General Motors U.S. Sales Down 3 Percent To 259,353 Vehicles In June 2015

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• 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.