May 2017: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

Strong Lineup of New Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac Crossovers Drive GM’s U.S. Retail Sales Higher

• Commercial sales up 14 percent; Government sales up 21 percent
• U.S. daily rental sales down 36 percent per plan
• Crossover retail sales up 19 percent

DETROIT — General Motors (NYSE: GM) today reported May U.S. retail sales of 191,388 vehicles, up slightly from last year. GM’s May retail performance was driven by exceptionally strong crossover sales at Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

GM’s U.S. Commercial sales in May were up 14 percent, while Government sales jumped 21 percent. Daily rental sales were down 36 percent, as planned. GM is on track to deliver its third consecutive year-over-year decline in daily rental volume.

GM’s May total sales were 237,364 vehicles, down about 1 percent from last year.

On a brand level, Buick’s U.S. retail sales in May were up 12 percent, while retail sales at Cadillac and Chevrolet were up 10 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively.

In May, GM crossovers were up 19 percent on a U.S. retail sales basis compared to last year. This strong performance was carried across all GM’s U.S. brands:

• Chevrolet Equinox — up 17 percent
• Chevrolet Trax — up 18 percent
• Chevrolet Traverse – up 2 percent
• Buick Encore — up 12 percent
• Buick Envision — 3,256 deliveries in May, up significantly from last year’s launch
• GMC Acadia — up 33 percent
• Cadillac XT5 — up 110 percent

“As we see the industry shift to more crossovers, we are extremely well positioned to take full advantage of this dynamic,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “We expect these launches will enable us to continue gaining retail share as we introduce more all-new compact and midsize crossovers than anyone else, including the all-new GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and the Regal TourX.”

Chevrolet dealers have begun selling the all-new Equinox with a highly efficient 1.5L engine. Additional powertrain offerings on the all-new Equinox will be available starting this summer. The all-new 2018 Traverse midsize crossover will arrive in Chevrolet dealer showrooms this summer as well. 

GMC dealers will begin delivering the all-new Terrain compact crossover in late summer and Buick dealers will roll out the new Enclave midsize crossover in the fall.

Other May Sales Highlights (vs. 2016)

• According to J.D Power PIN estimates, GM’s incentive spending as a percentage of average transaction prices (ATP) was 11.6 percent in May. That is equal to the industry average and lower than our 2016 calendar year average, and lower than any domestic and many Asian competitors.
• GM’s incentive spending as a percent of ATP was down 0.8 points from April.
• ATPs were $35,283, up more than $640 per vehicle from April.

Year-to-Date Highlights thru May (vs. 2016)

• GM’s U.S. retail market share is up 0.2 percentage points, driven by Buick and Cadillac.
• Buick’s U.S. retail sales are up 8 percent.
• Cadillac U.S. retail sales are up 1 percent.

“U.S. economic fundamentals remain strong with a retail SAAR of 14.2 million, equal to last year’s record pace. The U.S. economy is operating at near full employment levels, wages are rising, interest rates and fuel prices remain low and consumer confidence remains high. The decline in total sales is primarily due to the industry’s pull back from daily rental sales.  Although total sales are running below our expectations, we anticipate retail vehicle sales will remain strong,” said Mustafa Mohatarem, GM chief economist.

May Brand Retail Highlights (vs. 2016)

Chevrolet

• Malibu and Camaro were up 40 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
• Malibu had its best month since October 1980.
• Equinox, Traverse and Trax were up 17 percent, 2 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
• Chevrolet had its best year to date performance for crossovers ever.
• Chevrolet dealers sold 1,438 Bolt EVs to retail customers, the best month ever for the game-changing EV.

Buick

• Encore was up 12 percent and had its best May ever.
• Envision celebrates one year in the marketplace and was Buick’s second best-selling nameplate.
• Lacrosse was up 1 percent.

GMC

• GMC reached a record for May ATPs at $44,675, up $1,667 over last May.
• Acadia was up 33 percent.

Cadillac

• CT6 was up 44 percent.
• Escalade was up 21 percent.
• XT5 was up 110 percent.
• XT5 ATP is up over $3,000 from its predecessor.

Guidance on U.S. Vehicle Inventory Levels

• We remain on track to achieve our year-end guidance. We anticipate we will end 2017 with approximately the same day supply of vehicles as we did at the end of 2016 with fewer cars and more trucks and crossovers in the mix this year.
• Launch-related downtime in the second half will cut nearly 100,000 units from inventory.
• We will continue to monitor the marketplace and will make additional production adjustments if needed.

[G. David Felt]

Not bad, I do wonder what is going on at Chevy and GMC. But overall not bad considering that auto sales are on the decline right now.

GM just laid off half of the 5000 peeps at the transmission assembly plant due to weak sales according to the news this morning. At least GM is down to 94 days selling compared to the triple digits they had towards the end of last year.

[Cmicasa the Great]

@dfelt Spark is seriously down.. so is Sonic. Impala isn't getting any favors considering the Malibu is like 7/8s its size, more tech and, and costs 1/2.

Overall.. nice sales on Retail tho.  ATS and CTS replacements along with a few variants.. not to mention XT4 can't get here soon enuff. 

[cp-the-nerd]

It kills me how poorly the CTS has done since its release. Especially now when the model is so dialed in with the new V6 and 8-speed transmissions across the board. I hope Cadillac can find the right balance of price and features with future sedans because the A6 and 5 series shouldn't be outselling an American car this good on its own turf for the same or higher price.

[TaurusSHO]

50 minutes ago, cp-the-nerd said:

It kills me how poorly the CTS has done since its release. Especially now when the model is so dialed in with the new V6 and 8-speed transmissions across the board. I hope Cadillac can find the right balance of price and features with future sedans because the A6 and 5 series shouldn't be outselling an American car this good on its own turf for the same or higher price.

They really need to drop the XTS.  I find it hard to believe that XTS buyers wouldn't move to the CTS or CT6.  Now they're giving it a (ugly) refresh in a down sedan market.  Makes no sense unless a good majority of those sales are fleet.

[G. David Felt]

8 minutes ago, TaurusSHO said:

They really need to drop the XTS.  I find it hard to believe that XTS buyers wouldn't move to the CTS or CT6.  Now they're giving it a (ugly) refresh in a down sedan market.  Makes no sense unless a good majority of those sales are fleet.

Keep in mind that they have union contracts through I think it was 2020 when the XTS car is killed off. So they have to honor that little bit of work. Plus you have baby boomers that find the CTS much too hard of a car to rid in. My own baby boomer parents always tell me they see no reason for the CTS. Every time they get one as a loaner, they park it in their garage and drive their other Cadillac as the CTS is not a float mobile of the older cadillacs. Different expectations from a different life time.

XTS has it's place and since there is very little R&D cost, it is a pure money maker for GM as it serves well the homeowners market as well as the private limo car business and funeral business.

I do agree with you that I would like to see it retired to history and move the funeral and limo business to Escalades and CT6's.

[TaurusSHO]

Good point about the union contact, although I thought the XTS was originally supposed to be killed off by now.  Maybe that was just a rumor.  

[G. David Felt]

11 minutes ago, TaurusSHO said:

Good point about the union contact, although I thought the XTS was originally supposed to be killed off by now.  Maybe that was just a rumor.  

Drew stated in this thread:

That the XTS was scheduled to still be built threw 2020 mainly for the Chinese market. I know and I think it was Drew also that had brought up or talked about the union contracts that would keep this in production, but I cannot find that thread. Or at least I think it was Drew who had brought that up.

[cp-the-nerd]

50 minutes ago, TaurusSHO said:

They really need to drop the XTS.  I find it hard to believe that XTS buyers wouldn't move to the CTS or CT6.  Now they're giving it a (ugly) refresh in a down sedan market.  Makes no sense unless a good majority of those sales are fleet.

XTS sales are fleet-heavy. Even if 50% of its sales went to the CTS alone, it wouldn't give that car the market share it deserves, IMO.

[G. David Felt]

12 minutes ago, cp-the-nerd said:

XTS sales are fleet-heavy. Even if 50% of its sales went to the CTS alone, it wouldn't give that car the market share it deserves, IMO.

Very true and I totally agree. The CTS is so understated in how good it is. 

Course it would help if they did a wee bit more marketing on their cars and showed some excitement of driving them to the world.

[cp-the-nerd]

4 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Very true and I totally agree. The CTS is so understated in how good it is. 

Course it would help if they did a wee bit more marketing on their cars and showed some excitement of driving them to the world.

Cadillac marketing is terrible. There was a time from 2008-2013 when GM made compelling Cadillac ads, and the sales were pretty impressive. The gen 2 CTS-V ads were awesome, and I remember when the ATS came out, they ran a campaign called "ATS vs the world" or something to that effect, with the ATS ripping through beautiful foreign landscapes to showcase car features. People actually ASKED ME about he ATS because of those ads!

Now it seems like they have a new ad agency every 6 months and the ads are either underwhelming commercial break fodder or dorky and embarrassing like the skinny nerd walking down the street in front of a red ATS coupe.

[G. David Felt]

2 minutes ago, cp-the-nerd said:

Cadillac marketing is terrible. There was a time from 2008-2013 when GM made compelling Cadillac ads, and the sales were pretty impressive. The gen 2 CTS-V ads were awesome, and I remember when the ATS came out, they ran a campaign called "ATS vs the world" or something to that effect, with the ATS ripping through beautiful foreign landscapes to showcase car features. People actually ASKED ME about he ATS because of those ads!

Now it seems like they have a new ad agency every 6 months and the ads are either underwhelming commercial break fodder or dorky and embarrassing like the skinny nerd walking down the street in front of a red ATS coupe.

I have not even seen those ads you mentioned. I saw they were spending money on multiple page ads in magazines focused at the 1% crowd. Not something most people will see and their online social media ads suck big time.

Agree, not sure what the hell is going on with Cadillac advertising but I question just who made the choice in agencies and how they are being managed and rated on performance as right now it SUCKS!

[cp-the-nerd]

18 minutes ago, dfelt said:

I have not even seen those ads you mentioned. I saw they were spending money on multiple page ads in magazines focused at the 1% crowd. Not something most people will see and their online social media ads suck big time.

Agree, not sure what the hell is going on with Cadillac advertising but I question just who made the choice in agencies and how they are being managed and rated on performance as right now it SUCKS!

You can probably search youtube for Laurence Fishburne Cadillac ads for the V2 spots, and for the ATS commercials just type the ad campaign I mentioned.

Edited June 1, 2017 by cp-the-nerd

[G. David Felt]

16 minutes ago, cp-the-nerd said:

You can probably search youtube for Laurence Fishburne Cadillac ads for the V2 spots, and for the ATS commercials just type the ad campaign I mentioned.

OK, they just SUCK SUCK SUCK and the amount of viewing of these so called commercials are just pathetic.

https://www.youtube.com/user/cadillac

This is the Cadillac channel on YouTube and it is not impressive at all. The whole Willingness to Dare BLOWS! So far nothing is a dare from Cadillac.

[cp-the-nerd]

10 minutes ago, dfelt said:

OK, they just SUCK SUCK SUCK and the amount of viewing of these so called commercials are just pathetic.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMMTsbfETvrSwwcvB7VE-iw

This is the Cadillac channel on YouTube and it is not impressive at all. The whole Willingness to Dare BLOWS! So far nothing is a dare from Cadillac.

I almost downvoted you reflexively for sharing that garbage! Haha. The best "ads" for Cadillac are Motor Trend videos of the CTS-V, CTS V-Sport, and ATS-V.

[A Horse With No Name]

On 6/1/2017 at 1:01 PM, cp-the-nerd said:

It kills me how poorly the CTS has done since its release. Especially now when the model is so dialed in with the new V6 and 8-speed transmissions across the board. I hope Cadillac can find the right balance of price and features with future sedans because the A6 and 5 series shouldn't be outselling an American car this good on its own turf for the same or higher price.

I so totally agree!  Plus the CTS is a much, much more attractive car to boot!