General Motors sold 237,646 vehicles in the United States in April — an 11 percent year-over-year increase. Retail sales increased 10 percent, fleet sales increased 16 percent, and the fleet mix was 28 percent of total sales.
April 2013 Highlights vs. April 2012:
All four brands posted higher total and retail sales
Chevrolet sales up 10.9 percent to 172,460 units
Buick sales up 11.1 percent to 17,157 units
GMC sales up 6.7 percent to 34,799 units
Cadillac sales up 34.3 percent to 13,230 units
Crossovers were up 14 percent; trucks, which include pickups, vans and SUVs, were up 17 percent; and car sales were up 6 percent
Large pickups were up 23 percent
The new Chevrolet Malibu achieved its best sales and retail segment share since launch.
The future looks even brighter for GM as it implements its major product offensive, starting with then all-new 2014 Chevy Impala which began arriving at dealerships mid-April, all-new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks which will begin arriving at dealerships in crew cab form this summer, and the upcoming launches of the freshened 2014 Buick Regal and LaCrosse in late summer, as well as the all-new 2014 CTS sedan in the fall.
A lot of good news for many GM models but also a few that are a little softer than I expected?
GM continues to totally dominate the full size SUV business. Tahoe+Sub over 12,000 units, Yukon and XL another 4200+, Escalade 1500+. Yes these vehicles have big incentives, but still impressive in my book. CUV’s are fine, but some folks still want a true full size, truck based utility.
The ATS is looking a bit weak to me? 2700 units? Thought it would be 4000-5000/month by now?
Corvette under 1000 units even with huge incentives as many wait for C7. Good time to get the last of the C6’s if you want one?
In regards to the ATS — the brand “to beat” (image-wise and sales growth-wise) right now is Audi… and the A4 sold 3,143 units in April 2013.
Considering that the ATS is a brand new nameplate in a very competitive market, 2,700 sales is very good and speaks to the quality of the product more so than anything else.
Agree that Audi and the A4 are emerging, but when you’ve been aiming squarely at the 3 series with the ATS from the get-go, you need to be stronger than 2700+ units. Not sure how many 3’s were sold in April , but on average it’s about 7000 units. In my eyes the ATS should be at 3500/mo. and trending upward not down? Yes the 3 has lots of history, loyal buyers, more variants etc…understand that. Maybe they need a better lease program?
The 3 series sold 8,236 units in April 2013, down 8.5 percent from the 9,003 units sold in April 2012. Again, the ATS’ performance is very healthy given the newness of the nameplate, the lack of variants, and the still-developing/transforming nature of the Cadillac brand. The ATS does, however, need a better lease program. The current one is not competitive.
Not sure if it will be called Impala Classic or not, since only fleets will be able to order it directly from GM– thereby eliminating confusion in the retail space.
Impala & Impala classic, we have similar in Europe with the Zafira & Zafira Tour. I think it’s a stroke of genius by GM in that similar to Impala the Zafira & Meriva accounted for about half of all MPV sales in Europe thus when a model is selling well why risk losing what you have? Hence Meriva, Zafira classic & Zafira Tour all sold alongside each other. Hope the Impala Classic & New Impala have the same successes.
I agree that the ATS sales are really good all things considered. I got my ATS a month ago and put a picture of my keys on facebook. I got loads of likes and comments. Of those, there were many saying ” arn’t you a little young” “But caddys don’t do turns” ” you bought a boat!?” etc etc. These people had absolutely no idea what a CTS was let alone an ATS
Many of these folks are 30’s and 40’s , doing well and drive Bmw’s,Audis,Mercs,Lexus etc. But these are the folks GM needs to hit over the head. I swear, having myself and Wife drive around town helps big time. I have only seen 5 others in Toronto and 3 of those drivers looked they excaped form the retirement home!
Toronto has tonnes of the above mentioned cars, and I love having something uniique. I also love turning heads, and educatiing people on what GM has become.
JeffT – Indeed they need to communicate the excitment and what the ATS brings to the marketplace…. Destroying Clocks, Pianos and Cakes is not the direction their ADs should be going… If anything they should bring the buyers into the commercials to express their excitment for the vehicle…
Comments
Why is GM & others secretive of their UK or European sales.
Europe is typically bad news
A lot of good news for many GM models but also a few that are a little softer than I expected?
GM continues to totally dominate the full size SUV business. Tahoe+Sub over 12,000 units, Yukon and XL another 4200+, Escalade 1500+. Yes these vehicles have big incentives, but still impressive in my book. CUV’s are fine, but some folks still want a true full size, truck based utility.
The ATS is looking a bit weak to me? 2700 units? Thought it would be 4000-5000/month by now?
Corvette under 1000 units even with huge incentives as many wait for C7. Good time to get the last of the C6’s if you want one?
A lot of good news, indeed.
In regards to the ATS — the brand “to beat” (image-wise and sales growth-wise) right now is Audi… and the A4 sold 3,143 units in April 2013.
Considering that the ATS is a brand new nameplate in a very competitive market, 2,700 sales is very good and speaks to the quality of the product more so than anything else.
Agree that Audi and the A4 are emerging, but when you’ve been aiming squarely at the 3 series with the ATS from the get-go, you need to be stronger than 2700+ units. Not sure how many 3’s were sold in April , but on average it’s about 7000 units. In my eyes the ATS should be at 3500/mo. and trending upward not down? Yes the 3 has lots of history, loyal buyers, more variants etc…understand that. Maybe they need a better lease program?
The 3 series sold 8,236 units in April 2013, down 8.5 percent from the 9,003 units sold in April 2012. Again, the ATS’ performance is very healthy given the newness of the nameplate, the lack of variants, and the still-developing/transforming nature of the Cadillac brand. The ATS does, however, need a better lease program. The current one is not competitive.
Sad to see the volt not doing to great.
I wouldn’t think the Prius is doing any better since has price are pretty low now
Anybody know how the new impala did?
@chevyman they don’t usually break out numbers for new vs. previous generations… but we should see some concrete results in the next month or so.
Chevyman18, good point since they still make the old one for fleets. Alex will there be an Impala Classic row for the old model…
@yaba The ninth-gen Impala will continue to be built… but only for fleet use:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/04/gm-to-continue-building-ninth-generation-impala-for-fleets/
Not sure if it will be called Impala Classic or not, since only fleets will be able to order it directly from GM– thereby eliminating confusion in the retail space.
Impala & Impala classic, we have similar in Europe with the Zafira & Zafira Tour. I think it’s a stroke of genius by GM in that similar to Impala the Zafira & Meriva accounted for about half of all MPV sales in Europe thus when a model is selling well why risk losing what you have? Hence Meriva, Zafira classic & Zafira Tour all sold alongside each other. Hope the Impala Classic & New Impala have the same successes.
I agree that the ATS sales are really good all things considered. I got my ATS a month ago and put a picture of my keys on facebook. I got loads of likes and comments. Of those, there were many saying ” arn’t you a little young” “But caddys don’t do turns” ” you bought a boat!?” etc etc. These people had absolutely no idea what a CTS was let alone an ATS
Many of these folks are 30’s and 40’s , doing well and drive Bmw’s,Audis,Mercs,Lexus etc. But these are the folks GM needs to hit over the head. I swear, having myself and Wife drive around town helps big time. I have only seen 5 others in Toronto and 3 of those drivers looked they excaped form the retirement home!
Toronto has tonnes of the above mentioned cars, and I love having something uniique. I also love turning heads, and educatiing people on what GM has become.
JeffT – Indeed they need to communicate the excitment and what the ATS brings to the marketplace…. Destroying Clocks, Pianos and Cakes is not the direction their ADs should be going… If anything they should bring the buyers into the commercials to express their excitment for the vehicle…