March 2014: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

GM’s Retail Sales up 7 percent, Outpacing Industry

• Average transaction prices hit record $34,000; incentives down during month

2014-04-01

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) dealers delivered 256,047 vehicles in the United States in March 2014. Total sales were up 4 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales were up 7 percent and GM gained retail market share.

Fleet sales were down 5 percent due to a planned reduction in rental deliveries. However, commercial fleet sales were up 5 percent for the fifth consecutive monthly increase.

“GM’s retail sales, like the weather and the economy as a whole, have been on an improving trend since early February,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “We expect to see solid economic growth in the months ahead, with the job market, household income and consumer spending all showing positive signs. It is a strong backdrop for the launch of our all-new heavy-duty pickups, large SUVs and other new products, like the Cadillac ATS coupe coming this summer.

“Our dealers continue to work hard to exceed people’s expectations for customer care, whether they are shopping for one of our award-winning new products or coming in to have their vehicle serviced,” he said.

March Retail Sales Highlights (vs. 2013)

• Deliveries of the Chevrolet Silverado, the 2014 North American Truck of the Year, were up 14 percent and the GMC Sierra was up 23 percent.
• During the month, Vincentric, which uses a proprietary model to measure cost of ownership attributes including depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance and repair costs, said the Chevrolet Silverado family has the lowest cost among full-size pickups.
• Deliveries of Chevrolet passenger cars were up 10 percent. The Spark was up 17 percent; Sonic was up 20 percent; the Volt was up 7 percent; the Impala was up 103 percent; and the Corvette, the 2014 North American Car of the Year, was up 221 percent.
• Deliveries of the Cadillac SRX were up 37 percent. In addition, the CTS family was up 11 percent on the strength of the new 2014 CTS sedan, which is the 2014 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
• Sales of the Buick Regal were up 52 percent and the Encore was up 71 percent.
• Sales of large SUVs were up 62 percent, with availability of the all-new 2015 models building, per plan.
• GM’s incentives as a percentage of average transaction prices, or ATPs, were 10 percent compared with 10.3 percent for the industry, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates through March 23. That is down from February and year over year.
• GM’s ATPs set a new record of about $34,000, up about $2,000 per unit from February and more than $3,800 from a year ago, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates.
• GM delayed this release for several hours due to a computer systems issue that impacted dealer sales reporting. These results reflect sales reported through GM’s primary and backup dealer systems and we believe they accurately reflect March sales, although it is possible that a few hundred March deliveries may be reported in April.

[ZL-1]

The ATS doesn't seem to be doing that well...

[regfootball]

no it doesn't......cadillac as a whole needs a boost. Caddy needs to dial down the ATS's that they build to some lower price points and work the lease market, get some new young buyers hooked into the brand. The ATS being so tight inside turns off a traditonal Caddy buyer. XTS downturn is alarming. New CTS and all, the XTS should still be able to match its numbers from the year before.

GM has a lot of segments they could stand to beef up, they've lost so much cop and van business over the years. Fusion outsold Impala + Malibu.

Regal sales rebound but I bet its a lot of 13 Holdovers they had to discount the snot out of. The dealer group i used to work at has a ton of holdover 13 Regals they are marked off 5+ grand. New Regals not much more than 25k.

14 Regal just came in close second in a comparo with BMW 3 in a recent MT. And that was for the FWD version. Buick needs to tout the improvements to the Regal lineup and rebuild some excitement for that car.

[smk4565]

The ATS isn't doing so well because it doesn't say BMW or Mercedes on the front. The new C-class goes on sale this summer, that will put a hurt on the ATS and others in the segment, because the Lexus IS is new too, and the C-class is about 7 years old right now and still selling strong. The CTS is eating away at XTS sales I think, which makes sense, they are in the same price point and the CTS is a better car. If Cadillac wants to challenge the Germans, they can't rely on the traditional Cadillac buyer, they need new blood and they need over the top good cars. We can see that the ATS is getting beat about 5-1 by the 3-series, so they need to step it up again.

[balthazar]

The ATS being so tight inside turns off a traditonal Caddy buyer.

Cadillac isn't marketing to the so-called "traditional Caddy buyer" anymore. XTS flirts with this, but it's still a ways off of "tradition" on numerous fronts. ATS is outselling the CLA so far this year, but its a better car overall.

Cadillac is not here to 'pump up the volume'- that's mercedees's mission.