GM trucks continue sales surge - car sales dive

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
4/1/2015

 

Although GM vehicle sales were down slightly year over year in March, truck and SUV sales continued to grow at a steady pace. Conversely, car sales at GM have simply nose-dived. This trend has been going on since mid to late 2014. Trucks, vans, and SUVs were up 14 percent at GM. Car sales were down an incredible 21 percent. Crossover sales were up by 6%.

For the second month in a row, GM issued a statement that indicated this sales situation is all part of the plan. Kurt McNeil, General Motors’ U.S. vice president of Sales Operations, said in a press release “...we knew 2015 would be a strong year for trucks. Higher demand dovetailed perfectly with the launches of our new full-size pickups and large SUVs. Low fuel prices and the successful launches of the Chevrolet Colorado and Trax made us even more bullish. Our foresight and disciplined approach to incentives is being rewarded with very strong truck sales and record average transaction prices.”

Although this situation is most likely very profitable for GM now, looming corporate average fuel economy deadlines and mandates, and a possible return to higher gas prices may not be kind to GM if truck sales continue to be the only type of vehicle growth at GM. This trend is not industry-wide. Toyota's car sales are not down for the year, but up, as is the case at many smaller manufacturers who don't sell trucks, such as Subaru.

[milligan]

Seems like they are taking the real motivator (low fuel prices) as something they aimed for, but these plans are put into place years in advance. There is no way they foresaw fuel prices nose diving and any company that would speculate their car line on volatile fuel prices would be doing a disservice to investors.

[WilliamBos]

Well, nothing qrong with the swing back to full sized trucks and SUV. they are just so much safer IMHO.