May 2014: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

GM Reports Best Monthly Sales Since August 2008

• May total sales up 13 percent; retail sales up 10 percent

2014-06-03

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) dealers delivered 284,694 vehicles in the United States in May, up 13 percent compared to a year ago, marking the company’s best May in seven years and its best total sales since August 2008. Retail sales – vehicles sold to individual buyers – were up 10 percent while fleet sales were up 21 percent. GM expects to increase its total market share year over year.

“The momentum we generated in April carried into May, with all four brands performing well in a growing economy and 17 vehicle lines posting double-digit retail sales increases or better,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations.

For the month, Chevrolet sales were up 14 percent in total, driven by a 26 percent increase in car deliveries. Buick sales were also very strong, with deliveries up 11 percent in total and 10 percent on a retail basis. Buick had its best May total and retail since 2005. Both Cadillac and GMC had their best May total and retail sales since 2007.

May Sales Highlights (vs. 2013 except as noted)

• The seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) for light vehicles was an estimated 16.5 million units – the third consecutive month above 16 million.
• Cruze was up 41 percent. Chevrolet Corvette deliveries were up 268 percent, Spark sales doubled, Camaro was up 30 percent and Impala was up 23 percent. Malibu retail sales were up 12 percent.
• Retail sales of Chevrolet and GMC large SUVs doubled, while retail sales of the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain were up 16 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
• Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra sales were up for the third month in a row, with May deliveries up 8 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
• At Cadillac, sales of the CTS sedan were up 39 percent and Escalade deliveries were up 30 percent. SRX sales were up 27 percent, for the vehicle line’s best May ever.
• Buick Encore deliveries more than doubled and Regal sales were up 49 percent.
• GM’s average transaction prices (ATPs), including full-size pickup ATPs, were in line with April. Calendar year to date, GM’s ATPs are up about $2,700.
• Incentive spending as a percentage of average transaction price was 10.4 percent, down 0.5 points from a year ago, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates. The industry average for May was 9.9 percent.
• Commercial fleet sales were up 21 percent for the seventh consecutive monthly increase and the best month since September 2008. Within commercial fleet, full-size van sales were up 46 percent and full-size pickups were up 35 percent.
• Small business deliveries, which are included in retail sales, were up 10 percent.

GM’s fleet deliveries in May exceeded expectations due to the timing of rental customer deliveries, and May will likely represent the company’s highest fleet volume month of 2014. Last year, June was GM’s highest volume fleet month. As a result, GM expects that June 2014 year-over-year fleet sales will be down sharply.

[A Horse With No Name]

Glad to see Encore and Cadillac doing well.

[Drew Dowdell]

Wow! Look at the Lambdas.... 20,800 of them in a month!

Special incentives on the Cruze or what?

[Cremazie]

The Cruze number is huge... and the Impala is selling like hotcakes too?

[smk4565]

That is a lot of Cruzes, for a car that has been out for a while and hasn't sold that big before it is a bit odd. And the Malibu and Sonic had a decent month so it isn't like the Cruze stole all their sales.

[Drew Dowdell]

Impala has gotten a lot of good press lately and it really is one of the best cars in a couple segments. It's best in the low end, large family car segment and it's even one of the best in the large car entry lux segment when you load it up. It does stand up well to the Avalon when you equip it right.

[A Horse With No Name]

To me the Impala and Cherokee dominate their segment like nothing else. GM has also gotten their greens right lately. When I came out from work, I had a new Cruse in the new green parked next to the Mini. So good I could honestly see passing up a lot of other cars to get that green.

[ocnblu]

I love green vehicles.

[2QuickZ's]

They had pretty cheap lease deals advertised in my area but since it is all employee leases, I can't say how that compares to the rest of the country. I wish I could see the sales chart. It isn't come up for me for some reason. I haven't had that problem in the other sales threads.

[Drew Dowdell]

It's in a PDF format and we've had issues with posting those in the past. I'll see what I can do about it tomorrow.

[Cory Wolfe]

That Cruze keeps surprising me. As it ages, the sales keep rising. Must be those rental sales.

I'm also fairly surprised the ATS isn't selling better than it is.

[G. David Felt]

They had pretty cheap lease deals advertised in my area but since it is all employee leases, I can't say how that compares to the rest of the country. I wish I could see the sales chart. It isn't come up for me for some reason. I haven't had that problem in the other sales threads.

What version of browsers are you using? The PDF shows just fine with IE 11, Firefox 29.0.1 and Chrome 35.0.1916

[2QuickZ's]

I'm using Chrome 35.0.1916.114 m and I could not see it yesterday but it looks fine today. The funny part is I could see them in all the other sales ticker threads. It was probably a problem with GM's site since they host it.

EDIT - Now that I can see it I guess I might as well weigh in. Spark sales doubled?!? Wow. Impala doing well. Silverado easily outsold Ram this month. This may sound strange but the one that amazes me the most is the quantity of Captiva Sports they sell. Did they even sell that many Saturn VUE's per month?

Edited June 4, 2014 by 2QuickZ's

[A Horse With No Name]

Note that Verano is outselling A3!

[Drew Dowdell]

Yea but its a lot cheaper