Where is GM selling all those SUVs?

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
8/17/2015

General motors is swamped with work at the Arlington, TX full-size SUV plant. The plant is so busy it added a third shift, then the occasional Saturday, then this week announced it would go to a six-day work week. This seems to imply that GM is selling Tahoes, Escalades, Suburbans, and Yukons all over the U.S. in ever increasing numbers. As our sharp-eyed forum member SnakeEyes pointed out after our story on the Arlington Plant last night, that is not the case. As a matter of fact, the big SUVs are way behind last year's sales figures here in the U.S. market.

 

Here is a quick breakdown of the present year to date sales of each in the U.S:

Yukon XL Down 42%

Yukon Down 14%

Escalade Down 32% YTD

Escalade ESV Down 11%

Tahoe - Down 23%

Suburban - Down 17%

We were left scratching our heads. Yes, we all know that GM sells products outside the U.S., but we also know that Europeans turn their noses up at these vehicles which are about 1.5 times the width of their back-roads and that the Chinese pronounce the word car "Byu-Wick". Rather than speculate, we reached out to General Motors. Jennifer Ecclestone, handles communications for the Western U.S. and Arlington Plant and she replied to our inquiry in under an hour. The simple answer is that the SUVs built in Arlington also go to other markets. Sales in Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East are partly responsible for all that overtime keeping the good folks at UAW Local 276 busy nights and weekends. It is nice to see an American company building an expensive, high-quality product for export to other countries.

[hicountry]

Wonder if ISIS is buying these to make car bombs? Maybe they've run out of our Humvees.

[j-ten-ner]

 

... but we also know that Europeans turn their noses up at these vehicles which are about 1.5 times the width of their back-roads ...

 

uh-huh

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[SnakeEyeSS]

Wonder if ISIS is buying these to make car bombs? Maybe they've run out of our Humvees.

Nah, they use Toyota's.

[RyanbabZ71]

I see a ton of never tahoes around here

 

 

Ryan

[Chevor]

Doest Gm want over 80k for these now.

[Gorehamj]

If I may comment on my own story - Noticed that the UAW voted to authorize a strike today. Now I get why GM is banging out its most profitable vehicles during what seem to be declining sales.

[GPGuy]

I've seen a number of new full size GM SUV's around here.

[GPGuy]

Some GM Canada sales numbers I dug up.

 

Oshawa, Ontario (August 4, 2015) — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers delivered 22,826 vehicles in July 2015 versus 23,973 in July 2014.

John Roth, vice president, sales, service and marketing for GM Canada said, “While July sales slowed slightly after a particularly strong June, we continue to see growing strength in our brands and products with our overall sales up 5 per cent for the calendar year to date. Driving these results in the highly competitive pickup truck segment, the GMC Canyon, Sierra and Sierra HD are experiencing calendar year to date growth of 23 per cent.

July 2015 Brand Sales Highlights:

• Chevrolet for the month of July saw sales of the Sonic up 303 per cent, Volt up 14 per cent, Cruze up 4 per cent, Corvette up 20 per cent and the Tahoe up 5 per cent
• Buick crossover sales were up 9 per cent for the month driven by sales of the Enclave (up 18 per cent) and Encore (up 4 per cent)
• GMC total sales are up 0.5 per cent for the month, fueled by GMC’s pickup truck portfolio which is up 1.2 per cent for the month
• Cadillac luxury SUV portfolio sales were up 12 per cent for the month, driven by sales of the SRX, up 12 per cent, and Escalade up 10 per cent

Across our brands, the integration of 4G LTE technology on more than 30 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles is driving customer interest in our products. With mobile data speeds of up to 10 times faster than 3G, customers are showing great interest in the ability of GM vehicles to act as Wi-Fi hot spots, allowing customers to connect up to seven different devices.

[austingta]

There is really nothing to compete with the full-size GM SUVs. LX 570? Just maybe. But not quite. No M-B except the big Jeep thing, no BMW, Land Cruiser is a wannabe, Infinity QX80 no way.

 

No Ford (Expedition no way, the Navigator nobody wants but it's close, Fiat Chrysler gave up. I'll take an Escalade ESV any day. It's hard to get used to the hearse styling but maybe it'll grow on us.

[14Silverado14]

Stand tall UAW,I stand with you all. Union all the way !!!

[truckofwinandawesome]

There is really nothing to compete with the full-size GM SUVs. LX 570? Just maybe. But not quite. No M-B except the big Jeep thing, no BMW, Land Cruiser is a wannabe, Infinity QX80 no way.

 

No Ford (Expedition no way, the Navigator nobody wants but it's close, Fiat Chrysler gave up. I'll take an Escalade ESV any day. It's hard to get used to the hearse styling but maybe it'll grow on us.

 

the real reason nobody wants an Expedition or a Navigator is because Ford Neutered them with the EgoBoost V6s, with No Offering of a Proper V8; and no really deep changes to the Platform.

[Jsdirt]

Plus they totally rot out in 8 years ....