General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) today reported total sales of 186,895 GM vehicles in October, up 2% compared with October 2010. Retail deliveries were up 3% compared with the same month a year ago and accounted for 77% of GM sales. Deliveries to fleet customers were flat.
Chevrolet was actually the only GM brand to increase sales year-over-year. Buick at -7%, Cadillac at -12% and GMC at -5% all posted sales declines during the model year changeover, which also saw Japanese makers return post earthquake with rebuilt inventories of news cars and trucks.
In October, GM’s year-over-year passenger car sales increased 4%, crossover sales decreased 1% and sales of trucks, which include full-size pickups, vans and SUVs, increased 2%. For the month, 2012 models accounted for 80% of passenger car sales and about half of truck and crossover sales.
“Chevrolet led the way for GM in October driven by the continued success of the Cruze and Equinox,” said Don Johnson, vice president, U.S. Sales Operations, who said he was pleased with the results. Chevrolet accounts for about 70% of GM sales in the U.S. During October there is no question that GM’s recent momentum slowed down, if not stopped altogether.
More important than monthly sales in the ongoing debate about GM’s actual health, are year-to-date sales, incentives and inventories – the fundamentals of the auto business. Year-to-date GM has sold 2,089,067 vehicles an increase of 15% overall, with an increase of 20% in retail sales, a respectable performance. All four GM brands have increased sales ytd, with Chevrolet, GMC and Buick posting double-digit increases.
However, inventories based on selling rates are once again growing – now at 82 days for cars and 104 days for trucks. Incentives at 8.8% of the average transaction price for the sale remain higher than industry average, but this is down from last month – continuing to work toward GM’s stated goal this year of tracking incentives roughly inline with the auto industry.
