[coolcaddy]

GM Reports March Sales of 414,949, Up 6 Percent

Industry-Leading Truck Sales Up 7.5 Percent in First Quarter
Cadillac Continues Its Momentum With Best-Ever CTS Sales

DETROIT - General Motors dealers sold 414,949 new cars and trucks in March, up 6 percent compared to March 2003. GM's truck sales (235,521) were up 4 percent and car sales (179,428) were up 9 percent. Total first-quarter sales (1,067,116) were up 5 percent. Truck sales in the first quarter (606,224) improved 7.5 percent, and car sales (460,892) gained 1.5 percent.

"Sales momentum continued to build for GM in March, with double-digit increases at Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac and Buick," said John Smith, group vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. "Our industry-leading truck portfolio produced a 7.5 percent sales gain in the first quarter, and we expect further growth this year with the addition of new products like the Chevrolet Colorado and Equinox, Cadillac SRX, GMC Envoy XUV and Canyon. Additionally, all of our launch vehicles experienced their best sales so far this year."

GM Truck Sales

GM's industry-leading truck lineup had a 4 percent sales improvement compared to year-ago levels and a 7.5 percent increase in the first quarter. GM continues to establish full-size pickup industry benchmarks and is on track to sell 1 million units in 2004. GM led the industry in full-size pickup truck sales in March (82,673), a 4 percent increase for the month and an 8.5 percent improvement for the first quarter (210,456). Chevrolet full-size pickup deliveries (65,163) were up 3 percent compared to March 2003, and GMC Sierra sales (17,510) improved 10 percent.

Sales of sport utility vehicles (104,594) were up 5 percent in March, setting a new monthly record. GM utility sales in the first quarter (285,661) improved 14 percent. Mid-size utilities had brisk sales in March, with 47,883 deliveries, a 14 percent increase and 130,689 sales for the first quarter, a 9 percent gain. Sales of large utilities in March (35,878) were 4 percent above year-ago levels and up 26 percent for the first quarter (101,842).

GM Car Sales

GM's car sales increased by 9 percent in March compared to last year. Deliveries of GM mid-size cars were up 18 percent (104,726). Pontiac Grand Prix had 14,607 deliveries, an 87 percent increase, and Grand Am sales (14,434) were up 30 percent. Chevrolet Impala had 30,175 deliveries, a 37 percent improvement over last year's sales performance. GM's key launch vehicles showed increasing sales momentum including the Chevrolet Malibu (12,997), which had a 36 percent improvement over last month, and Aveo (3,477) with a 13 percent increase.

more, including breakdown of sales by division and model...

 

[paul8488]

grand prix up 87%? grand am up 30%? impala up 37%? aveo up 13%?!? these figures amaze me! what right does the grand am have to sell so well?!? hahaha! that's incredible! so many vehicles trickle out at the end... good to see GM's midsize sedans kicking some a$$ so late in life. and yeah, i know there are crazy incentives... but it's still pretty positive news.

 

[MTRANS]

Maybe someone can clarify this for me, GTO deliveries are only 1800 to-date. Is this number so low because of the problems in shipping them to North America? Would anyone know have many are already spoken for? At this rate they are only going to sell half of the 18,000 units they had hoped for. I expected them to sell a lot better, it's a great car, I drove its sister car in Australia. It had the power of my 2000 Ram-Air TA, but the ride was a bit better. Anyway I hope I someone can enlighten me. :huh:

Mark S.


82 TA, 86 TA, 86 GMC 6.2 diesel 4x4, 97 Dakota Sport 4x4, 2000 WS6 TA.

 

[nikivee]

3 things are holding down sales of the new GTO

1. Not enough marketing
2. Greedy dealers.
3. Looks.

That may change during the Spring and Summer months when traditionally car sales take off.

 

[coolcaddy]

All I know is, every time I visit a Pontiac dealer, they don't have any GTO's. Can't sell 'em if you don't have 'em. :blink:

BTW, Edmunds doesn't seem to think that the GTO is selling poorly at all. The following is from an Edmunds e-mail news alert, (emphasis added):

The Pontiac GTO coupe could get a convertible companion as Pontiac tries to challenge the likes of the Chrysler Crossfire. The GTO, built in Australia and equipped with a Corvette-derived 5.7-liter V8 engine, has been an early sales success for the brand: the low-volume car is already fetching prices above its $32,495 base sticker. A ragtop version would be at least a year away, but Pontiac is studying the convertible version and could decide on the aired-out GTO by the end of the year. Pontiac hopes to sell about 15,000 GTOs in the 2004 model year.

 

[AJR]

A convertible GTO would be a great idea for the GTO and Pontiac. It would certainly help the new version recapture more of the image of the 60s GTO. Speaking of which, I saw a red GTO convertible being driven through town. It looked well restored and in great condition. A new GTO convertible would help the 2004 version match up with the GTOs of the past.

As for the GTO and Crossfire. I don't know if Pontiac has too much to worry about from this German misfire. A few weeks ago, my brother talked to a dealer that sells Chrysler/Dodge and Pontiac. The dealer had 2 Crossfires sitting next to a new GTO. The salesman said he could not give away the Crossfire even though there was some interest. While my brother was there, he said people were looking at the GTO and ignoring the Crossfires. I guess this makes sense in the midwest as the GTO is an American legend. The GTO is a very nice car from what I've seen, however, I still wouldn't trade my Mach 1 in on it, though.

As for the story, good job to GM and Ford for having positive sales numbers in March. On the other hand, look out for the unstoppable train that is Toyota and Nissan.

 

[AMcA]

I'm surprised to see that Malibu sales are actually down this year. Hasn't the new car been out long enough to be in normal supply? Or, are we still ramping up the supply?

It's a bid disappointment, otherwise. Such a vastly improved car ought to be doing better than its predecessor in the first year.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by AMcA@Apr 4 2004, 10:24 PM
I'm surprised to see that Malibu sales are actually down this year. Hasn't the new car been out long enough to be in normal supply? Or, are we still ramping up the supply?

It's a bid disappointment, otherwise. Such a vastly improved car ought to be doing better than its predecessor in the first year.

I think they are pretty much ramped up, even on the Maxx, but remember, I don't think there are any fleet sales with the new Malibu. That was a sizable part of the old Malibu sales, and the reason that it's still hanging around as the Classic.

And while they have $1750 rebates on the new Malibu now, it started out at $1000, while the old Malibu last year at this time had at least $3000 on the hood.

A better indication of how it's doing would be too add the Classic sales to the new Malibu sales and compare it to last year's numbers, to take the fleet sales into account, assuming the fleet sales are similar both years.