GM August Sales Up More Than 5% In Us

[DealerGuyAtl]

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.

So you expect GM to sell their end of the model year vehicles without incentives while the import brands put cash on the hood......LOL. You wouldn't last a month as a Dealer and clearly don't understand the business.

[mtndrew1]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

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.

Toyota's incentives on the Tundra are down and sales are up nearly 70%. There is no data to indicate that Toyota has gone over its historic 7% rental fleet sales either, at least that I can find.

This isn't about what Toyota is doing anyway, they have hundreds of billions in the bank, rising market share, nearly zero debt, and loyal customers.

I think everyone here is more worried about GM's long-term health, as a company up to its eyeballs in debt, losing market share and shedding customers to import transplants.

As a group of people worried about GM's survival and growth, seeing the company touting their sales as "bucking the trend" when they really just pumped out more rental cars and dumped a bunch of cash on the hoods of their most critical products is not encouraging.

-Drew

[Lichtronamo]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

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.

Toyota dropped most of the incentives on the Tundra during August. their incentives were the lowest in the industry. Not coincidentally, Toyota's profits will likely be the highest.

Everyone can cheer GM all they want for the August sales. However, its plain that GM made some pretty desperate moves to avoid a disaster sales month and make it look better than it really was. YTD sales numbers and long term moves like adjusting production schedules down are more telling than August's red herring sales results.

[silvergoat2k6]

GM, Ford, and Chrysler are still getting their lunch handed to them in the midsize sedan market by Honda, Toyota, and Nissan...

August '07 sales:

Accord: 47,360
Camry: 42,658
Altima: 25,434

G6: 16,730
Malibu: 14,413
Fusion: 12,511
Sebring: 7,659
Aura: 6,785
Avenger: 5,989
Milan: 3,013

Wish the retail/fleet percentages for the above numbers were available, because I suspect that a lot of G6's and Malibu's were dumped into fleets this past month.

[Lichtronamo]

I think that information is what is most telling about the August sales.

Toyota's losses were not GM's gain - they were Hondas, who added incentives to move out the last of the 07 Accords (up 22 percent) in advance of the new 08 model.

If not for the dump of inventory into fleets and the sales generated by the pickup incentives, GM's August sales would have likely mirrored or been worse than Ford.

[asim]

Originally Posted by mtndrew1

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

Even though that is a little depressing, it is probably true. I guess GM is trying to empty some of the dealer lots of the remaining 2007 models by selling them to fleet companies. That way the 2008 models can just roll right in! Speaking of 2008 models, the CTS is HOT!

[bmarkdc]

Originally Posted by mtndrew1

Toyota's incentives on the Tundra are down and sales are up nearly 70%. There is no data to indicate that Toyota has gone over its historic 7% rental fleet sales either, at least that I can find.

This isn't about what Toyota is doing anyway, they have hundreds of billions in the bank, rising market share, nearly zero debt, and loyal customers.

I think everyone here is more worried about GM's long-term health, as a company up to its eyeballs in debt, losing market share and shedding customers to import transplants.

As a group of people worried about GM's survival and growth, seeing the company touting their sales as "bucking the trend" when they really just pumped out more rental cars and dumped a bunch of cash on the hoods of their most critical products is not encouraging.

-Drew

Not sure where you are located bro, but In the Washington D.C area Toyota has 3000 incentives on the Tundra, and have had them Since Beg. of August.