August 2013: General Motors

[William Maley]

GM’s Retail Sales Increased 22 percent in August

• Record month for Cadillac XTS, Buick Encore and Verano, Chevrolet Volt, Spark, Sonic and Equinox

2013-09-04

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) dealers delivered 275,847 vehicles in the United States in August, up 15 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales increased 22 percent while fleet sales were down 8 percent.

Total and retail deliveries increased by double-digits at all GM brands. In total, Cadillac was up 38 percent, Buick was up 37 percent, GMC was up 14 percent and Chevrolet was up 10 percent. Deliveries to retail customers were up 38 percent at Cadillac, 22 percent at Chevrolet, 16 percent at GMC and 24 percent at Buick. Buick’s retail sales were up for the 16 th month in row, and it was the brand’s best August since 2003. Cadillac’s retail sales were the brand’s best August since 1989.

“The second half of 2013 is off to a very solid start for GM and our model-year change over and new product launches are going smoothly,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president, U.S. sales operations. “We have a lot of momentum and we feel good about the direction of the U.S. economy as we prepare to launch even more new products, including all-new heavy duty pickups and large SUVs for Chevrolet and GMC, a completely redesigned Cadillac CTS and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.”

GM’s sales last month were the highest of 2013 and the best since September 2008, when the global financial crisis began to accelerate. Two years later, on Sept. 8, 2010, Chevrolet launched the Cruze in North America, marking the beginning of an aggressive rollout of new products that will see nearly 30 Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC nameplates either all new or redesigned by early 2014.

Since then, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and the 2013 Cadillac ATS won the North American Car of the Year award, the 2014 Chevrolet Impala was named the top sedan in the country by a leading consumer publication, GM topped the 2013 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study and the company has returned to competitive levels of leasing. GM and its dealers have also embarked on a multibillion-dollar program to renovate sales and service facilities in all 50 states.

“If our first Cruze customer were to walk into a Chevrolet dealership today, he wouldn’t recognize the place,” McNeil said. “The same holds true for Buick-GMC and Cadillac. The cars and trucks, the sales and service experience – everything is being elevated so we can offer customers the best ownership experience in the business.”

August Sales Highlights (vs. 2012)

• Crossover sales were up 34 percent. The GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX had their best-ever August sales and the Chevrolet Equinox and Buick Encore had their best months ever.
• Full-size pickup sales were up 15 percent. Large SUV sales were up 29 percent.
• Passenger car deliveries were up 8 percent. Retail deliveries were up 27 percent, driven by a 93 percent increase for the Chevrolet Malibu and a 76 percent increase for the Chevrolet Impala. The Impala has increased its retail share of the large car segment by about 3 percentage points, according to J.D. Power PIN data.
• The Chevrolet Volt had its best month ever, as did the Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Sonic, Cadillac XTS and Buick Verano.

[Drew Dowdell]

1 of the 4,296

[Z-06]

A good solid month. Impressive. Good to know that Buick, GMC, Cadillac had higher growth compared to Chevy, that is where the gravy is coming.

Keep it up GM.

[Drew Dowdell]

Look at all that growth in XTS sales... with fleet sales being so far down and retail sales being so far up... that's gotta be a lot of retail XTSes going out the door.

[Z-06]

Cadillac has to survive and if it means to have turkeys, in principle, like XTS and SRX, then so be it. The good part is that the customers are accepting those vehicles. There is no point to stick on principles, if the ship is sinking, so as long quality is being sold. I just don't like hypocirsy when BMW and MB goes FWD the move is considered luxury intentions for masses, while Caddy goes FWD it is badge engineering.

Like it or not XTS has customers where DTS left and capturing them, keeping them in GM's fold and making them happy is far more important and less troublesome than poaching a European RWD fanboy. Find least amount of resistance in any approach and I like GM's approach here. This is what precisely was missing when demises of Olds, Pontiac and Saturn took place.

[smk4565]

SRX had a huge month, I wonder what caused it. CTS was better than last month, but the year end close out deals have to be good there. The Regal is dying on the vine, although the other Buicks are doing really well. Impala must be running out of the old fleet queens since the sales numbers are coming down.

The pickups and SUVs did well, proving again that Americans like trucks. The economy must be picking up.

[Drew Dowdell]

Regal is still in change over mode. Dealers haven't gotten their '14s yet and '13s that are still around are dwindling.

[smk4565]

The 2014 Regal won't sell either. It it too expensive for that it is, why buy a 184 hp Regal over a V6 Azera or Cadenza which are only slightly bigger and have way more features, and look better. The Verano when I see it on the road actually looks better than the Regal. I think the Regal is worse then the Fusion, Accord, Optima/Sonata, Camry, etc, yet it costs a good $5,000 more than those cars.

[Drew Dowdell]

The Regal doesn't compete with the Fusion, Accord or Camry directly. It drives much better than any of those cars. The most direct competition with the Regal would be the VW CC and the high end Mazda6.

The C-Class with 201hp is $9,000 more than the Regal... by your logic, no one will ever buy a C-Class when they could get a Regal for $9,000 cheaper or a Sonata for $14k cheaper.

Why would I buy a lame ass Cadendza for $35k when I could get a V8 Charger or 300c for less money? Or a Camaro? or a Sonic RS?!

The Regal is one of GM's best builds at the moment.. but it is suffering at the hands of the GM marketing department.