with the defensiveness, that is precisely what is going on.

Looking at the efforts put in the Corvette and the CTS, which to me are 99%+ products in execution, I see no reason to believe GM is capable of doing the same for the rest of its lineup.