GM August Sales Up More Than 5% In Us

[boblutzfan]

Originally Posted by Hotspur

GM INCREASED fleet sales again in August. Up 24%!!!! That's what the financial analysts are talking about...

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...709050401/1148

Yes - but sales to rental car companies were down 10% - so while fleet sales may have been up - they weren't of the type of vehicle that is dumped on the used car market in 12 months driving down resale values.

[Hurricane]

Sales up! Great news!

[usa1]

This is a fleet and incentive driven sales bump. Not good.

Mark

[wpageabc]

Good news

[mtndrew1]

Originally Posted by boblutzfan

Yes - but sales to rental car companies were down 10% - so while fleet sales may have been up - they weren't of the type of vehicle that is dumped on the used car market in 12 months driving down resale values.

From the article:

"Ford and GM are cutting back on sales to rental fleets, which tend to be less profitable than retail sales through dealers.
But GM's sales to rental fleets jumped 24 percent in August. "That's just a temporary blip, and we'll continue to reduce daily rental," Ballew said."

These most certainly are the types of vehicles that are dumped on the used car market in 12 months.

Edit: The article also notes that Toyota's incentives on the Tundra are now less that GM's offerings on their full size pickups.

Looks to me that had GM not dumped 24% more cars onto rental fleets in August and dramatically increased incentives on GMT900, they wouldn't be "bucking the industry trend" of falling sales.

-Drew

[chrisbenz]

A lot of people like the new GM crossovers. They are selling well. I asked my friend if she like them. She seen the Buick in an ad on TV. She sad that she loved it. She is only 24. People 24 and liking a Buick, that is a good thing for GM.

[Gm786]

Originally Posted by chrisbenz

A lot of people like the new GM crossovers. They are selling well. I asked my friend if she like them. She seen the Buick in an ad on TV. She sad that she loved it. She is only 24. People 24 and liking a Buick, that is a good thing for GM.

Tell me about it. My sister is only 25 and she told me that she saw a Buick Enclave when she was coming back from work and she told me that it's a beautiful Crossover. Definitely good to hear a complement like that about a Buick coming from a person in their 20's.

[GM-Joe]

I think the bleeding is beginning to clot, hopefully the UAW will relinquish some healthcare benefits more inline with the industry and American standards.

We may not finish a top of sales, but we won't be too far behind and should be much stronger in the near future. I don't think toyoda can keep it up much longer, as well as honda; honda doesn't even have much product.

[Olds88]

Originally Posted by Gm786

Tell me about it. My sister is only 25 and she told me that she saw a Buick Enclave when she was coming back from work and she told me that it's a beautiful Crossover. Definitely good to hear a complement like that about a Buick coming from a person in their 20's.

That is a good sign. Lets hope the young folk interested hold that interest until they are old enough to be able to afford an Enclave. And no Buick does not need an FWD car, leave premium-ish FWD to Saturn. Maybe one so GM has an ES competitor, but no more. Buick should be about traditional American vehicles, otherwise it will overlap with Saturn or Cadillac. Alpha and Zeta are two good places to start.

[MOOSTOPHA]

we had the best month we've had in over a year at my store. the silverados were flying off of the shelf. they are awesome trucks. the 0% brought a lot of people out to look at them. when they drove them, they bought. the truck sells itself.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by boblutzfan

Yes - but sales to rental car companies were down 10% - so while fleet sales may have been up - they weren't of the type of vehicle that is dumped on the used car market in 12 months driving down resale values.

No, the article he quoted talked specifically that sales to rental firms specifically were up 24%. They may be down for the year by 10%, but they were up in August by 24%.

[b4z]

Saw a '08 CTS in my neighbor's driveway yesterday.
it had an "Enterprise" sticker on it.
caddy needs to stop selling to rental companies altogether.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by mtndrew1

Looks to me that had GM not dumped 24% more cars onto rental fleets in August and dramatically increased incentives on GMT900, they wouldn't be "bucking the industry trend" of falling sales.

This is accurate analysis. The gains here were basically from those two areas only: Fleet sales, and incentives on full sized pickups. It's market share at the cost of profitability, which is something I thought GM had stopped.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by b4z

Saw a '08 CTS in my neighbor's driveway yesterday.
it had an "Enterprise" sticker on it.
caddy needs to stop selling to rental companies altogether.

Well, part of the problem is that they would then have to lay off thousands of union workers if they did that due to lost sales, who would get 90% of thier salaries in the jobs bank.

They may have little choice here, at least until they get a new contract eliminating the jobs bank. Of course, the UAW will be pushing to keep it, not so much so thier members in it will get paid to do nothing, but to not make it easier for GM to shut down non-profitable plants.

[HoosierRon]

Originally Posted by Geotpf

This is accurate analysis. The gains here were basically from those two areas only: Fleet sales, and incentives on full sized pickups. It's market share at the cost of profitability, which is something I thought GM had stopped.

You say that as if Toyota did not put piles of cash on Tundra hoods and continued to increase its rental sales. Yet Toyota's sales were down.