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John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 7-5-2019 Each quarter GM breaks down the company's deliveries (often called sales). Normally, the breakdown is by model. That means the Silverado is one line item. Same with Sierra. However, the auto press is all abuzz with reports that the Silverado has slipped to number three in sales overall behind Ram. While true, there is more to the story and we are not ones to make excuses for GM here as you know if you follow the GM-Trucks.com news page. What is really happening is that GM is crushing it. Everything the company is focusing on is doing great. Including Silverado and Sierra. GM is still transitioning the generations and the sales & deliveries are following the production ramp. To help illustrate this, GM included -for the first time- a breakdown of the Sierra and Silverado trucks by capacity. In other words LD (light duty) HD (heavy duty) and MD (medium duty). We won't bore you with a long list of numbers, but we took away one interesting fact we suspected could never really prove. GM sells three times as many LD trucks as it does HD. MD is a very small segment. So now we know that! Here's what GM had to say. “The light-duty segment is the highest-volume part of the pickup market and we are expanding choice to make sure that we meet the needs of every customer,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president, Sales Operations. “Heavy-duty trucks, by contrast, are about 25 percent of full-size pickup sales. Our HDs are purpose-built machines for people who need maximum capability, and we are poised for significant growth.” GM also came right out and said what its fleet sales volume is - 23% of all sales. Contrast that with Honda that is nearly zero and you can see that the two companies, though they have some overlap, are in different businesses. Also important to GM, since it is quitting on "cars," is that its crossovers are selling like hotcakes. And it makes no difference where they are built. Buick's imports from China are selling well, as are the Mexico-built Chevy's. As are the SUVs made in the U.S. Here are the GM Highlights from its sales report this week: -Crossover sales set a new second quarter record after sales grew year over year by 17 percent. -Sales of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 crew cab and GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab were both up 12 percent year over year. -The Chevrolet Equinox and Traverse and GMC Canyon all delivered record second quarter sales. -Sales of every Buick crossover were up year over year, with the Envision posting a 28 percent sales increase. The Enclave was up 21 percent and the Encore was up 5 percent. -Buick deliveries were up 5 percent and GMC deliveries were up 10 percent. -The all-new Cadillac XT4 continues to lead its segment and the all-new Cadillac XT6 has begun shipping to dealers. Cadillac crossover deliveries were up 19 percent in total year over year, helping the brand grow both total and retail sales. -The Chevrolet Suburban, Tahoe and GMC Yukon XL were each up more than 20 percent compared to a year ago. Here Are Some Truck-Specific Notes: -GM has installed new body shops, upgraded paint shops and reconfigured general assembly at its plants to increase capacity by 20,000 units compared with the outgoing model. -Based on the most recent data available, retail customers have registered more GM full-size light-duty pickups in 2019 than either Ford or Ram. GM light-duty registrations have also led Ford F-150 in 11 of the last 12 months. -The first new GM models to launch were the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra crew cabs in late summer 2018. Sales of each were up more than 12 percent in the second quarter versus a year ago. -After two consecutive quarters of double-digit year-over-year growth, GM’s crew cab mix has risen from 60 percent of sales to almost 75 percent. -Full production of all cab styles started in March for both retail and fleet orders, and inventory is approaching target levels, especially for the most affordable regular and double cab models. Sales of these models were down year over year due to limited availability. -Customer demand for Chevrolet’s new Trail Boss models — the first full-size pickups equipped with a 2-inch factory-installed lifted suspension — have far exceeded expectations, so GM will double production. In addition, for 2020, Chevrolet will offer both Trail Boss models with a 420-hp, 6.2L V-8 engine. -More than 95 percent of all-new GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab sales are high-end trims including SLT, AT4 and Denali. -GM is introducing a new refined, very powerful and extremely fuel-efficient 3.0-liter Duramax diesel that is expected to be available later this quarter. -GM has consolidated heavy-duty pickup production at its Flint (Michigan) Assembly plant. The company has installed new body and paint shops and created 1,000 new jobs to support a capacity increase of 40,000 units compared to the outgoing model. -The company is sharply increasing production of crew cab and diesel models to meet customer demand. -Early production will be focused primarily on crew cab models, similar to the light-duty launch cadence. Trucks began shipping to dealers in the second half of June, with availability expected to grow throughout the third and fourth quarters.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 4-2-2019 General Motors released its Q1 U.S. sales figures today and the sales report is optimistically titled, "The First of GM’s All-New Pickups Posts a 20 Percent Q1 Gain." Yet, Silverado sales were down by 16% to 114,313 units. Sierra was down by 2.2.% to 40,546. We looked back two years to 2017 and found that the Silverado was down compared to 2017 as well (128,456 units in Q1 2017). Sierra's sales were 49,810 in Q1 of 2017. So, in a nutshell, GM's trucks were down for the second consecutive year in Q1. Yet, GM found a headline that says "up 20%." How? Deeper in the GM sales report the company says, "Combined sales of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 crew cabs — the first of the company’s all-new full-size pickups to launch — were up 20 percent year over year." So, there is the answer. If that makes any sense. GM seems to clarify the situation by saying, "Availability of all-new regular-cab and double-cab pickups was very limited during the quarter due to launch timing, but full production of all cab styles started in March and they currently are arriving in dealer showrooms." Overall, GM's sales were down 7%. GM attributes this to a very strong Q1 2018. GM sees a rebound for the full year. “After a slow start to the year, the retail SAAR has risen each month since January,” said Elaine Buckberg, GM chief economist. “Consumer sentiment continued to recover in March and the other key drivers of auto sales like employment, wage growth and household balance sheets are healthy. The Fed paused in raising interest rates, which eases a headwind facing auto sales. Overall, the U.S. economy is in solid shape, which bodes well for the industry outlook.” The Canyon was down for the quarter, but the Colorado was up 16% with 34,494 units sold. Compare that to the segment-leading Tacoma which sold 22,798 units just in March. Image courtesy of Zane Merva.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 12-5-2018 The hard-working research team over at iSeeCars has completed a new study. This new one doesn't use the easiest to understand metrics, but the conclusion is pretty clear. Among all vehicles being promoted by manufacturers this holiday season, trucks are among those with the lowest incentives. What the group looked for this time were models that had the highest number of advertised deals that took 5% or more off of the sale price of the vehicle. In other words, how many deals are out there, not necessarily the best deal with the single most savings. Many deals are regional and iSeeCars included used cars in this analysis of over 2.4 million sales transactions. The average percentage of listings that offer a deal that takes 5% or more off the price of a vehicle this time of year is 40.5%. That means about 4 out of ten vehicles are already being discounted before a shopper arrives. iSeeCars looked at how a given model varied from that average. In other words, is a model more or less likely to be a model with a deal. The top model for deals is the outgoing BMW 3 Series. The lucky auto writers who cover that model are on planes as we type this story headed to the new 3 Series launch. BMW and used car dealers is trying to get rid of the older series ahead of the new. The Mercedes E-Class and the Audi A4 are also being heavily advertised with deals. “The growth in popularity of auto leases in recent years has led to an influx of these often-leased luxury vehicles in the used car marketplace after their lease terms end,” said Phong Ly XCEO of iSeeCars. Among all types of vehicles, trucks have the least number of deals. The Silverado is among the vehicles with the lowest number of deals overall. If you think about the state of the truck market now, this seems to make sense. The Ram, Silverado, and Sierra are all new for this season. The full study can be found here.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 7-10-2018 Story Summary: GM sold more trucks, faster, with lower incentives, at a higher average price in the first half of 2018. General Motors released its quarterly sales this past week and a close look at the data reveals a strong increase in truck sales. In the first half of this year, GM sold 51,389 more trucks than the in the first half of last year. When broken down by model the numbers seem even more impressive. Chevy sold 39% more Colorados with just under 70K delivered. Chevy sold 11% more Silverados with 291K delivered. GMC sold 13% more Canyons with just under 17K delivered. GMC sold 2% more Sierras with just under 101K delivered. By comparison to Ford, GM sold a total of 478,671 pickup trucks in the first half of the year and Ford sold 451,138. Ford's F-Series sales were up 5% for the half-year period. GM’s GM Chief Economist Elaine Buckberg pointed straight to the recent Republican-written tax plan that was signed into law just before Christmas. “Tax reform raised take-home pay, consumer confidence is high and household balance sheets are healthy,” Buckberg said. “All of this plus a strong job market makes consumers more willing to commit to major purchases like vehicles.” Those consumers include businesses. GM says that 22% of its overall sales in the first half of 2018 were commercial sales. GM sees an opportunity given Ford’s announced exit from the passenger car market. “Commercial customers tell us they prefer to do business with a company that can satisfy all their vehicle needs, and sedans are an important part of the mix because they typically offer very good safety, comfort, fuel economy and a lower total cost of ownership than other vehicle choices,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president, Sales Operations. “Some automakers are scaling back their car offerings at the same time we are investing in the Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu, and expanding our truck and crossover portfolio. We see a terrific opportunity to forge new and stronger customer relationships with such a broad portfolio.” GM’s increased sales did not come from higher incentives. GM says its incentives were down in the period and that average transaction prices increased by about $300 per vehicle.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 5-1-2018 This marks the first month since General Motors joined Tesla in being the only two automakers who only report their monthly sales quarterly (as required by SEC regulations). Like all mainstream automakers, GM had reported its sales monthly for years. The reports help the media and investors with 12 updates per year on how the sales of one of the world's largest companies were trending. No more. Most monthly sales reports were relatively bland and almost ridiculous in the way that anything negative was seen in a positive light. We enjoyed making a bit of fun of those. We enjoyed the ones when GM passed Ford in truck sales and the great news that the new compact crossovers from GM were trending towards the top of the category more. Watch for the sales reports to be more meaningful now that they will come quarterly. Watch also for Ford and FCA to follow GM's lead in making the reports quarterly. Toyota's reports are much more detailed. We are not sure if Toyota will opt out as quickly. So far, no other automaker has announced its intentions to follow GM's sales news blackout.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 4-3-2018 In GM's most recent monthly sales report GM announced that it will stop reporting sales the way every major automaker does. Instead of monthly reports, the company will switch to a quarterly reporting method. GM wrote in its report, "GM ...will begin reporting its U.S. vehicle sales on a quarterly basis, effective immediately. For 2018, second quarter sales will be released on July 3, third quarter sales on October 2 and fourth quarter sales on January 3, 2019." As a public company, GM has to report its sales volumes quarterly to investors. “Thirty days is not enough time to separate real sales trends from short-term fluctuations in a very dynamic, highly competitive market,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president, Sales Operations. “Reporting sales quarterly better aligns with our business, and the quality of information will make it easier to see how the business is performing.” The only other automaker in the U.S. who reports sales quarterly is Tesla, Inc. The general consensus is that it is to hide disappointing sales and production figures from the public, though some may disagree with that interpretation. GM's sales were up significantly in March and are up about 4% year to date.

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.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 10-3-2017 As would be expected following the loss of a half-million vehicles in the U.S. market, pickup sales are through the roof for September. In total for the month, GM outsold Ford IN pickup trucks again. GM sold a total of 87,535 trucks and Ford sold 82,302. Silverado was the big sales news for GM garnering a total of 55,236 units. Colorado also sold well with 11,271 units sold. Both the Sierra and Canyon were relatively flat. It seems that GM may have emphasized the Chevy brand on its shared production lines for the month. GMC sold 18,106 Sierras and 2,922 Canyons in September. Other sales highlights for September included crossovers form all brands. The Cadillac XT5 was up almost 60% and is now within striking distance of the industry-leading Lexus RX. The Chevy Equinox was up 80% and is now selling at a rate of about 27K units per month, putting it in the top five overall in its segment, after being nearly last. Buick's crossovers continue to make gains and the Encore is now at a rate of over 8K per month. Declines in luxury cars continue with every Cadillac car down about 30%. Buick's car sales are all but gone now. Buick's best-selling car, the LaCrosse was down over 40% to just 1,100 units for the month.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 5-2-2017 The GM staffer that found a way to put a happy face on the GM sales report should be given a huge raise. The report was titled, "GM Crossover Sales Surge Driving Retail Share Higher." Let's dissect the title a bit and then we will put our own positive spin on a second month of GM sales declines. First up, what crossover sales increases? The new Equinox crossover sold at the same volume as last year's April sales of the old model and it is behind the sales leaders (Rogue and CR-V) by about 50%. The GMC terrain was up by about 1,000 units, and that is good news. However, the Chevy Traverse was down by about 3,000 units over last April. The Encore from Buick and the Trax are both up by a good amount. However, the Cadillac XT5 isn't making progress. It still lags its SRX predecessor's sales. Looks like a mixed bag of sales results both good and bad for GM crossover sales to us. The best news for GM overall is the Chinese-built and imported Envision crossover. With sales now at about 4,300 units per month, it is a success that should just keep on growing for GM - unless the UAW spikes it somehow. Truck sales are headed down significantly at GM. Every GM truck model was down by double-digit percentages. Silverado is down 20%. Canyon is down 22%. Every large SUV was down for the month compared to last April. Although this is not necessarily a situation that GM could have prevented, the fact remains that when truck and SUV sales go up GM is fat and happy. When they go down, not so much. Perhaps as truck buyers, there is good news for our members? Slow sales usually mean price cuts and incentives. Just like it's easier to get tickets to a sports team that is losing, finding a sweet deal on a GM truck may be more likely when they are not flying off of lots? We're doing our best to find the good in this news. Feel free to do better in the comments below.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 4-3-2017 General Motors chose an upbeat tone for its press release this month saying it has the "fastest-growing retail brands." Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of sales operations, offered a comment, saying, “The economy is strong and we see more growth ahead for our brands. More people are working, consumer confidence is at a 16-year high, fuel prices are low and Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac have a wave of new crossovers to compete in the industry’s biggest and hottest segments.” What was not highlighted was that every GM pickup truck model was behind 2016's March sales level. Every truck model is also down about one or two percent year to date. In March, Silverado was down 11%, Sierra down 14%, Colorado down 13%, and Canyon was down 13%. Double-digit declines in a company's core product don't usually translate into upbeat sales reports, but GM sees hope in its new crossovers. Equinox sales were up for GM, and that is a key model going forward since it competes in the highest-volume segment of all now since compact crossovers have passed trucks. GM saw hope in the Cadillac XT5, but its sales are still only about half of Lexus' RX sales. At GM the Chinese-built Envision is selling well with sales of approaching the XT5. GM chose a crossover it does not manufacture in the U.S. as its image for this month's sales report. Despite the truthful good news that GM has more crossovers on the market now, both GM and Cadillac are still down for the year compared to last. The CTS is selling at less than 900 cars per month now. GM overall is up for the year. Looking at the sales charts it is the Chevy Cruze that is having the biggest net impact on overall sales with about 26,000 more vehicles sold in 2017 than in 2016.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 2-1-2017 The sales reports coming from automakers this month are a bit different than those we have been seeing for the past few years. The tipping point many automakers have been expecting seems to have arrived, but that is just a growth slowdown. Sales overall are strong. GM's overall sales were down about four percent over last January. Not bad compared to Toyota's 11% drop. The bigger SUVs and crossovers are the sales champs this month with Suburban and Acadia up. Trucks are steady and the Colorado's expanded production capacity now can exceed demand. Sales were up for Colorado over last January, but the truck has seen higher sales months. Sierra and Silverado were down a bit, but not by much. Looking on the bright side of slow car sales; Have you ever wanted a Camaro or CTS? Now is the time to act. Both are down more than 30% in sales. That report we posted about the factory shutting down to allow inventory to burn off was not incorrect. That was not a holiday line maintenance shutdown. CTS is down to less than 700 cars per month. Yikes! The Impala has fallen back to under 6K cars per month, about a quarter of the sales the Camry posts. Amazingly, the Impala fell by 40%. That is hard to believe. Bucking the slowdown in cars is the Chevy Cruze. Its 19K in January sales put it close to the Civic and Corolla now. Go Cruze! EVs could not be farther from trucks, but in case you are a closet fan (we're joking), the Bolt and Volt outsold those whipper snappers over at Tesla this month. EV sales trickle in, but the Volt could be the number one EV for sales this year so far and the Bolt number three behind the Prius Prime. You heard that right, the Tesla models are not even on the podium this month with neither breaking 1,000 in January*. * Our Tesla sales source is Inside EVs.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 1-4-2017 Based on the full year of sales reported today by GM and Ford, GM sold more pickups. Although Ford's F-Series is indeed the single nameplate winner in the sales race, its total of 820,799 units is not enough to equal GM's combined pickup truck sales of 942,730. When it comes to "full-size" pickups, Ford edged out GM since GM sold a total of 796,556 Silverado and Sierras. It was the Colorado and Canyon "Midsize" trucks that put GM over the top. General Motors bringing back the midsize pickups was perhaps its best strategic decision in the post-collapse period since 2007/2009. This segment is hot and GM is only restricted by its production on how many of these vehicles it sells. Ford and Ram both have lost hundreds of thousands of vehicle sales by having ignored this resurgent segment. Ford also lost the pickup sales title yet again. Ram trucks had a good year, selling 489,418 units, up 9% on the year.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 1-5-2017 In addition to pickup truck sales data, and other passenger vehicle sales like cars and crossovers, GM, Ram, Nissan, and Ford release sales information for the vehicles primarily sold to fleets, contractors, and businesses, but that are also available to the general public through dealerships. Here are the sales numbers as reported by the automakers in their year-end sales reports (U.S. only). The classifications are the ones they chose, so if they don't align perfectly for comparison, that is the reason: General Motors: Chevy Commercial Truck - 7,019 units (Presumably the City Express and Low Cab Forward, and Express Cut-Away vehicles are included, Chevy does not say or break out the sub-categories) Express (Van) - 68,007 GMC Savana - 20,607 Ford E-Series - 54,245 Transit - 143,244 Transit Connect - 43,232 Heavy Trucks - 15,486 Ram (Reported under Dodge) Cargo Van - 21 (Not a typo) ProMaster Van - 40,440 ProMaster City - 15,972 Nissan NV - 17,873 NV200 - 18,523 (Note: Nissan had earlier reported that NV200 Taxis sales to New York City were averaging approximately 60 units per month in Q2 2016. Thus, this number makes sense).

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 1-4-2017 General Motors announced its sales results for the full year and month of December today. The news was all upbeat for GM who touts Chevy as the industry's fastest growing brand. GM also claims a market share gain of 0.5%. We broke out the truck numbers and saw that Silverado was down 4.3% in 2016 vs. 2015 and Sierra was down 1.1% on the year. With the extremely high volume of sales these trucks enjoy that is certainly not to be taken as bad news. The Colorado and Canyon were up significantly, increasing sales by 29% and 25% respectively. By any measure, the midsize pickups from GM are a huge success story for the company and prove - beyond a doubt - that GM had the best foresight among the major pickup manufacturers. We won't be beating the drum that GM's car sales are of concern this year unless things go horribly of course. Instead, we will look on the bright side of GM's car sales. One bright spot is for sure the Chevy Volt. It is the second-leading seller among electrified vehicles in America and nearly doubled its sales to just under 25K units. Along with the Bolt, Spark EV, and ELR, GM sold 28,867 electrified vehicles in 2016, making it the top supplier of affordable EVs in the country. Why does this matter to truck owners? Because every ZEV credit GM doesn't have to buy from Tesla reduces GM's costs and makes room in the CAFE for cars like Camaros.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 10-4-2016 Costco has partnered with GM again this year to offer its Holiday Sales Event. The event runs from October 1st through January 3rd, 2017. Most who consider the program do so for the savings which include: - GM Supplier Pricing - Plus most currently available GM incentives. - Plus Costco Executive Members will receive a $700 Costco Cash Card and Gold Star - And Business Members will receive a $300 Costco Cash Card for purchasing a qualifying model and completing all eligibility requirements. Though the prices are amazing, what we find interesting about the program is that 96% of those who answered Costco's customer service survey after a purchase during the Holiday Sales Event gave it top scores for service, value, and the overall buying experience. In addition to GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Colorado mid-size pickup truck, GMC Canyon mid-size pickup truck, Buick Cascada Convertible, and Cadillac XT5 Crossover, the Costco program also has vehicles like RVs and motorcycles available.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 12-1-2016 GM says its monthly sales total was up about 10% over last November, which puts GM on a faster growth pace than most of its peers*. Every GM brand did better than the industry average. Kurt McNeil, GM’s vice president of U.S. Sales Operations, summed up the growth month and healthy sales by saying, “We are ahead of plan selling down our 2016 model year inventory and we expect to close out December with more retail share growth. GM is heading into 2017 in a position of strength with the planned launch of key new products, like the all-new Chevrolet Equinox, into the heart of the market.” McNeil added, “GM’s November performance reflects the continued strength of our U.S. business. We gained profitable retail share, commercial and small business deliveries were strong and we commanded the industry’s best average transaction price." Digging deeper into the truck numbers, we see that Silverado sales were at parity with last November's, Sierra was up 14%, and both the Colorado (8,669) and Canyon (3,410) were up sharply over last year, reflecting GM's new production capacity for those models. As we have reported most months, the Tacoma was still ahead of the Colorado and Canyon, but as always, that may be mostly due to both companies being at their production limits. Giant SUVs did very well for GM again in November, though those sales need to be taken in context. For example, the Chevy Suburban was up a solid 26%, but with about 6,500 units sold, the big SUVs are still among the lowest rate of sales among the many vehicle types. That said, they pack a bigger profit punch. Compact and midsize crossover sales were mixed. Equinox was up 10%, but still sells at half the rate that its competitors do. A new model refresh may help that soon. The all-new, Chinese-built, Buick Envision is already making a big impact at Buick. Though its sales are just 1,785 units, the model is brand new to the market and is already ahead of three other Buick models. Look for Envision to become the second-leading seller at Buick if GM can import enough to fill demand. Three of Buick's models are now imported in full, or in part, to the US from overseas markets, and in the near future, the majority of Buicks sold in the US may be made outside North America. At present, this is no problem, but going forward it may be. Note that the vehicle that GM chose as its press release image (above) is made in Spain, Korea, and Mexico. There are still many problems with car sales at GM. The CTS and ATS continue to drop toward nill, and the CT6 is selling at under 2,000 units per month well after its launch. Impala is down to half of previous years sales. Malibu is up, but still sells at less than half the rate of the industry leaders in the midsize segment. *Important Note: GM seems to have issued its sales (deliveries) results on a total units sales basis. If we are not mistaken, 2015 had less sales days than 2016. We are noticing that other top brands like Toyota are reporting changes in the daily sales rate to plot their progress. In other words, GM chose the best light in which to cast its sales this month. Selling slightly more units in 2016 could still have been a slowdown over 2015 due to the added sales days this year.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 11-02-2016 A couple weeks back, GM released information that inspired us to report on how Buick is no longer a brand targeted mainly at the U.S. market. Could Cadillac also be headed in that direction? Let's face facts; Cadillac is building amazing automobiles that are not selling well compared to its peers in the U.S. Perhaps they were not intended to? Globally, Cadillac was up 20% over the most recent period, but down about 10% in the U.S. We rarely see this level of detail, but GM put together a summary of just where Cadillacs are selling. The U.S. market is still the number one market, but it looks like China will pass the U.S., possibly by the end of this year. The top chart shows what sells globally. The simple answer is the XT5 crossover is Cadillac's biggest vehicle by far. The bottom chart shows where Cadillac's October sales came from. We found it interesting that the image that GM chose to use to accompany the press release from which our data came is an ATS. Doesn't Cadillac get it? Cars have jumped the shark. Read the chart!

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 10-3-2016 General Motors sales report for September shows some interesting trend reversals. Looking at the GM brands first, Buick jumped in sales with about 21,000 vehicles sold this month. That is a healthy 14.1% increase over last year's monthly sales. The little Encore continues to be the hot Buick, outselling all other models by almost two to one, but the Verano had almost 4,000 units sold, up dramatically over last September. Cadillac also stopped the bleeding and logged a slight increase of about 3%. Like at Buick, the top-seller is a crossover, the new XT5. Unfortunately, it is now selling at half the rate the SRX had been. Upticks in Escalade and XTS (sedan) sales helped Caddy make up for the lost crossover sales. Is it too soon to call the XT5, and its new marketing plan a failure? We asked GM that question, and they say no. A company spokesperson told GM-Trucks today "...XT5 is not selling at the levels of the SRX however, we are still building inventory on the all-new XT5. In addition, last year Cadillac was moving the SRX with very aggressive lease deals (due to the approaching end of the SRX lifecycle). We anticipate the XT5 volume will increase." Chevy sales were flat in September of this year compared to last. GMC sales were down by 9% Interestingly, Chevy and GMC are now down 4% year over year. You wouldn't know that form the upbeat sales announcements every month. Silverado was down 15% this past month, Sierra down 9%. Colorado and Canyon pushed past a combined 13,000 units in September both up form last year when production capacity was lower. Malibu was up, Camaro was up, Cruze was up, Equinox and Terrain continue their scary declines.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 9-2-2016 Not every month is growth month for every auto maker. This month some of the largest brands took a step back, while some smaller ones had their best month ever. Like Toyota, GM had slightly lower sales this August than it did last year. Does this mean all is lost and the end is near. No. Here is a punch list of GM's reasons why it is doing the happy dance, even as sales dip: -Retail share up 0.5 percentage points -Average transaction prices up more than $2,500 -Disciplined incentive spending, in line with 2015 -Daily rental deliveries down 34 percent -Disciplined inventory levels and growing availability of key launch products Just to offer some balance and to include some areas of concern we created this punch list: - The new Cadillac XT5 crossover is selling way below the SRX it replaces. - CTS sales continue to go down and ATS is bottomed out at about 1,100 cars per month. - The Malibu continues to decline in sales, even with its new design. - Impala sales have declined 42.2% since last August. - The Camaro has declined in sales despite being an all-new model. - Both of GM's compact crossovers, Terrain and Equinox, are both down hugely. Every other automaker is selling the heck out of their compact crossovers. From this GM fan's perspective, it looks like GM is only looking at trucks and SUVs when it reviews its sales reports. We've seen this story before. Silverado and Sierra were down a bit in this month compared to last year, and Colorado and Canyon are up to their new production capacities. What are your thoughts on where GM is headed in terms of sales?

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 8-9-2016 In the month of July, GM's pickup sales simply crushed Ford's. Ford sold a respectable 65,657 F-150 trucks. Since Ford has decided to sit out the dramatic expansion of the midsize truck market, that is the total pickup sales for Ford last month. GM's full size pickups, the Silverado and Sierra beat the F-150 with a combined total of 76,544 units delivered. Add in the Colorado and Canyon's combined total of 12,727 and it is a rout. GM's pickup truck sales topped Ford's by about 36%. Year to date Ford is still ahead by about 30,000 trucks over GM. Do you think GM will top Ford overall by year's end?

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 8-2-2016 Although Toyota had a solid month of sales for light trucks, GM is closing the gap with regard to midsize pickups. In July, the Tacoma sold a respectable 16,580 units. GM delivered 9,195 Colorados. That is almost 30% more than last July and shows how well GM was able to find room for more production. Over at GMC, deliveries for July were 3,532 units, up 34%. Combined the 12,727 units of GM midsize trucks is coming much closer to the Tacoma's sales figures. Note that GM (and FCA) report on "deliveries." That means how many vehicles left GM and went to a dealer. So the comparison to the "sales" that Toyota reports are not exact. Close enough given the fast sell rate of these hot pickups. GM-Trucks.com has reached out to GM and asked if we can get the take rate for diesel versions of the Colorado and Canyon. If GM pulls back the curtain will let you in on the details.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 5/3/2016 April was the Colorado's best sales month ever. The work GM did to its production line late last year and early this year has obviously resulted in more truck capacity. At 10,362 units sold last month, GM says the Colorado's sales are up 55%. By our math it is 47%, but why split hairs? Either way it is an amazing result. The GMC Canyon was up 23% last month with sales at 3,026. So, are you wondering if the combined 13,388 sales of the Colorado and Canyon topped the Tacoma this month? I was. Sorry to disappoint, but the Tacoma also had its best-ever month with sales over 18,000 units in April. Incredibly, the Tundra also had a decent month, so this was not a case of Toyota temporarily shutting down Tundra production to boost Tacoma (they share the same facility). The Nissan Frontier also had a good month with sales over 7,000 units. Nobody saw that coming. That guy at Ford who said "No, let's skip the next generation Ranger, mid-size is dead." Yeah, he is not at Ford anymore. He and the Dodge Ram guy that killed the Dakota are now "spending more time with the family." Just a wild guess.

John Goreham Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com 4/4/2016 General Motors continues to take market share in the retail sector. March was a continuation of most of the same trends we have seen so far. Crossovers and trucks up (or at full capacity) and most of GM's cars down - way down. The Malibu is the happy exception. We don't know how many were sold to fleets, but does that even matter? A sale is a sale. The Malibu is now selling at a 22K per month rate. It is up 37% for the year. The Silverado, Sierra, Colorado, and Canyon are also selling well. GM continues to find ways to build and sell more full-size trucks and it has now reached its new maximum for the mid-size trucks. The low point of the sales figures are GM's premium and luxury cars. All of Buicks cars and all of Cadillac's cars are trending down. One car bucked the trend. The new Buick Cascada hit the lots this month and the convertible managed to sell about 814. That might not sound like much, but consider that the new Miata sold 1001 units in March and its is not a bad start.