Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers in the United States delivered 259,353 new vehicles in June 2015, down 3 percent year-over-year. The results represent GM’s best June for retail deliveries since 2007 and its best June for retail market share since 2011.
“We just wrapped up the U.S. auto industry’s best six months in a decade, driven by strong demand for pickups and crossovers,” said Kurt McNeil, GM’s U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “People feel good about their jobs and the direction the economy as a whole is taking, so the second half of the year should be strong too, and that’s especially good news for Chevrolet and GMC, brands that have very broad truck and crossover portfolios.”
June 2015 highlights (vs. June 2014, except as noted):
General Motors:
Only one of GM’s U.S. brands posted a year-over-year increase in sales, while the other three were down
Total sales were down 3 percent:
Retail deliveries were up 7 percent year-over-year, up more than the industry for the third month in a row. The primary drivers were stronger Cadillac sales, a 12 percent gain at GMC and a 9 percent increase at Chevrolet. Together, they helped make the month General Motors’ best June for retail deliveries since 2007 and its best June for retail market share since 2011.
Commercial deliveries were up 4 percent in June, with full-size pickups up 18 percent. Through June, commercial deliveries have grown year over year for 20 consecutive months and they are up 20 percent calendar year to date.
Sales to state and local government were up 6 percent in June, with full-size pickup and Tahoe PPV deliveries more than doubling. State and local government sales are up 19 percent calendar year to date.
Rental deliveries in June were down 45 percent, per plan. Through the first six months of 2015, rental deliveries are down 7 percent, per plan. Total fleet deliveries are up calendar year to date.
GM plans to reduce year-over-year rental deliveries in the second half of 2015 and in calendar year 2016.
During the first half of 2015, GM gained retail market share in both the crossover and truck segments, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates:
GM’s crossover share is 12.6 percent, up 0.4 percentage points compared to a year ago.
GM’s truck, van and SUV share is 38.9 percent, up 2.1 percentage points.
Most of the truck market share gain comes from the ongoing success of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups, which were redesigned for the 2014 model year. Since calendar year 2013, GM’s retail share of the segment has grown 0.9 percentage points to 38 percent, according to PIN.
Market share and average transaction prices (ATPs) were particularly strong in the second quarter of 2015. According to PIN, GM’s retail share in the segment was up 2.8 points year-over-year to 40.2 percent. ATPs were up almost $1,000 per unit, and incentives were flat.
Average Transaction Prices:
June ATPs were approximately $34,000, up $880 per unit year over year. They are up more than $1,300 per unit calendar year to date.
Incentive spending as a percentage of ATP was 11.2 percent in June, up 0.1 percentage points year over year. Industry average spending was 9.9 percent of ATP.
In the first half of 2015, incentive spending was 10.4 percent of ATP, down 0.2 percentage points. Industry average spending was 10.1 percent, up 0.2 points.
Industry sales continue to exceed expectations, and GM estimates that the seasonally-adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) for light vehicles in June was 17.3 million units.
Chevrolet sales declined 3.9 percent to 181,256 units:
Camaro was up 11.5 percent to 8,611 units
Corvette was up 3.1 percent to 2,807 units
Equinox was up 0.1 percent to 21,760 units
Silverado was up 18.4 percent to 51,548 units; retail Silverado sales increased 22 percent, surpassing the Ford F-Series
Spark was up 4 percent to 3,857 units
SS was up 63.1 percent to 354 units
Trax accounted for 5,971 sales
Colorado accounted for 6,558 sales
City Express accounted for 1,073 sales
All other Chevrolet models posted year-over-year sales drops
Cadillac sales declined 3.1 percent to 13,515 units:
SRX was up 23.5 percent to 5,746 units
All other Cadillac models posted year-over-year sales drops. Notably:
ATS was down 6.2 percent to 2,211 units
CTS was down 29.4 percent to 1,535 units
ELR was down 36.1 percent to 62 units
Escalade was down 20.2 percent to 1,522 units
Escalade ESV was down 6.2 percent to 992 units
XTS was down 14.5 percent to 1,447 units
Buick sales declined 18.1 percent 17,531 units:
Encore was up 5,526 units
All other Buick models posted year-over-year sales drops
GMC was up 8 percent to 47,051 units:
Acadia was up 17.4 percent to 9,421 units
Sierra was up 20.8 percent to 18,618 units
All other GMC models posted year-over-year sales drops
Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - Chevrolet
MODEL
JUN 2015 / JUN 2014
JUNE 2015
JUNE 2014
YTD 2015 / YTD 2014
YTD 2015
YTD 2014
CAMARO
+11.53%
8,611
7,721
-8.74%
42,593
46,672
CAPRICE
-63.36%
159
434
-53.64%
803
1,732
CAPTIVA SPORT
-99.90%
4
3,959
-99.82%
53
28,811
CITY EXPRESS
*
1,073
*
*
4,284
*
COLORADO
+12,758.82%
6,558
51
+56,852.05%
41,575
73
CORVETTE
+3.08%
2,807
2,723
+3.17%
18,307
17,744
CRUZE
-12.92%
22,647
26,008
-11.97%
127,938
145,338
EQUINOX
+0.06%
21,760
21,748
+20.57%
145,685
120,831
EXPRESS
-35.62%
5,238
8,136
-32.44%
26,697
39,514
IMPALA
-41.54%
8,406
14,378
-26.02%
58,071
78,499
MALIBU
-5.63%
15,228
16,137
-6.75%
96,520
103,505
SILVERADO
+18.45%
51,548
43,519
+14.60%
275,822
240,679
SONIC
-18.77%
7,894
9,718
-26.62%
36,976
50,390
SPARK
+4.02%
3,857
3,708
-12.96%
19,409
22,299
SS
+63.13%
354
217
-7.70%
1,534
1,662
SUBURBAN
-54.50%
2,996
6,584
-0.78%
23,386
23,571
TAHOE
-44.45%
6,192
11,147
-8.17%
42,091
45,838
TRAVERSE
-17.66%
8,721
10,592
+18.01%
61,430
52,053
TRAX
*
5,971
*
*
24,815
*
VOLT
-31.06%
1,225
1,777
-34.74%
5,622
8,615
CHEVROLET TOTAL
-3.88%
181,256
188,567
+2.50%
1,053,619
1,027,908
Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - Cadillac
MODEL
JUN 2015 / JUN 2014
JUNE 2015
JUNE 2014
YTD 2015 / YTD 2014
YTD 2015
YTD 2014
ATS
-6.23%
2,211
2,358
-16.12%
12,507
14,910
CTS
-29.39%
1,535
2,174
-39.47%
9,689
16,008
ELR
-36.08%
62
97
+52.05%
593
390
ESCALADE
-20.19%
1,522
1,907
+48.55%
9,910
6,671
ESCALADE ESV
-6.24%
992
1,058
+71.38%
6,401
3,735
SRX
+23.52%
5,746
4,652
+4.65%
30,207
28,864
XTS
-14.53%
1,447
1,693
+0.87%
11,590
11,490
CADILLAC TOTAL
-3.06%
13,515
13,941
-1.48%
80,899
82,117
Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - Buick
MODEL
JUN 2015 / JUN 2014
JUNE 2015
JUNE 2014
YTD 2015 / YTD 2014
YTD 2015
YTD 2014
ENCLAVE
-16.38%
5,186
6,202
-6.87%
28,070
30,142
ENCORE
+33.41%
5,526
4,142
+29.13%
30,549
23,657
LACROSSE
-44.26%
2,972
5,332
-18.08%
20,710
25,280
REGAL
-12.34%
1,528
1,743
-23.70%
9,387
12,303
VERANO
-41.79%
2,319
3,984
-20.33%
17,598
22,090
BUICK TOTAL
-18.09%
17,531
21,403
-6.31%
106,314
113,472
Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - GMC
MODEL
JUN 2015 / JUN 2014
JUNE 2015
JUNE 2014
YTD 2015 / YTD 2014
YTD 2015
YTD 2014
ACADIA
+17.42%
9,421
8,023
+19.15%
49,055
41,170
CANYON
+84,300.00%
2,532
3
+300,240.00%
15,017
5
SAVANA
-40.53%
2,577
4,333
-14.32%
13,939
16,269
SIERRA
+20.85%
18,618
15,406
+8.22%
100,850
93,191
TERRAIN
-6.08%
8,211
8,743
+7.35%
54,410
50,687
YUKON
-16.75%
3,285
3,946
-3.23%
18,004
18,604
YUKON XL
-22.25%
2,407
3,096
+7.98%
13,438
12,445
GMC TOTAL
+8.04%
47,051
43,550
+13.92%
264,713
232,371
Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - GM Totals
BRAND
JUN 2015 / JUN 2014
JUNE 2015
JUNE 2014
YTD 2015 / YTD 2014
YTD 2015
YTD 2014
CHEVROLET TOTAL
-3.88%
181,256
188,567
+2.50%
1,053,619
1,027,908
CADILLAC TOTAL
-3.06%
13,515
13,941
-1.48%
80,899
82,117
BUICK TOTAL
-18.09%
17,531
21,403
-6.31%
106,314
113,472
GMC TOTAL
+8.04%
47,051
43,550
+13.92%
264,713
232,371
GM USA TOTAL
-3.03%
259,353
267,461
+3.41%
1,505,545
1,455,868
About The Charts
25 selling days for June 2015, and 24 for June 2014.
Totals contain discontinued models, including Chevrolet Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT.
Brands like Buick and Cadillac are going to have a difficult time with sedans as gas prices remain low.
I do not believe that the crossover has replaced the sedan, as some articles suggest, but do think the industry needs to react faster to consumers shifting tastes.
The picture at GM isnt looking to good right now , but they do have new models and refreshed models coming to market for 2016 . China may hurt GM’s bottom line though since their economy is slowing down .
So why the big drop in full size utilities from last year in June? (Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon/Escalade) I thought that we had a lot of production issues last year
It is puzzling.
Maybe the pent up demand was released last year when they were first introduced and the sales figures now reflect the true market for these trucks.
Also from what I gather there is not much in the way of incentives on them yet.
1. Pent-up demand was satisfied in 2014 and Q1 2015.
2. The full-size SUVs are no longer “mainstream” vehicles as they once were, but personal luxury items that are “wants” not “needs”. That has been taken over by full-size crossovers (Lambda-based Traverse, Enclave, Acadia).
3. No incentives (literally, zero).
You get the 72% across the board (on the entire Chevy lienup) today. I think it was also around in 2014 during the “big” national sales events (like fourth of July weekend). Either way, it’s not the same as offering $5,000 cash for one of these puppies.
New novelty of full-sized utes has been hit with reality of the astronomical price increases! Cadillac ATS and CTS suffering the same fate. Long-time owners just can’t stomach $55K for a very nice ATS or $70K for a nice CTS. And contrary to what the press release says regarding retail sales of these being fine, explain to me why there is as of today $2K off of these vehicles and $4K off on employee pricing. Dealers probably have enough of these cars to last through half of 2016!
Cadillac sales are only 1.48% YTD off last year’s sales numbers. I think Cadillac sales have hit their low water mark.
Cadillac is not in free fall sales wise.
Sales will essentially be flat compared to last year and will increase next year with CT6 and SRX (sorry XT5 ) availability.
Martin, where do you see the ATS and CTS discounted to those amounts?
The ATS has a $750 loyalty coupon on it. The CTS has a $4,000 loyalty coupon (for purchase) or $3,000 loyalty coupe (for lease) on it.
The “long-time” Cadillac owners you reference, those who don’t want to pay for today’s excellent (better than ever) Cadillac product, are probably not true luxury car buyers to begin with. It might cost Cadillac sales in the short to medium term, but they will be stronger for having built a clientele that values their vehicles at the prices being charged. For those who don’t… there’s always Buick.
Secondly, I truly believe Cadillac sales are down due to lack of advertising and market education about the product. Here’s a prime example:
Walked by a TV today, and saw a Cadillac commercial on, mid-day, during a first-round women’s match @ Wimbledon (Venus W vs. a woman from Kazakstan). Can’t defend the media buy, but I guess that’s part of Daring Greatly!
Go on Cadillac website, locate vehicles in inventory and at the bottom of everyone I looked at there was a $2,000 cash allowance!
And as to excellent vehicles, I beg to differ. My 2014 ATS that listed at over $55K I would term a nice car and not excellent. It has been plagued with electrical issues since new and that alone prohibits it from being excellent. The entire DIC had to be replaced, the blind side alert light would not shut off even when the vehicle was. Excellent. Don’t think so. Check any of the reliability surveys and the Cadillacs are not in the top, usually the bottom.
You are entitled to think Cadillac sales are lacking because of advertising and education. I think it is due to violation of a basic marketing tenant–how to retain your loyal customers. The reputation of Cadillac is NOT equal to the Germans and just stating it is so doesn’t make it realistic. Without the reputation, pricing cannot be anywhere near the competition. And as to your comment about Buick–look at their sales numbers, also putrid–also because of pricing.
That said, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re having with your ATS. Are the BMW 3 Series or MBZ C-Classe not riddled with similar issues every once in a while? They are. But if you want to take this conversation and truly analyze quality, you need to look beyond personal examples. For instance, the ATS is currently leading its segment in having the least PPH (problems per one hundred). That’s an early indicator of how things will likely rank come IQS time.
Regarding your third paragraph: while reputation is a difficult thing to measure, I will agree that the reputation of Cadillac as a brand is not on the same level as the German 3 yet. That said, the way to build it for the long term is NOT to offer discounts. It’s to build the “base” first — those who are willing to pay for the vehicles and see their value the way they are now, and to then build on that going forward with even better product, a stronger reputation, and a better customer experience. That’s how you build strength, value, and loyalty into a brand. Not by discounts or lowering prices, which is a vicious cycle. Declining sales is a tough thing to swallow right now, but Cadillac and fans will all be thankful in 5 years when a solid foundation/base has been built, and the brand is scoring wins left and right by building on that solid foundation.
Regarding Buick: you’re incorrect. The sales drop is a result of lower (expected) fleet orders. Retail sales are steady.
In my zip code, every 2015 not 2014 ATS has a $2,000 cash allowance and every 2015 ATS has a $4,000 allowance on employee pricing. Checked again today.
Chris I have no interest paying now for a future better product. The product needs to be the best NOW. I am not paying now for hoped results and improvements. I’m paying for what I am getting now.
Sadly, I believe the $12 billion experiment is going to be a big disaster for GM. That expenditure for maybe 250K in sales is a crap shoot. Sadly a portion of that $12 should be spent on getting a completely revamped Silverado that leap frogs the F150. The Silverado and Sierra move 3 times the total volume of Cadillac and probably generate a lot more income. Besides, truck management doesn’t need to spend all the money to move their headquarters to backwoods West Virginia to be “near the pulse” of the truck crowd!
Yes Cadillac sales are only off 1.48% primarily because of “relatively strong” SRX sales which have juiced by incentives for awhile now. The other reason is the new Escalade and the “new novelty”. The reality of the substantial price increase will cool those sales shortly.
Again, it’s all about building an extremely solid and strong foundation. The way to do this is not by discounting and reducing prices, which wins short-term sales at the expense of long-term credibility, reputation, and cachet., as I describe in my comment above.
My goodness, ATS and CTS sales are a disaster. I know sedans aren’t doing great, but these are relatively new products. The are going to have to stretch to sell 20,000 CTS (total) this entire year! The X5 can’t get here quickly enough for Cadillac.
And what is going on with the Envision? I remember reading a few months ago it was expected to be in the U.S. by the end of 2015, but here we are on July 1 and I don’t see anything regarding an official date. Is it coming to the US? If so, when? What’s the hold up?
Not worried about Cadillac as they are in transition it will be painful for a while.
Buick has new models coming but it will remain painful with the old product this year.
Chevy will be fine.
The SUV models are troubling but like stated CUV models are becoming the norm and even with the low finance there are no rebates. Other brands are discounting much more and that takes a toll.
These things go in cycles and we really should not panic at this point. Now if all we had was just refreshed cars with replacements being delayed more and more I would be worried.
The coming new Chevys in the Camaro Malibu and Cruze will have a major impact in 2016. The Buicks after that will add to it. Cadillac will bring change as fast as they can but they are only a year in so it may be next year before we see a lot of refresh to the present cars and it will hold till they are replaced in the near future.
No company will hit it out of the park every month.
Hope you are correct. I truly want them to be successful and having owned 23 of their products, speaks to my loyalty.
With that being said, I really question allocating $12 Billion dollars to remake Cadillac. It is not just the spending, but the probable $ losses that will occur in that journey. With the volumes currently being sold, I’m very doubtful the payback will ever be there. This is also money that Chevy, Buick, and GMC will not have access to.
I agree that the new Chevys coming should help immensely. However, we are all aware that a lot of the full-size success lately has come because of incentives. If anything, a very substantial amount of money needs to be spent quickly to keep them in the game with competitor advances, and I’m not talking about a refresh–that will not make them competitive.
Martin the fact is and what many people miss is in the segment that Cadillac is in even with sales as they are today they are making money. The profits are higher on this segment than any other and it does not relay on volume.
With that said Cadillac may never be number one in the segment but can still be the highest profit models GM sells and will make 50% all sedan sales even at the lower volume.
The 12 Billion will make money and is an investment into the future that is no where as high risk as some would like you to think.
The key too is they have a good car but admit they have more work to do to get them right over past GM management and to better market them when they arrive.
On the other hand Chevy needs volume with their profit per unit. You can not compare the Sales, volume and profit per unit from a Cadillac and Chevy as both have two totally different structures.
Chevy is the difficult one to make money as even if you are having strong sales it will take a lot of cars to generate the same profits per unit.
In the Luxury class you do not want the same volumes either if you want to build an image. The better cars are also priced to control who owns them. If you want exclusive images and to be perceived as the car for the rich you do not just sell to just anyone. Snobby yes but that is how it is done.
Believe the biggest income generator for GM would be the full-sized trucks. Volume and profit both. With that being said, a couple billion dollar investment makes more sense here than giving it to Cadillac to move 250,000 cars a year.
Aren’t the margins on GMC pretty sizesable? Their business is healthy, and their volume is 3x Cadillac’s.
Different client base (to some degree) than Cadillac, but Yukons outsell Escalades, and the Denalis pass the rich soccer mom/athletes drive ’em test. And GMC doesn’t require 12b to get their shit together.
I wouldn’t be surprised if gmc is GM’s most profitable line. Add a smaller CUV, have something else in the works (trucks and big suv’s won’t last forever);
I guess you could put Corvette and some of the Cadillacs in a performance division, but why throw money at Caddy and hope 2020 is the magic year?
I doubt Harbaugh got hired at Michigan on the promise of a turnaround by 2020. Dealers and shareholders are gonna be asking for results sooner than that.
Look at it objectively- Chevy lives off Silverado and a couple SUVs, Buick’s hurting, Cadillac’s hurting, and GMC is doing well, with bigger margins.
Either fix Cadillac and Buick, or make some changes. It was a little scary to hear Mark Reuss call sedans ‘the heart and soul of GM’ – his crystal ball may be right. But Mr. Aztek’s track record would say otherwise.
I don’t see how you believe GMC is GM’s most profitable line. Every GM has a Chevy equivalent that has seriously outsold the GMC version year to date in sales and the profit margins are within dollars of each other for each brand’s version of a model.
Total GMC sales YTD= 264,713
Total Equivalent model Chevy sales YTD = 616,686
Exactly how is GMC the most profitable division? (Not trying to be cocky, just want to know what you are using for parameters).
I can’t speak for Wait, and GM is tight-lipped about margins on individual vehicles and divisions. But there were a number of articles about GMC increasing spending to capitalize on their truck- and crossover-heavy lineup. Accorindg to their VP sales …
“Boosting sales further is important to the No. 1 U.S. automaker because the GMC models sport strong profit margins that will help the company achieve its overall profit margin target of 9 to 10 percent by early next decade, analysts have said…
About 20 percent of all GMC sales include the premium Denali trim package of product features. Aldred expects those upgrades to increase to 25 percent within three years.”
Usually, don’t tarted-up, enhanced models have superior margins? GMC more than Chevy (as a percentage), for example.
A slimmer lineup, with Sierra, Canyon, Yukon, Terrain, Acadia, all available with the premium Denali package.
They’ll never match Chevy’s volume, but as long as SUV/Crossovers/Big and smaller trucks are leading in sales, they have a pretty efficient operation. Although I was/am confused by a very Cadillac-looking Denali commercial filmed in black and white and using a men’s wear designer in basically the same lower Manhattan locations and slo-mo.
Comments
Brands like Buick and Cadillac are going to have a difficult time with sedans as gas prices remain low.
I do not believe that the crossover has replaced the sedan, as some articles suggest, but do think the industry needs to react faster to consumers shifting tastes.
The picture at GM isnt looking to good right now , but they do have new models and refreshed models coming to market for 2016 . China may hurt GM’s bottom line though since their economy is slowing down .
So why the big drop in full size utilities from last year in June? (Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon/Escalade) I thought that we had a lot of production issues last year
Unrealistic pricing. Some people grew brains. You can option a 2 WHEEL DRIVE Yukon to north of $70k!
It is puzzling.
Maybe the pent up demand was released last year when they were first introduced and the sales figures now reflect the true market for these trucks.
Also from what I gather there is not much in the way of incentives on them yet.
Still the dominant full sized SUV though.
1. Pent-up demand was satisfied in 2014 and Q1 2015.
2. The full-size SUVs are no longer “mainstream” vehicles as they once were, but personal luxury items that are “wants” not “needs”. That has been taken over by full-size crossovers (Lambda-based Traverse, Enclave, Acadia).
3. No incentives (literally, zero).
0% for 72 ain’t bad, wouldn’t have gotten THAT a year ago.
You get the 72% across the board (on the entire Chevy lienup) today. I think it was also around in 2014 during the “big” national sales events (like fourth of July weekend). Either way, it’s not the same as offering $5,000 cash for one of these puppies.
New novelty of full-sized utes has been hit with reality of the astronomical price increases! Cadillac ATS and CTS suffering the same fate. Long-time owners just can’t stomach $55K for a very nice ATS or $70K for a nice CTS. And contrary to what the press release says regarding retail sales of these being fine, explain to me why there is as of today $2K off of these vehicles and $4K off on employee pricing. Dealers probably have enough of these cars to last through half of 2016!
Cadillac sales are only 1.48% YTD off last year’s sales numbers. I think Cadillac sales have hit their low water mark.
Cadillac is not in free fall sales wise.
Sales will essentially be flat compared to last year and will increase next year with CT6 and SRX (sorry XT5 ) availability.
Martin, where do you see the ATS and CTS discounted to those amounts?
The ATS has a $750 loyalty coupon on it. The CTS has a $4,000 loyalty coupon (for purchase) or $3,000 loyalty coupe (for lease) on it.
The “long-time” Cadillac owners you reference, those who don’t want to pay for today’s excellent (better than ever) Cadillac product, are probably not true luxury car buyers to begin with. It might cost Cadillac sales in the short to medium term, but they will be stronger for having built a clientele that values their vehicles at the prices being charged. For those who don’t… there’s always Buick.
Secondly, I truly believe Cadillac sales are down due to lack of advertising and market education about the product. Here’s a prime example:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/06/mailbag-what-in-the-hell-is-going-on-with-cadillac-marketing/
Walked by a TV today, and saw a Cadillac commercial on, mid-day, during a first-round women’s match @ Wimbledon (Venus W vs. a woman from Kazakstan). Can’t defend the media buy, but I guess that’s part of Daring Greatly!
Go on Cadillac website, locate vehicles in inventory and at the bottom of everyone I looked at there was a $2,000 cash allowance!
And as to excellent vehicles, I beg to differ. My 2014 ATS that listed at over $55K I would term a nice car and not excellent. It has been plagued with electrical issues since new and that alone prohibits it from being excellent. The entire DIC had to be replaced, the blind side alert light would not shut off even when the vehicle was. Excellent. Don’t think so. Check any of the reliability surveys and the Cadillacs are not in the top, usually the bottom.
You are entitled to think Cadillac sales are lacking because of advertising and education. I think it is due to violation of a basic marketing tenant–how to retain your loyal customers. The reputation of Cadillac is NOT equal to the Germans and just stating it is so doesn’t make it realistic. Without the reputation, pricing cannot be anywhere near the competition. And as to your comment about Buick–look at their sales numbers, also putrid–also because of pricing.
I think you are locating 2014 MY vehicles, not 2015s. What you’re saying might be true for 2014s, but it definitely isn’t for 2015s:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/07/cadillac-reduces-incentive-on-2015-cts-to-1500/
That said, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re having with your ATS. Are the BMW 3 Series or MBZ C-Classe not riddled with similar issues every once in a while? They are. But if you want to take this conversation and truly analyze quality, you need to look beyond personal examples. For instance, the ATS is currently leading its segment in having the least PPH (problems per one hundred). That’s an early indicator of how things will likely rank come IQS time.
Regarding your third paragraph: while reputation is a difficult thing to measure, I will agree that the reputation of Cadillac as a brand is not on the same level as the German 3 yet. That said, the way to build it for the long term is NOT to offer discounts. It’s to build the “base” first — those who are willing to pay for the vehicles and see their value the way they are now, and to then build on that going forward with even better product, a stronger reputation, and a better customer experience. That’s how you build strength, value, and loyalty into a brand. Not by discounts or lowering prices, which is a vicious cycle. Declining sales is a tough thing to swallow right now, but Cadillac and fans will all be thankful in 5 years when a solid foundation/base has been built, and the brand is scoring wins left and right by building on that solid foundation.
Regarding Buick: you’re incorrect. The sales drop is a result of lower (expected) fleet orders. Retail sales are steady.
Chris,
In my zip code, every 2015 not 2014 ATS has a $2,000 cash allowance and every 2015 ATS has a $4,000 allowance on employee pricing. Checked again today.
Chris I have no interest paying now for a future better product. The product needs to be the best NOW. I am not paying now for hoped results and improvements. I’m paying for what I am getting now.
Sadly, I believe the $12 billion experiment is going to be a big disaster for GM. That expenditure for maybe 250K in sales is a crap shoot. Sadly a portion of that $12 should be spent on getting a completely revamped Silverado that leap frogs the F150. The Silverado and Sierra move 3 times the total volume of Cadillac and probably generate a lot more income. Besides, truck management doesn’t need to spend all the money to move their headquarters to backwoods West Virginia to be “near the pulse” of the truck crowd!
Yes Cadillac sales are only off 1.48% primarily because of “relatively strong” SRX sales which have juiced by incentives for awhile now. The other reason is the new Escalade and the “new novelty”. The reality of the substantial price increase will cool those sales shortly.
CTS and ATS sales have been abysmal.
Again, it’s all about building an extremely solid and strong foundation. The way to do this is not by discounting and reducing prices, which wins short-term sales at the expense of long-term credibility, reputation, and cachet., as I describe in my comment above.
My goodness, ATS and CTS sales are a disaster. I know sedans aren’t doing great, but these are relatively new products. The are going to have to stretch to sell 20,000 CTS (total) this entire year! The X5 can’t get here quickly enough for Cadillac.
And what is going on with the Envision? I remember reading a few months ago it was expected to be in the U.S. by the end of 2015, but here we are on July 1 and I don’t see anything regarding an official date. Is it coming to the US? If so, when? What’s the hold up?
Spin it however you like, but those numbers are largely unimpressive.
And continue to be headed in the wrong direction.
Not worried about Cadillac as they are in transition it will be painful for a while.
Buick has new models coming but it will remain painful with the old product this year.
Chevy will be fine.
The SUV models are troubling but like stated CUV models are becoming the norm and even with the low finance there are no rebates. Other brands are discounting much more and that takes a toll.
These things go in cycles and we really should not panic at this point. Now if all we had was just refreshed cars with replacements being delayed more and more I would be worried.
The coming new Chevys in the Camaro Malibu and Cruze will have a major impact in 2016. The Buicks after that will add to it. Cadillac will bring change as fast as they can but they are only a year in so it may be next year before we see a lot of refresh to the present cars and it will hold till they are replaced in the near future.
No company will hit it out of the park every month.
Scott,
Hope you are correct. I truly want them to be successful and having owned 23 of their products, speaks to my loyalty.
With that being said, I really question allocating $12 Billion dollars to remake Cadillac. It is not just the spending, but the probable $ losses that will occur in that journey. With the volumes currently being sold, I’m very doubtful the payback will ever be there. This is also money that Chevy, Buick, and GMC will not have access to.
I agree that the new Chevys coming should help immensely. However, we are all aware that a lot of the full-size success lately has come because of incentives. If anything, a very substantial amount of money needs to be spent quickly to keep them in the game with competitor advances, and I’m not talking about a refresh–that will not make them competitive.
Martin the fact is and what many people miss is in the segment that Cadillac is in even with sales as they are today they are making money. The profits are higher on this segment than any other and it does not relay on volume.
With that said Cadillac may never be number one in the segment but can still be the highest profit models GM sells and will make 50% all sedan sales even at the lower volume.
The 12 Billion will make money and is an investment into the future that is no where as high risk as some would like you to think.
The key too is they have a good car but admit they have more work to do to get them right over past GM management and to better market them when they arrive.
On the other hand Chevy needs volume with their profit per unit. You can not compare the Sales, volume and profit per unit from a Cadillac and Chevy as both have two totally different structures.
Chevy is the difficult one to make money as even if you are having strong sales it will take a lot of cars to generate the same profits per unit.
In the Luxury class you do not want the same volumes either if you want to build an image. The better cars are also priced to control who owns them. If you want exclusive images and to be perceived as the car for the rich you do not just sell to just anyone. Snobby yes but that is how it is done.
Scott,
Believe the biggest income generator for GM would be the full-sized trucks. Volume and profit both. With that being said, a couple billion dollar investment makes more sense here than giving it to Cadillac to move 250,000 cars a year.
Silverado up? Gmc up? Good times. I don’t really see their other news as that bad.
Aren’t the margins on GMC pretty sizesable? Their business is healthy, and their volume is 3x Cadillac’s.
Different client base (to some degree) than Cadillac, but Yukons outsell Escalades, and the Denalis pass the rich soccer mom/athletes drive ’em test. And GMC doesn’t require 12b to get their shit together.
I wouldn’t be surprised if gmc is GM’s most profitable line. Add a smaller CUV, have something else in the works (trucks and big suv’s won’t last forever);
I guess you could put Corvette and some of the Cadillacs in a performance division, but why throw money at Caddy and hope 2020 is the magic year?
I doubt Harbaugh got hired at Michigan on the promise of a turnaround by 2020. Dealers and shareholders are gonna be asking for results sooner than that.
Look at it objectively- Chevy lives off Silverado and a couple SUVs, Buick’s hurting, Cadillac’s hurting, and GMC is doing well, with bigger margins.
Either fix Cadillac and Buick, or make some changes. It was a little scary to hear Mark Reuss call sedans ‘the heart and soul of GM’ – his crystal ball may be right. But Mr. Aztek’s track record would say otherwise.
I don’t see how you believe GMC is GM’s most profitable line. Every GM has a Chevy equivalent that has seriously outsold the GMC version year to date in sales and the profit margins are within dollars of each other for each brand’s version of a model.
Total GMC sales YTD= 264,713
Total Equivalent model Chevy sales YTD = 616,686
Exactly how is GMC the most profitable division? (Not trying to be cocky, just want to know what you are using for parameters).
I can’t speak for Wait, and GM is tight-lipped about margins on individual vehicles and divisions. But there were a number of articles about GMC increasing spending to capitalize on their truck- and crossover-heavy lineup. Accorindg to their VP sales …
“Boosting sales further is important to the No. 1 U.S. automaker because the GMC models sport strong profit margins that will help the company achieve its overall profit margin target of 9 to 10 percent by early next decade, analysts have said…
About 20 percent of all GMC sales include the premium Denali trim package of product features. Aldred expects those upgrades to increase to 25 percent within three years.”
Usually, don’t tarted-up, enhanced models have superior margins? GMC more than Chevy (as a percentage), for example.
A slimmer lineup, with Sierra, Canyon, Yukon, Terrain, Acadia, all available with the premium Denali package.
They’ll never match Chevy’s volume, but as long as SUV/Crossovers/Big and smaller trucks are leading in sales, they have a pretty efficient operation. Although I was/am confused by a very Cadillac-looking Denali commercial filmed in black and white and using a men’s wear designer in basically the same lower Manhattan locations and slo-mo.