June 2007 Sales Figures - The Other Guys

[91Saturn]

Yikes, bad news all around. Even the Solstice is down 21% for the year. You have to fault management for failing to build on that product's initial momentum. Better marketing and variations such as a hardtop coupe might have changed things.

It's also a shame that Saturn isn't doing better. The division finally has decent products, but sales aren't following. Why not? To some extent, the the products are overpriced. There should have been a cheapo, entry-level Aura at around $18K just to get people in the door. Honda and Toyota have 4-cylinder "value" versions of the Accord and Camry, so why can't Saturn? Also, the Saturn dealer network is still weak. There are still many areas of the country where Saturn has little or no presence. And many stores that were shut down in the late '90s/early '00s were never replaced.

[genjy]

Originally Posted by Geotpf

Saturn's in deep trouble. It was always a bad idea. Small cars alone could never substain an entire dealer network profitably, and now people dismiss the brand due to the small car stereotype, causing the move upscale to fail. Worse still, this stereotypical Saturn (a compact sedan) no longer exists at all (the upcoming Astra is a hatch).

That's what I've been saying since day one.

GM is moving Saturn upscale way too quickly by abandoning all the real Saturns for a bunch of random expensive cars.

You can't just dump the old lineup and tell people to buy the new stuff. You have to change the brand's image and perception slowly and meaningfully.

[mtndrew1]

The following GM vehicles dropped roughly 1/4 (25%) - 1/3 (33%) from June '06 to June '07:

Lucerne
CTS
DTS
Aveo
Cobalt
G6
Escalade
SRX
C/K Suburban(Chevy)
Chevy C/T Series
Colorado
Express Panel/G Van
Express/G Sportvan
Tahoe
Silverado-C/K Pickup
Chevrolet Fullsize Pickups
Sierra
Yukon
HUMMER H2
VUE

The following GM vehicles dropped by about half (50%) from June '06 to June '07:

LaCrosse
STS
XLR
Malibu
Monte Carlo
ION
Rainier
Terraza
Escalade ESV
Equinox
TrailBlazer
Envoy
Savana/Rally
Yukon XL
Torrent

The following GM vehicles dropped by roughly 3/4 (75%) from June '06 to June '07:

GTO
9-2X
ION
Rendezvous
Montana SV6


Some of these are obvious (GTO, Monte Carlo, 9-2X) but overall this was a terrible month, particularly given that incentives weren't reduced at all over 2006.

The only vehicles treading water are the Kappas (down just a bit), the Lambdas, and the fleet darlings (Impala, Grand Prix).

The Lambdas appear to be a huge bright spot, until you balance them against what they effectively replaced in the GM lineup. GM sold 14,534 Lambdas (Outlook/Enclave/Acadia) last month. However, they lost 20,359 sales from the decline of the GMT360s, the CSVs, and the Rendezvous. Given that those are the products that the Lambdas take the place of, GM lost nearly a quarter of its existing customer base in that segment while offering an award-winning, competitive product.

These losses simply can't continue very much longer. GM is effectively bankrupt and they're bleeding market share. June 2007 may be the "Studebaker Point" in GM's history.

[Geotpf]

Originally Posted by DW115

Are you aware that the target for Saturn sales is only 260k this year. They are on track for gm goals. They are actually on track to do 250k, but can easily be corrected

It's not this year that is the problem; it's next year. The current downturn is due to the gap between the Ion and Astra (and switchover for the Vue), true. But how will next year do? The Astra will probably sell less than the Ion used to, and the Aura and Outlook will both probably sell even less than thier current lackluster pace.

[SonicAerio]

Suzuki

May Sales
GRAND VITARA - 1949
XL7 - 2161
AERIO/SX4: - 1538
FORENZA/RENO: - 4514
VERONA: - 28
TOTAL: 10190

YTD
GRAND VITARA: - 8745
XL7 - 11455
AERIO/SX4: - 6776
FORENZA/RENO: - 19974
VERONA: - 213
TOTAL: - 47163

[Mcmflow]

Originally Posted by Geotpf

Looks like Toyota is meeting thier sales goals for the Tundra. 21k a month translates to about a quarter million a year. Thier yearly production capability seems to be 325,000 running full out (200,000 in the new Texas plant, 125,000 in the old one in Indiana), and they weren't expecting to reach 100% capacity for a few years.

The only models that aren't selling are the base models, which are overpriced compared to the domestics. But the loaded models are flying off the lots.

Don't get me wrong I like the Tundra, but come on GM do something quick. Granted I know the incentives on the Tundra are high, but come the end of the year, the Tundra will have outsold the Sierra.

It's just really sad, who would have thought there were this many people waiting around for Toyota to come out with a real truck?

[I-Love-Pontiac]

Ugh... I wish I didn't look.

You know I'm starting to think Europe is right. Americans really are idiots :|

[Mcmflow]

[quote=sigma]With between $4,500-7,000 in incentives on this truck, it would have to move. That's the only reason it sold that much this month. If GM had offered the same rebates on their trucks they too would have had a massive month.

I do know the incentives are high, around here, they are offering 10K off 4.7's on lease, and $6000 off of anything.

At this point, I don't see things turning around, down goes GM for the next 10 years, if they continue to bring out good products, it might stabilize, if they falter just a little bit.....bye GM.

[slade'man]

I do know the incentives are high, around here, they are offering 10K off 4.7's on lease, and $6000 off of anything.

At this point, I don't see things turning around, down goes GM for the next 10 years, if they continue to bring out good products, it might stabilize, if they falter just a little bit.....bye GM.

You basing the entire company on one month of sales? I think people are overreacting a bit.

[skylark68]

I think most of those Tundra sales are in Houston. I've seen a massive amount of them on the roads lately. I suppose the huge incentives that Toyota is offering on them has swayed buyers from the 900's. GM needs to offer some good discounts on them to get buyers back instead of looking at the beast called Tundra.

[PhishPhood]

Originally Posted by sigma

With between $4,500-7,000 in incentives on this truck, it would have to move. That's the only reason it sold that much this month. If GM had offered the same rebates on their trucks they too would have had a massive month.

That's incorrect. There was $2000 on the competitively priced Dbl Cabs and CrewMax and $3000 on the over priced Reg Cabs. What dealers did beyond that is a local issue and doesn't affect the manufacturer in any way. Same as with GM / F / C

[PeterPuck]

Originally Posted by slade'man

You basing the entire company on one month of sales? I think people are overreacting a bit.

They're pretty much at the top of their product cycle, and sales are still dropping and dropping. A few cool new products aren't making up for this and it's becoming extremely worrisome.

[Markviii]

what gives here? month after month all i read is how all the other (foriegn) car companies sales increase at the expense of domestics. are the american people that blind? how can people that live and work and pay taxes in this country keep buying foreign product? how can they continually send there money overseas? there are plenty of decent cars to buy from american companies. i walk into a toyota lot and i want to vomit. the styles are lame, the prices are high and everything is ala cart! they also act like there doing you a favor by letting you purchase one of there precious cars. american sheep.

[Stewie007]

Relax, these aren't global sales figures. GM had excellent performance in April and May. On month of poor sales and yer all acting like its bankruptcy. Relax, geeze. You guys are starting to sound like CNN. A firecracker turns into a small bomb, into a huge explosion, into a virtual nuclear bomb-sounding boom!!!

[rueben44]

Originally Posted by guitarlix

It's odd that those are the two brands (Saturn and GMC) that I've been saying need to be chopped off from the very first day that I started posting here. GMC is redundancy at its best and Saturn simply won't take off like people here believe it will. That's like Toyota buying Suzuki and giving it its best products and hoping that it will do well. People will always buy Toyota over Suzuki unless something drastic happens to change their minds.

That doesn't make sense because Saturn just got new product and the sales you see from them is mostly retail unlike before. So they are taking off and are one of the most talked about brands right now. You all can hate them until the sun comes up but they are doing very well to have their oldest product only two years old.