Chevy Up, Vauxhall/Opel Continue Crash
GMInsideNews
May 11, 2012
By: Austin Rutherford
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Ed. Note: This was written by our staff member from FordInsideNews.
You have heard the story: Opel is hurting due to lower sales and high fixed costs. Maybe what you have not heard is exactly what is weighting them down. Throughout the division, almost nothing is going right in development, sales, and costs.
Let us start with the bad news. Opel and Vauxhall saw their sales fall 16.2-% in the first quarter. This lead to a loss of 0.7 points of market share for the brand, but with Chevrolet taken into account the loss came to 0.4 points. This was tied for the second worst loss among major European automakers with Renault-Nissan. Perhaps the most troubling part of this sales depletion is where it came from.
Opel Corsa sales suffering 2% is not a worry. Where the worry comes into play is with two other vehicles suffering huge losses. If the first quarter, Astra sales crashed 17% as new trims did nothing to hold back the onslaught. The worst part of the Astra’s sales is that the vehicle is produced within four plants in the main European region. The Astra is also produced in Russia. Though the more basic levels are about to receive their first facelift, spy shots show this is a very minimal change that will probably do little to curve the spiral.
The other vehicle in the lineup facing a slide is the Insignia. The higher margin sedan and wagon saw a huge decrease in owners in the vicinity of 22%. The reason for this is mainly its age in the market. It is one of the oldest vehicles on the market in its class and competitors like the new Passat B7 has been grabbing market share in this class. Like the Astra, it is up for a facelift. Again, based on spy shots, this will probably not be enough to stop the bleeding.
Other problems are hard to understand. Why does the Antara still exist? This compact CUV, which we got as the Saturn Vue and now the Chevy Captiva Sport, sold less than 10,000 units for the main European market for all of 2011. One wonders why the Opel Mokka, aka Buick Encore, was designed after this when it has already been met with failure.
Another is the tie up with PSA. This Siamese twin had the worst fall in the last quarter with market share falling 1.4 points. Peugeot and Citroen have too much overhead, too many models in the same classes, and one of the oldest lineups in Europe. These problems are not just confined to Europe, but to the company globally. Even with the poke in the arm given by GM's cash infusion, it is likely that the company will go bankrupt in the next two years pending a miracle
Even with major headwinds in Europe, there are many vehicles seeing gains. The Chevy brand was up 6.5-% for the quarter with Cruze sales leading the charge thanks to added production in South American and continued success in China and North America. In fact, for the first time since GM emerged out of bankruptcy, and for a period before that, the Wuling Sunshine was not the best selling product in a quarter for the company. In the first quarter, the Chevy Cruze has finally taken this title.
GM will be launching many new models in coming year that should push sales higher. Opel will launch the Adam, the first name of its founder, while GMNA will bring out the all-new GMT SUVs and trucks. Cadillac will start production of the long awaited ATS and XTS. In South America, the new Cobalt will expand availability outside Brazil and the all-new Chevy Spin, a compact MPV, will launch. GM-SIAC will also start local production of many models in China and start building models in India.
Below is a breakdown of GM’s best selling vehicles for the first quarter. If one has any market’s sales that are not included, please post them with a link. Big thanks to Matt of Best Selling Cars for adding markets to the list.
Markets included in the first quarter were Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Model Breakdown
Chevy Nexia - Unknown
Chevy Vitara - Unknown
Chevy Grand Vitara - Unknown
Chevy CMP - Unknown
Chevy LV150 - Unknown
Chevy N200 - Unknown
Chevy Combo - Unknown
Jiefang Kucheng - Unknown
Jiefang 501 - Unknown
Jiefang Jinling/ Boling - Unknown
Jiefang Furui - Unknown
* - Total Sales Provided by GM
*Models that have ended production are in BOLD*
Sales by Category
Cars
City/Kei - 89,027
Sub-Compact - 356,573
Compact - 448,887
Mid-Size - 157,394
Full-Size - 108,703
Utility Vehicles including MPVs
City/Kei - 1,556
Sub-Compact - 40,245
Compact - 71,617
Mid-Size - 101,377
Full-Size - 111,571
Trucks & Ute Vans
City/Kei - 29,330
Sub-Compact - 170,287
Compact - 176,620
Mid-Size - 41,608
Full-Size - 176,157
Cab-Over - 1,779
Bus - 92
Specialty
Muscle Car - 23,491
1 Row Front Engine Sport Car - 3,040
GMInsideNews
May 11, 2012
By: Austin Rutherford
Ed. Note: This was written by our staff member from FordInsideNews.
You have heard the story: Opel is hurting due to lower sales and high fixed costs. Maybe what you have not heard is exactly what is weighting them down. Throughout the division, almost nothing is going right in development, sales, and costs.
Let us start with the bad news. Opel and Vauxhall saw their sales fall 16.2-% in the first quarter. This lead to a loss of 0.7 points of market share for the brand, but with Chevrolet taken into account the loss came to 0.4 points. This was tied for the second worst loss among major European automakers with Renault-Nissan. Perhaps the most troubling part of this sales depletion is where it came from.
Opel Corsa sales suffering 2% is not a worry. Where the worry comes into play is with two other vehicles suffering huge losses. If the first quarter, Astra sales crashed 17% as new trims did nothing to hold back the onslaught. The worst part of the Astra’s sales is that the vehicle is produced within four plants in the main European region. The Astra is also produced in Russia. Though the more basic levels are about to receive their first facelift, spy shots show this is a very minimal change that will probably do little to curve the spiral.
The other vehicle in the lineup facing a slide is the Insignia. The higher margin sedan and wagon saw a huge decrease in owners in the vicinity of 22%. The reason for this is mainly its age in the market. It is one of the oldest vehicles on the market in its class and competitors like the new Passat B7 has been grabbing market share in this class. Like the Astra, it is up for a facelift. Again, based on spy shots, this will probably not be enough to stop the bleeding.
Other problems are hard to understand. Why does the Antara still exist? This compact CUV, which we got as the Saturn Vue and now the Chevy Captiva Sport, sold less than 10,000 units for the main European market for all of 2011. One wonders why the Opel Mokka, aka Buick Encore, was designed after this when it has already been met with failure.
Another is the tie up with PSA. This Siamese twin had the worst fall in the last quarter with market share falling 1.4 points. Peugeot and Citroen have too much overhead, too many models in the same classes, and one of the oldest lineups in Europe. These problems are not just confined to Europe, but to the company globally. Even with the poke in the arm given by GM's cash infusion, it is likely that the company will go bankrupt in the next two years pending a miracle
Even with major headwinds in Europe, there are many vehicles seeing gains. The Chevy brand was up 6.5-% for the quarter with Cruze sales leading the charge thanks to added production in South American and continued success in China and North America. In fact, for the first time since GM emerged out of bankruptcy, and for a period before that, the Wuling Sunshine was not the best selling product in a quarter for the company. In the first quarter, the Chevy Cruze has finally taken this title.
GM will be launching many new models in coming year that should push sales higher. Opel will launch the Adam, the first name of its founder, while GMNA will bring out the all-new GMT SUVs and trucks. Cadillac will start production of the long awaited ATS and XTS. In South America, the new Cobalt will expand availability outside Brazil and the all-new Chevy Spin, a compact MPV, will launch. GM-SIAC will also start local production of many models in China and start building models in India.
Below is a breakdown of GM’s best selling vehicles for the first quarter. If one has any market’s sales that are not included, please post them with a link. Big thanks to Matt of Best Selling Cars for adding markets to the list.
Markets included in the first quarter were Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Model Breakdown
- Chevy Cruze - 180,000*
- Wuling Sunshine - 152,666
- Chevy Silverado/ Cheyenne - 106,250
- Wuling Rongguang/ Xingwang - 104,183
- Chevy Aveo/ Sonic - 87,874
- V/O Astra H,J - 81,636
- V/O Corsa - 77,847
- Buick Excelle - 76,378
- Chevy Spark I,II/ Beat/ Matiz - 75,439
- Chevy Malibu - 70,955
- Wuling Hongguang - 69,445
- Chevy Sail - 65,252
- Chevy Equinox - 56,360
- Chevy Impala - 52,525
- GMC Sierra - 46,103
- Chevy Celta/ Prisma - 45,251
- Chevy Corsa I,II - 44,932
- Buick Excelle GT/ Verano - 40,365
- Buick LaCrosse - 38,032
- Chevy Avalanche/ Tahoe/ Suburban - 35,186
- Chevy S10/ Colorado/ D-Max/ T-Series - 32,473
- Wuling PN Series - 28,772
- Buick Regal - 27,582
- V/O Insignia - 26,676
- GMC Terrain - 25,080
- Chevy Camaro - 23,491
- Chevy Traverse - 23,009
- Chevy Captiva(Both) - 22,682
- Baojun 630 - 22,035
- V/O Zafira - 21,782
- Chevy Agile - 21,231
- V/O Meriva - 20,362
- Cadillac SRX - 19,935
- GMC Acadia - 18,426
- Chevy Tornado/ Montana/ Corsa Utility - 17,621
- Chevy Express - 16,734
- Chevy Cobalt - 15,636
- GMC Yukon - 14,206
- Chevy Niva - 14,190
- Cadillac CTS - 13,090
- Buick Enclave - 12,342
- Chevy Orlando - 11,978
- Buick Excelle XT - 11,256
- Holden Commodore - 10,699
- Buick GL8 II - 8,887
- Holden Cruze - 8,863
- Daewoo Nexia - 8,721
- Chevy Lacetti/ Nubira/ Optra - 7,550
- V/O Agila - 6,896
- Daewoo Matiz - 6,173
- GMC Savana - 6,050
- Buick GL8 I - 6,048
- Chevy Epica - 5,988
- Cadillac Escalade - 5,809
- Chevy Tavera - 5,783
- Chevy Meriva - 5,693
- Holden Captiva(Both) - 4,903
- Chevy Volt - 4,080
- V/O Vivaro - 3,891
- GMC Canyon - 3,601
- Chevy Barina - 3,555
- Chevy Corvette - 3,039
- V/O Combo - 2,761
- V/O Antara - 2,595
- Daewoo Alpheon - 2,017
- Chevy Lanos - 1,910
- V/O Ampera - 1,835
- Holden Colorado - 1,643
- Cadillac SLS - 1,563
- Daewoo Damas - 1,556
- Chevy Caprice - 1,396
- Chevy Zafira - 1,322
- Buick Lucerne - 1,217
- V/O Movano - 1,020
- Chevy N Trucks(Old) - 930
- Chevy N(New), F Trucks/ CYZ/ RVF/ EXZ - 827
- Daewoo Labo - 557
- Chevy Astra - 546
- Holden Barina Spark - 519
- Holden Caprice - 488
- Chevy Blazer - 459
- Chevy Lumina/ Omega - 290
- Daewoo Lacetti - 286
- Chevy Vectra - 254
- Cadillac DTS - 239
- Buick Park Avenue - 149
- Chevy N300 - 135
- Chevy HHR - 113
- Holden Combo - 96
- Chevy N,F,L-Series Bus - 92
- Cadillac STS - 88
- Jiefang Xiao/ CA 1031 - 22
- Holden Epica - 13
- Cadillac BLS - 2
- Chevy TrailBlazer - 2
- Chevy CMV/ Super Carry - 1
- Chevy Kodiak 6/7/8 - 1
- Opel GT - 1
Chevy Nexia - Unknown
Chevy Vitara - Unknown
Chevy Grand Vitara - Unknown
Chevy CMP - Unknown
Chevy LV150 - Unknown
Chevy N200 - Unknown
Chevy Combo - Unknown
Jiefang Kucheng - Unknown
Jiefang 501 - Unknown
Jiefang Jinling/ Boling - Unknown
Jiefang Furui - Unknown
* - Total Sales Provided by GM
*Models that have ended production are in BOLD*
Sales by Category
Cars
City/Kei - 89,027
Sub-Compact - 356,573
Compact - 448,887
Mid-Size - 157,394
Full-Size - 108,703
Utility Vehicles including MPVs
City/Kei - 1,556
Sub-Compact - 40,245
Compact - 71,617
Mid-Size - 101,377
Full-Size - 111,571
Trucks & Ute Vans
City/Kei - 29,330
Sub-Compact - 170,287
Compact - 176,620
Mid-Size - 41,608
Full-Size - 176,157
Cab-Over - 1,779
Bus - 92
Specialty
Muscle Car - 23,491
1 Row Front Engine Sport Car - 3,040
