October 2013: General Motors Co.

[William Maley]

GM’s U.S. Sales up 16 percent in October

2013-11-01

DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) dealers delivered 226,402 vehicles in the United States in October, up 16 percent versus a year ago. Retail sales were also up 16 percent and fleet sales were up 14 percent.

“Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick-GMC all performed well in the month, and the sales tempo really picked up after the government shutdown ended,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president, U.S. sales operations. “We are particularly pleased with our truck momentum. Chevrolet and GMC have the newest and best light duty trucks, sales are accelerating and we are gearing up for the second, third and fourth phases of our strategic truck plan.”

This month, the premium Chevrolet Silverado High Country and GMC Sierra Denali will hit showrooms, followed by a redesigned range of heavy-duty pickups in the first quarter of 2014. All-new Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac full-size SUVs also arrive in the first quarter, and later in the year, GM will introduce clean-sheet redesigns of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size pickups.

October Sales Highlights (vs. 2012)

• Buick total sales increased 31 percent and retail sales were up 25 percent for the 18 th consecutive month of year-over-year growth. Regal sales increased 47 percent.
• Cadillac’s sales increased 10 percent and have grown in each of the last 13 months thanks to the all-new XTS and ATS. In addition, the SRX is on track for its best year ever. Retail sales were up 12 percent for the brand and more than 60 percent of buyers did not trade in a Cadillac.
• GMC was up 16 percent. The Terrain had its best October sales ever.
• Chevrolet was up 15 percent. Thirteen nameplates posted double-digit increases, including every SUV and crossover nameplate.
• Retail sales of Chevrolet passenger cars were up 32 percent. Cruze had its best-ever October retail sales. Impala retail deliveries nearly doubled and Malibu retail sales increased 58 percent.
• Deliveries of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra were up 10 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

Sales of the new 2014 light duty Silverado and Sierra increased 62 percent from September 2013. They accounted for about 76 percent of GM’s light duty deliveries, per plan.

Strong calendar-year-to-date sales have helped Chevrolet and GMC earn a 30 percent share of light-duty pickups priced $40,000 or above. That is up 5 percentage points versus 2012.

[Z-06]

Wow at ~16,000 units GM cannot justify Avalanche and Escalade EXT, yet Audi can justify TT for a measely 1,800 units.

[Drew Dowdell]

Looks like the new Regals just hit the deck! I am curious what Buick's original sales goal for the Encore was... they're on pace to sell 43k annually (not this year since it got a late start, but still)

Somewhere out there is a single Chevrolet SS... I bet it is a press car. Tahoe and Suburban roaring along in their final months... but I bet there are a lot of incentives there.

Chevy moved more Corvettes in October than Buick moved Encores! And more than 50% of the Camaro total!

Cruze needs its update ... now.

I'm surprised to see Impala up that much with the price increase... I'm guessing it will taper off. (Are Impala Limited sales included in this?)

Lots of incentives on Malibu?

Wow at ~16,000 units GM cannot justify Avalanche and Escalade EXT, yet Audi can justify TT for a measely 1,800 units.

And that's even after GM removed so many options....

[Z-06]

I don't think press car is considered a sale.

May be Malibu incentives are taking over Cruze as I was surprised with the jump the Bu got.

One more highlight, despite of price increase and lack of incentives the Silverado and Sierra are moving. So much for the dealers' argument for not being price competitive with other trucks.

I still believe GM killed an existing versatile specialty truck for a glorified truck which is not in the pipeline. Old GM dies hard.

[Drew Dowdell]

I wonder how much of that is old Silverado and Sierra sales though.... I wish they would differentiate between model years.

There are 29 proud new owners of the 2012 Chevrolet Colorado this month though....

[David]

Over all very happy with the GM increase in sales, now here is to hoping they do not sit on their past accomplishments and push forward to do even better.

[smk4565]

The Corvette is a hot item so people must like the redesign. I think there is also that want of Corvette fans to be the first to have the new one. The Malibu had to have some fleet sales, 60% gain is too much to get without Avis's help. Although 15,000 Malibus is still behind the 20-30,000 a lot of cars in that segment sell.

I wonder if old Regals were discounted to get the sales up, the 2014 Regal doesn't seem any better than the 2013, or maybe it was a flukey month, because that car usually doesn't sell.

[Drew Dowdell]

Regal inventory was really low all summer, mostly had loaded up models leftover. The new one is has a big jump in engine refinement and plenty of other improvements.

[SAmadei]

Interesting to note "Suburban (Chevy)" in one column, but not Suburban in GMC... GMC doesn't sell Suburbans anymore?

[ocnblu]

GMC changed the name of their extended, full-size SUV to Yukon XL years ago to avoid confusion, I think it was around 2000 when they changed it.

[regfootball]

13 Regal has huge cash on hood and big lease incentives. End of year clearance on the 13's. Drops the Regal low enough to finally upsell vs. a Verano, once you have them in captive at the dealership.

[ocnblu]

Local dealer has a bunch of '14 LaX and Regals... and the first lifted '14 Sierra I've seen, with one of those aftermarket packages that some dealers push. I think it ruins a good truck, but what do I know? the 2013's they have with those packages are still sitting on the lot, unsold. Only thing I'd do is put BFG All-Terrain tires on, leave everything else factory spec.

[SAmadei]

GMC changed the name of their extended, full-size SUV to Yukon XL years ago to avoid confusion, I think it was around 2000 when they changed it.

Ah. I thought back then both the Tahoe and Yukon had XLs and they were a middle ground between the non-XL and the Suburban. I see that's not the case. Damn people on Craigslist mis-advertising...

Still not sure why Suburban is marked (Chevy) in the list when none of the other Chevys are.

[ZL-1]

Is fleet vs. retail mix, both overall and per brand, disclosed by GM on these? I know the overall percentages are reported in Q earnings releases but IDK abou these sales press releases...