GM Puts a Happy Face On A Slight Decline In Sales

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham

Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com

1-3-2017

General Motors found the silver lining in a year that saw a slight decline in sales. GM opted to highlight Chevrolet’s increase in retail market share to begin its 2017 sales recap. GM says that its Chevrolet retail market share is “Up one point since 2015.” Lower in the sales overview GM actually clarifies that it is up to 11.2% in retail sales since late 2014 at which time its retail market share was 10.2%. Chevy has gained a bit of retail sales market share in each of the past three years, showing steady progress. Despite the retail gains, Chevy was down 1.5% in total sales.

 

Buick had a good year overall with new model introductions, but its shift away from cars is the real news. Buick is now a crossover company with a few car models gathering dust. 80% of Buick’s retail sales are crossovers. Three-quarters of them are made outside of North America. The top-seller is the subcompact Encore followed by the Chinese-built and imported Envision midsize/compact crossover.  Buick ended the year down about 5% in sales.

 

Cadillac was down 8% in the U.S. this year. The only really bright sales news is the XT5 crossover which sells well among its peers. Cadillac cars continue to decline. The ATS and CTS were down 39 and 35% for the year.

 

The Bolt electric vehicle did very well in its segment, finishing second overall among all U.S. EVs and first among affordable EVs. With its sales continuing to climb, the Bolt has proven itself a success in its first full year of sales.

 

Trucks were also a highlight. GM confirms that it sold more pickups than any other automaker in 2017. Yes, that includes the Canyon and Colorado. Heading into 2018, the biggest GM news will be the new Silverado and Sierra. We expect to know more about those two in the coming weeks.

[Grumpy Bear]

On ‎1‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 3:56 PM, Gorehamj said:

John Goreham

Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com

1-3-2017

Trucks were also a highlight. GM confirms that it sold more pickups than any other automaker in 2017. Yes, that includes the Canyon and Colorado. Heading into 2018, the biggest GM news will be the new Silverado and Sierra. We expect to know more about those two in the coming weeks.

So we take our most successful toy and change it to copy the more unsuccessful trucks?