U.S. GM Sales Down 33 Percent In Third Quarter 2021

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1. 

   This is even worse than I expected, I was thinking sales would be closer to 500K. With the refreshed guidance of no impact on previous financial guidance though, investors are mostly forgiving GM for this underperformance. Next week is going to be the fun week to be a GM shareholder. Lots of announcements incoming… Stay Tuned…
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   1. 

      Yeah, I get the feeling we’re going to get a lot of new Ultium product announcements.
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      1. 

         Leave sexist bigot
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         1. 

            So, calling out rampant misogyny (not on this story, btw) is sexist and bigoted? Cool…cool…. I bet @Malcom believes in “Reverse Racism” too. Poor triggered baby!
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            1. 

               I have seen your comments you point out constantly that Mary Barra is a woman instead of just being a ceo you are sexist I hope you aren’t married. Scum like you abuse women
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            2. 

               Since you ask many of us believe in “reverse racism” as you call it. Dated term, most people say Affirmative Action. This isn’t a political blog, however, so there us no need for right wing troll tropes like “snowflake”. We are talking about cars, not Washington DC.

               I’m not a big Barra/Carlisle/Ruess fan (too early a focus on EV with sad little Bolt & the slashing of ICE products like a Bronco rival for the resulting budgetary reasons) but give them credit for making GM the strongest & hightest quality of the Detroit Three. She gets bashed far more than the other GM leaders while they are responsible for GM’s failings like the new Cadillac naming nomenclature, design, and low quality inferiors that even FCA could afford to avoid.
               Does GM need a cost cutter like Carlos Taveres or a car enthusiast like Manly/Bigland, maybe? But Barra’s gender isn’t there problem. Then again Barra is responsible for solid margins, Bright Drop, GM Defense, Cruise.
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   2. 

      GM is betting the house on Ultium & it had better be better than Lucid, Tesla, Ford, Stellantis, Toyota and VW. Brightdrop and GM Defense better pick up slack, too.
      With auto buying habits being broken there is no guarantee brand loyalty will return especially with volume vehicle like Equinox. Toyota isn’t nearly as effected which is a real problem for the domestics. The Detroit 3 need to pool resources and build semi conductors
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2. 

   To be expected due to the massive shortages of vehicles from the micro-chip problem. But down sales isn’t translating into down profits. Just the opposite (at least for dealers). With little to no incentives, I’d think that GM would still be doing ok as well.
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   1. 

      Exactly, we should analyze Days to Inventory, Average transaction price per brand. Sales decrease is expected due to lack of production and chip shortages. However I do believe the Auto Sector as a whole is lying to its investors on how the chip problem is hurting them and when it should be taken care of. There were numerous brands saying they should have it under control and production back to 100% by summer 2021. Here we are in fall and slowly all of them are admitting issues, and giving investors bad guidance. We won’t see normalcy until 2023 at the earliest, but even at then we will still see impacts from mining operations being haulted and supply being constrained. Everyone thinks they have the EV game lined up but watch, affordable EVs are going to be back in the $40k+ mark again, inflation by 2023 will be high due to current policies in place, and the common man will be stuck buying ICE vehicles and getting taxed for doing so (best believe the current administration will start slowly taxing owners of ICE vehicles making less than 30 MPG, no matter what year it was made, especially if a second term happens and the Paris Accords are enforced)
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      1. 

         Zrwho????,

         You kind of lost me with that slight rant. This article isn’t about politics and trying to make it about that seems like a huge stretch.

         The auto sector is not lying about this stuff. If you read my post above again, you will see that I point out that the dealers are making huge profits at the moment, even without much inventory. However, that doesn’t translate to the manufacturers in the same way. Take for example the dealers charging 10 to 15,000 OVER MSRP for an Escalade and people are (stupidly) paying it. That has zero effect on what GM makes when that sale is made. The only way GM (and others) could be making better money is due to lack of high incentives. So when that same Escalade sells, GM is able to keep more of the money. But be assured that GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, etc do NOT want this chip issue to continue. It’s just now really starting to cost them sales (thus the 33% drop in this article) and it’s only going to get worse. This is not good for anyone in any car related work, and when there’s no more cars for the dealers to sell at super high profits, then what?
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   2. 

      Malibu is toast. Will never recover from sales like this.
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3. 

   Time to give Mary another Bonus and Raise!!!! Maybe another cover story for some mainstream magazine or news paper.
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4. 

   I drove by the local Chevrolet/Cadillac dealer and thought it had closed–the front lot was nearly empty.

   Toilet paper and microchips. What will be the next shoe to drop? Shoes?
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5. 

   Couple of things: Is this article about second or third quarter sales? You state: “Total GM sales during Q2 2021 decreased 33 percent to 446,997 units”.

   You then state “GM did not provide any information on incentives or average transaction prices for the second quarter, a significant and notable departure from the way it reported previously” Per GM’s Q3 press release: GM’s average transaction price was $47,467 during the third quarter and incentives as a percentage of ATP were 4.7 percent.
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   1. 

      It about the third quarter. The reference to Q2 was a mis-print and has been corrected.

      The incentives data can be found under the “GM Sales Notes – U.S. Q3 2021” subheading.
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6. 

   And your surprised WHY, go Barra, LOL
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7. 

   I have a lot of fear for GM. Besides the Corvette, not one person that I know talks about GM. Some didn’t even know they still make cars. To me, I feel that there will be too much gap between their current offerings and the EV wave that’s coming. I think it’s a very risky move to place all your eggs into one basket. GM has so many gaps in their current lineup or is overpriced imho compared to the competition. It just seems like the Koreans and the Japanese are taking over the entire car market and GM is really banking on the next wave of cars. GM is ALWAYS banking on the next wave of cars……
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8. 

   Everyone needs to remember that the overall sales drop is not just a GM thing. Ford and Stellantis are going to report big sales declines also.

   So blaming Barra or GM for an industry-wide problem is just agenda-posting.
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   1. 

      See this is thing nobody is saying those other companies won’t report losses. People feel Mary shouldn’t make the amount of $ she does as a ceo and I agree you aren’t Amazon or Apple you make cars that aren’t even reliable but yet you make $22 million in salary last year.
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9. 

   Toyota wiped the floor with GM in Q3. This is nothing less than a bloodbath. GM may be permanently dethroned as number 1 in the US market, which was unthinkable not that long ago.
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   1. 

      Toyota is about to wipe out themselves this new quarter, they reported their cutting 400k vehicles because of microchips..
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10. 

    It’s simply all about the Asian chip vendor supply thing, and chip transportation issues from Asia to US factories. I bet they are now air freighting chips from Asia to the USA as they become available.

    An unforeseen crisis caused by C19 leaked from a Wuhan virus lab. Mankind got bit back from mother nature by creation of a virulent virus.
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11. 

    Gm Could’ve had a competitive advantage when it came to the microchips by manufacturing them themselves with full control at the facility in Indiana but choose not to, General Motors chooses to only outsource components and chips at the lowest price, but they could have taken government subsidies and profited from this and cornered the market had they not chosen pure globalization
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