How many GM vehicles...

[balthazar]

... has the company built since Day 1??

Googled the question, saw one estimate of 500 million. Don't know if that source was GM or if GM even has an accurate count. Overseas markets and the confusion of partial brand ownership, etc in the latter half of the Company's history may make a comprehensive tally a challenge.

All the years from the Sloan book referenced below are CALENDAR year sales. These numbers are less common than model year, and it makes the transition to those more readily-obtainable numbers inaccurate for that switch-over.

1909 : 32,311 (fiscal year ending 09.30.09 plus 3 months ending 12.31.09) ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
           [From 1909 thru 1923, totals includes CarterCar, Elmore, Marquette, Randolph, Samson, Scripps-Booth, Welch
            and 'misc' vehicles, all worldwide markets included when applicable]
1910 : 39,300 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1911 : 35,752 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1912 : 49,696 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1913 : 57,270 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1914 : 61,584 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1915 : 102,388 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1916 : 146,185 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1917 : 203,119 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1918 : 205,326 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Canadian plant now online: 1,312 units this first year]
1919 : 391,738 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [1 millionth vehicle produced]
1920 : 393,075 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
     TOTAL to this point : 1,717,744
1921 : 214,799 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1922 : 456,763 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [2 millionth vehicle produced]
1923 : 798,555 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [3 millionth vehicle produced]
1924 : 587,341 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1925 : 835,902 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [4 millionth vehicle produced]
1926 : 1,236,363 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan [Vauxhall now included] • [5 millionth vehicle produced]
1927 : 1,564,354 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1928 : 1,813,393 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1929 : 1,900,654 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [10 millionth vehicle produced]
1930 : 1,193,535 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Opel now included]
      TOTAL to this point : 12,319,403
1931 : 1,074,709 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1932 : 562,970 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1933 : 869,035 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1934 : 1,240,447 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [15 millionth vehicle produced]
1935 : 1,715,688 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1936 : 2,037,690 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1937 : 2,115,949 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [20 millionth vehicle produced]
1938 : 1,308,643 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1939 : 1,726,855 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1940 : 2,080,566 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Opel factory under Nazi control- not included. 25 millionth vehicle produced]
      TOTAL to this point : 27,051,955
1941 : 2,300,028 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1942 : 348,806 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1943 : 194,144 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [including 60K Chevy trucks, 30K GMC trucks]
1944 : 317,032 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [including 71K Chevy trucks, 152K GMC trucks] • [30 millionth]
1945 : 308,044 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1946 : 1,229,032 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1947 : 1,992,371 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1948 : 2,220,993 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Holden now included]
1949 : 2,896,348 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Opel back in the count]
1950 : 3,992,298 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [40 millionth]
      TOTAL to this point : 42,851,051
1951 : 3,197,134 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1952 : 2,629,200 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1953 : 3,760,479 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [50 millionth]
1954 : 3,799,628 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1955 : 5,030,994 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1956 : 4,090,863 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1957 : 3,885,366 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1958 : 3,310,493 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1959 : 3,850,914 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan • [Brazil plant online] • [75 millionth]
1960 : 4,660,996 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
      TOTAL to this point : 81,067,118
1961 : 4,036,629 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
1962 : 5,238,601 ~ My Years with General Motors, Alfred P Sloan
      TOTAL to this point : 90,342,348

This ends the Sloan book as a reference, as it was published in 1963. Quite probably the best reference on these early numbers; Sloan was fastidious in writing & reviewing the book, and no doubt he could merely ask and get the definitive info on this from company archives- he was still honorary chairman of the board in 1963.

TO DATE here we have 54 years of production and 90 million vehicles.
Counting to the end of 2017, we have another 55 years to go... is it possible to have built 410 million in the 2nd half of the company's history?

• • • • • • • • •
Switching to model year production, there's going to be a slight overlap with the end of 1962. I could estimate that on a monthly basis, but for now I'm going to gloss over it as numerically insignificant.

1963 : U.S. ONLY, 5 car Divisions : 3,835,039 ~ Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980, Richard Langworth
1963 : U.S. ONLY, GMC - calendar year : 101,234 ~ Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, John Gunnell
1963 : U.S. ONLY, Chevrolet Truck - calendar year : 483,119 ~ Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, John Gunnell
1963 : CANADA, 5 car divisions (minus Cadillac, plus Acadian) - calendar year : 264,340 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1963 : Holden : 256,959~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_holden
1963 : Opel :
1963 : Vauxhall :

1964 : U.S. ONLY, 5 car divisions + Chevrolet Truck : 4,741,198 ~ Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980, Richard Langworth
1964 : U.S. ONLY, GMC - calendar year : 110,521 ~ Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, John Gunnell
1964 : CANADA, 5 divisions (minus Cadillac, plus Acadian) - calendar year : 246,466 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1964 : Holden : ? ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_holden
1964 : Opel :
1964 : Vauxhall :

1965 : U.S. ONLY, 5 divisions + Chevrolet Truck : 5,360,883 ~ Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980, Richard Langworth
1965 : U.S. ONLY, GMC - calendar year : 136,705 ~ Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, John Gunnell
1965 : CANADA, 5 divisions - calendar year : 351,303 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1965 : Holden : 178,927 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_holden
1965 : Opel :
1965 : Vauxhall :

1966 : CANADA, 5 divisions - calendar year : 285,984 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1966 : Holden :
1966 : Opel :
1966 : Vauxhall :

1967 : CANADA, 5 divisions - calendar year : 264,340 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1967: Holden :
1967 : Opel :
1967 : Vauxhall :

1968 : CANADA, 5 divisions - calendar year : 312,275 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1968 : Holden :
1968 : Opel :
1968 : Vauxhall :

1969 : CANADA, 5 divisions - calendar year : 391,561 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1969 : Holden :
1969 : Opel :
1969 : Vauxhall :

1970 : CANADA,  3 divisions - calendar year : 222,376 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1970 : Holden :
1970 : Opel :
1970: Vauxhall :

1971 : CANADA,  3 divisions - calendar year : 406,186 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1971 : Holden :
1971 : Opel :
1971: Vauxhall :

1972 : CANADA,  2 divisions - calendar year : 354,167 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1972 : Holden :
1972 : Opel :
1972: Vauxhall :

1973 : CANADA,  2 divisions - calendar year : 443,806 ~ www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/production_gm_canada
1973 : Holden :
1973 : Opel :
1973: Vauxhall :

19xx Opel Manta [entire global production] : 498,553 ~ www.opelclub.com

MORE TO COME...

Edited March 19, 2018 by balthazar

[trinacriabob]

Amazing.  I don't know any stats like that.  The only one I recall is that the Oldsmobile division sold over 1 million cars in 1976, and 512,000 of them were Cutlasses.  Those were the days.

I could probably better answer how many GM vehicles have resided in the family's driveways.  And I'd still have to think about that and do some counting.

[balthazar]

My references says the following for Olds ~
1971 : 567,891 (#5)
1972 : 762,199 (#3)
1973 : 922,771 (#3)
1974 : 581,195 (#4)
1975 : 631,795 (#3)
1976 : 891,368 (#3)
1977 : 1,135,803 (#3)
1978 : 1,015,805 (#3)
1979 : 1,068,154 (#3)
1980 : 910,306 (#3)

[David]

I would have to Think that GM has to have records on the number of autos built every year.

[trinacriabob]

I'll say one thing - I forgot which year the Olds gas-to-diesel (not from scratch) 350 V8 came into being, but that was a serious black eye for Oldsmobile.  I don't believe any of those engines could possibly reach 100,000 miles without a major problem.  I forgot what exactly went wrong with them, but the compression ratio was too high for an unmodified cast iron block.

I do remember over half a million Cutlasses sold in one year, and the number 512,000 sticks in my head.  I'll have to look.  Sales of all other Olds products dropped sharply in the next two decades, and the only popular car of theirs seemed to be the Supreme coupe, up until about 1985.

Sadly, a competent Aurora, Alero, and Intrigue finally showed up, but it was an eleventh hour thing. I still see many of these on the road, some 14 to 16 years later.

[David]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

I'll say one thing - I forgot which year the Olds gas-to-diesel (not from scratch) 350 V8 came into being, but that was a serious black eye for Oldsmobile.  I don't believe any of those engines could possibly reach 100,000 miles without a major problem.  I forgot what exactly went wrong with them, but the compression ratio was too high for an unmodified cast iron block.

I do remember over half a million Cutlasses sold in one year, and the number 512,000 sticks in my head.  I'll have to look.  Sales of all other Olds products dropped sharply in the next two decades, and the only popular car of theirs seemed to be the Supreme coupe, up until about 1985.

Sadly, a competent Aurora, Alero, and Intrigue finally showed up, but it was an eleventh hour thing. I still see many of these on the road, some 14 to 16 years later.

Agree with you on the Olds Gas conversion to Diesel engine sell. That was the start of death for them. My dad had an auto repair business and I cannot tell you how many Olds Diesel auto's with less than 30K miles had blown and people paid to have the motor replaced with a gas motor as Olds had all kinds of excuses of why it was the owners fault and would not honor the warranty of an engine replacement. Old shot themselves big time with this mess.

[balthazar]

My '75-82 Chilton's says the diesel 350 ran from '77-82 (don't know offhand if it ran later than that.
Interesting in that it was rated for 285 TRQ while the gas Chevy 350 was rated at 270 TRQ- no discernible bump.
In '79-80, Olds added a 260 V8 diesel, but there was only the 350 for '81.
In '82, a 263 V6 diesel appeared.

[David]

15 hours ago, balthazar said:

... has the company built since Day 1??

Googled the question, saw one estimate of 500 million. Don't know if that source was GM or if GM even has an accurate count.

How long would you guys estimate it would take, hours-wise, to come up with an accurate tabulation?

Cool history on the company here though.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1809.html

Cool Info here with sales data back to 1998

https://www.statisticbrain.com/general-motors-statistics/

Nice History of GM here also, though focused on Canada.

http://www.gm.ca/gm/english/corporate/about/ourhistory/detail 

Also love this 95 years of Chevy Trucks story.

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/10/95-years-of-chevy-pickup-history.html

 

[balthazar]

Major update to the opening post.

[David]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

Major update to the opening post.

Thanks for the update, very cool info!  

[trinacriabob]

On 3/9/2018 at 12:33 PM, balthazar said:

My '75-82 Chilton's says the diesel 350 ran from '77-82 (don't know offhand if it ran later than that.
Interesting in that it was rated for 285 TRQ while the gas Chevy 350 was rated at 270 TRQ- no discernible bump.
In '79-80, Olds added a 260 V8 diesel, but there was only the 350 for '81.
In '82, a 263 V6 diesel appeared.

I had completely forgotten about their feeble attempts with both a smaller V8 and a "larger" V6 diesel. 

[trinacriabob]

I found something.  This is for 1976.  Paragraph 5 mentions that, through early December, Cutlass sales had gone over 488,000.  So, 512,000 seems credible for the whole year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1977/01/02/cutlass-to-cap-a-5-year-sales-rise-as-1976s-best-selling-model/4fa6ff5b-163e-407b-818d-afdd5c8691e5/?utm_term=.b49067a83029

Does this then mean that this number picks up the 1975 model, which did not have the then jaw dropping waterfall grille and quad lamps but was still a good looking car?  If so, how many Cutlasses were sold for MYs 1976 and 1977, their last 2 years configured like this?

It mentions that 76-ish Chevy Malibu and Pontiac Lemans sales paled by comparison, and that the Buick Regal/Century also ran behind.  I think the Buick was second, while the Pontiac LeMans was last of this quartet.  Olds and Buick went for the formal notchback roof in the coupe, with the rear window creased at the midpoint.  One only has to look at these photos to see why the Pontiac Grand LeMans lagged.  (Monte Carlos and Grand Prixs were on a different wheelbase and a slightly different category from these 4 intermediates)

Nice front end - very Pontiac!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'76_Pontiac_Grand_LeMans_(Auto_classique_St-Constant_'13).JPG

The rear was sort of a fail, even though the light assembly is nice enough.  Had it been squarer and more traditional, they would have sold more of them:

https://goo.gl/images/6u8w3G

The dashboard was incredible, with or without console (this was actually a GP, same dash, and in LJ form ... buckets would be trimmed out much the same way, except that the console merged with the dash):

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2014/07/02/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1976-pontiac-grand-prix/#&gid=1&pid=2

You folks probably know how much central and eastern Europeans are taken with these cars.  I have seen so many websites paying tribute to these cars with the suffixes de, pl, ch, cz, ro, etc.

 

[balthazar]

Anyone wants any specs or production figures for American cars, just ask. You don't have to sift thru the interweb.
I have 10's of thousands of pieces of reference material in my home library.

Production (model year) ~
1976 Cutlass : 500,129
1976 Malibu : 333,243
1976 Regal/Century : 305,085
1976 LeMans/Grand LeMans : 93,817

1977 Cutlass : 632,812
1977 Malibu : 328,216
1977 Regal/Century : 328,196

1978 Cutlass : 527,606

[trinacriabob]

THANKS!

I thought the 1976 Cutty looked better than the 1977.  The 1976 had the circular dash vents at the right.  I'm guessing sales went up because people warmed up to the 1976 and then made the decision to buy.  I could have sworn Buick was second.  It probably was in the urban West Coast.  I would attribute Chevy coming in second because of loyalty from the country's interior.  The Regal, and Century, were better looking than the Malibu, albeit with an odd-firing 231 c.i. V6 engine that many people would prefer not to have in that large of a car.  The fin taillights were a definite ode to Cadillac Motor Division, one step up. 

Also beautiful, but where's the hood ornament?

Very innovative rear treatment compared to the year before; almost more interesting than that of the Cutlass - great color combo on first one (from B.C.) / thumbs down on the after-market wheels on the second one:

 

And does anyone the recall the S/R version, in plump (could be) corduroy buckets and trestle shifter, meant to take on the Cutlass Salon concept?

This one is from British Columbia.  Check out the climate controls.  No A/C!

I miss the cars from the 70s and 80s.  A lot!

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by trinacriabob

[smk4565]

They have probably averaged between 5 and 9 million per year the past 30 years or so.  With 100+ years of history and a 5 million average you get to 500 million so that is reasonable.

[Robert Hall]

I found an article that said in 2016 GM had 10.2 million sales world wide, their first year over 10 mil.   I wonder what their all time highest sales year for the US was?   It seems like it might have been in at a time when they had a lot of models and a lot of market share, perhaps 1977?  Looking at the numbers at the first link below, Chevy was 2.5m, Olds 1.1m, Pontiac and Buick both over 800k...1978 and 1979 were similar, but lower...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Automobile_Production_Figures

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/07/news/companies/gm-record-sales-profits/index.html

Edited March 13, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[balthazar]

Note that most sources -such as Wiki linked above- omit Chevrolet Commercial trucks & GMC from the totals.
In '77, GMC built 234,992 (calendar) and Chevrolet Commercial built 1,133,201. Add wiki's numbers and you have 7,101,491 (calendar). This still omits the medium & heavy duty GM trucks (for which I have no numbers for).

While I can understand omitting medium & heavy duty trucks, I cannot RE omitting light duty trucks from GM production totals.

Edited March 13, 2018 by balthazar

[trinacriabob]

Interesting on their crossing the 10 million mark.  It sure is interesting how GM stock can take bigger hare-like leaps while FoMoCo (F) stock takes leaps that are more tortoise-like. 

And Opel would be included or excluded from the 10 million number?

That said, they're not making a lot of vehicles I would consider buying at this point.  At other points in time, trying to figure out which GM car to buy caused major cognitive dissonance.