November 2013: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

GM’s U.S. Retail Sales Up 19 percent in November

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) dealers delivered 212,060 vehicles in the United States in November, up 14 percent versus a year ago and the highest November sales in six years. Retail sales were up 19 percent and fleet sales were down 3 percent.

“November sales were strong at all four of our brands, and demand was robust for everything from cars to crossovers to the industry’s newest and best full-size pickups,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president, U.S. sales operations. “The sheer number of award-winning new models we have helped us grow faster than the industry for the second month in a row.”

GM’s product momentum will continue unabated. For example, the all-new 2014 Cadillac CTS, which is building availability, was recently named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, an Automobile Magazine “All Star” and one of Car and Driver’s 10 Best cars.

Cadillac will also launch an all-new Escalade and the ELR in early 2014. In addition, Chevrolet and GMC are launching all-new heavy-duty pickups and large SUVs in the first quarter. Chevrolet also unveiled the Colorado, its new, highly acclaimed midsize pickup, at the Los Angeles International Auto Show. The Colorado goes on sale in the fall of 2014.

November Sales Highlights (vs. 2012)

• Chevrolet sales were up 13 percent and retail deliveries were up 20 percent.
• Sales of Chevrolet cars increased 19 percent, with Malibu up 41 percent, Volt up 26 percent, Impala up 20 percent and Camaro up 14 percent. Retail deliveries of the Cruze were up 39 percent and Impala more than doubled.
• The Chevrolet Cruze, Equinox and Volt had their best November sales ever.
• Sales of the Chevrolet Tahoe were up 23 percent, the Traverse was up 21 percent and the Silverado was up 12 percent.
• GMC sales were up 20 percent, with the Sierra up 22 percent and the Acadia crossover up 108 percent, which keeps it on track for its best year ever.
• Small business sales were up 38 percent, including a 76-percent increase in pickup deliveries. Commercial fleet deliveries increased 18 percent.
• Buick deliveries increased 13 percent and the brand is on track for its best year since 2005. November was Buick’s 19th consecutive month of year-over-year retail sales growth.
• Cadillac sales increased 11 percent and retail sales have grown in each of the past 18 months, driven by the success of the new XTS and ATS.

“We feel good about the direction of the economy and our own momentum,” McNeil said. “The economy is creating jobs and household wealth. Energy costs are dropping and credit is available and affordable. All of this bodes well for future growth.”

[Daryl Z71]

One of those Cruze sales were mine!

[Drew Dowdell]

People feeling good about gas prices? Suburban, Tahoe, Silverado, Sierra and Yukon all way up!

Who lit the fire under Acadia? Traverse is up, Enclave down slightly, but overall Lambdas have a healthy growth for the year.

Regal is back up from the too-long summer slumber during the model change over, but won't be enough to finish the year up.

Shame how FWD is killing the XTS isn't it SMK... only up 146% for the year.

2014 CTSes just hit dealers last month.. won't show much movement there yet. ATS moving along nicely.

Congrats to the 6 new 2012 Chevrolet Colorado owners out there.... seriously, when will they finally close out this inventory!?

[Z-06]

Add 4 of Canyons and we have a bumper crop of 10 mini trucks akin Maserati news.

Overall, I like where GM is going. Key - the retail sales are up compared to fleets.

[G. David Felt]

Sold GM performance. Amazing what a FWD appliance can do like the XTS. I think a certain person who is all high and mighty about german engineering needs to eat a little humble crow.

[Drew Dowdell]

The XTS outsold the A6, A7, and A8..... combined. Not bad for an "appliance"

The SRX outsold the Q5 and X3 and RDX individually.

And since SMK likes to point out the overlap, the CTS + XTS outsold the 5-series by a healthy margin.

[smk4565]

I predicted before the XTS ever went on sale that it would do about 2500 a month while new and fade back to around 2000 per month after a couple years. That is 30,000 a year which they are at right now and will probably end at 32-33,000. It is a fleet sale car, so assume at least 500 XTS are fleet, to get 2000 retail isn't too hard when Lincoln is on it's knees and "traditional" Cadillac buyers are still alive. Probably once the CTS is in full swing and the XTS ages a bit you'll see 20-25k annual units, sort of what the DTS was doing.

The E-class crushed CTS and XTS combined. I don't think Cadillac can crack open the champagne yet. I mean the C-class in its 7th model year, with the CLA potentially stealing sales out, still beat the ATS by 2 to 1. The 3-series outsold the ATS by over 4 to 1. Cadillac is on the right track with the CTS and ATS product wise, but the armor surrounding BMW and Benz is tough to crack.

Edited December 3, 2013 by smk4565

[Drew Dowdell]

It would probably kill you to ever praise Cadillac.

The ATS is a 1 body-style car right now with one year on the market and no performance line. The 3-series is a 4 body-style car with a performance version and decades on the market.

The CTS 10 years ago was an E-Class sized car with a $28,995 starting price. It has now moved in to E-class price territory on its own merits.

the fact that Cadillac is fielding mid-size luxury cars that are comparable in price to the 5-series and combined, outsells the 5-series... should say something.

[smk4565]

The new CTS is sized and priced exactly like the STS was, CTS is 195.5 inches long, STS was 196. STS started at $46,995, as does the CTS now. The difference is they executed the CTS better, have a better chassis, etc. The ATS and CTS are a good start but Cadillac is on pace for 180,000 sales this year and they had 235,000 in 2005. The new lineup isn't doing any better than the CTS-STS-DTS lineup with the same 2 SUVs but the SRX is cheaper now.

One thing that always amazes me is Americans thirst for big SUVs. GM is fortunate for this because look at the sales of pickups and 7+ passenger SUVs on that chart, compared to their car sales. I think gas could be $6 a gallon and people would still buy trucks and crossovers like there is no tomorrow.

[regfootball]

Regal year end incentives.......

ATS uptick is pleasing

Impala + Malibu as a team is still a good match vs. Fusion + Taurus

Equinox + Terrain how so many still boggles my mind on top of all those Captivas. Is the Captiva one of GM's best sellers?

[2QuickZ's]

Captiva is fleet only, isn't it? Having had an '08 VUE XR, I can tell you they aren't bad vehicles at all. We liked ours a lot and only got the Flex because we needed a third row.

I didn't initially notice the ATS sales until you mentioned it but that is quite pleasing!