October Sales: GM

[91Saturn]

Originally Posted by minnfang

I'm not so sure tons of people would be interested in a cramped little car that only seats two and doesn't offer open air motoring.

Not necessarily "tons," but enough folks are interested in such a Solstice that it would have generated at least SOME new sales and kept the model's momentum going. A coupe would also have generated new media attention and reviews and probably would have helped sales of the convertible as well.

[motorman]

Originally Posted by megeebee

That's more a FLOOD than a simple dump.

my dealer bought 40 for stock and they are selling well because of the gasoline prices

[ph39]

You have to look closer at the numbers -

solstice+sky sales are identical as last year - not bad for a type of car - usually sales drop off fast.

cobalt only sold 8k last year in October (probably its worst month ever) - so a 80% increase only gets it back up to where it should be - about 16k - 20k per month.

[windvale]

Chevy, GMC and Caddy up - Buick, Pontiac and Saturn down. Same old song...

Consider the following:

1) If the forth coming G8 had been the new Impala instead - just think of how hot Chevy would have been with the new Malibu mid-sizer FWD and a great full-size RWD Impala to offer (with a *real* SS option no less).

2) Enclave as a Cadillac product...more exposure and even better sales

3) Aura sales have started dropping already. Not a good sign for Saturn.

Too many mouths (divisions) to feed product to, not enough to go around...so the Impala will battle the new Malibu for basically the same sale. It's nuts...

[bcjohnso99]

Originally Posted by minnfang

Sales of the SRX are up quite a bit. Maybe people are noticing the great new interior in the SRX when they come in to check out the CTS.

Or its the $10,000 off list (as seen at my local dealer).

[bmarkdc]

Originally Posted by 91Saturn

Yikes, 17% YTD decline on the Solstice. That's not what you want to see. Blame dealer mark-ups and GM's failure to quickly follow up with a coupe.

That has some to do with it, but the Solstice and Sky are toys in most cases not every day cars. I love em but when the economy starts to slow down, people aren't spending as much money on cars they don't need.

[91Saturn]

Originally Posted by windvale

3) Aura sales have started dropping already. Not a good sign for Saturn.

Yep, 4,425 Auras for the month is lousy. It's not even doing half the volume of the older (and less attractive) Pontiac G6 (10,805 units). Hopefully, the 4-cylinder Aura will help things a bit.

[Greg Burr]

Originally Posted by minnfang

Sales of the SRX are up quite a bit. Maybe people are noticing the great new interior in the SRX when they come in to check out the CTS.

Or maybe people discovered the SRX for the first time. One good car can get others in the fleet appreciated.

[paul8488]

Arg... what is wrong with the Aura?!?

[Bggriffi]

check out the Lambdas. wow.

[Bggriffi]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Arg... what is wrong with the Aura?!?

I'm hoping its the lack of a 4-cyl. maybe that will help.

[USA Patriot]

Honda sales were up just 4,000 units. Honda sales increases are becoming less over the last six months.

[windvale]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Arg... what is wrong with the Aura?!?

Same thing that was wrong with the VW Phaeton...absolutely nothing.

But people balked at paying 80K for a VW, and I'm not sure that Saturn dealerships are attracting the kinda folks that are looking to spend much more than 18K or so on a car.

Just my thots...

[Chaz_23]

Absolutely not. Year to year comparisons give false impressions.
At 16K Cobalt is about average sales compared to 22K highest for the year and 10K lowest.
I'd say this month GM didn't sell at that many cars to fleets: Malibu and Grand Prix sold less than half over last month, Impala, lowest sales for the year, etc.

Originally Posted by megeebee

That's more a FLOOD than a simple dump.

[1487]

Aura sales had been going up over the last few months so I dont know what happened in October. They were over 6500 units in the past few months.

The G6 is going to outsell the Aura because it has 3 engines and 3 body styles and more dealers and more name recognition. The G6 was slow for the first 6 months - 1 year and people were saying it was a flop compared to the Grand Am. The I-4 will help Aura sales in the long run as will the disappearance of the Ion.