General Motors Posted Increased May Sales

Anthony Fontanelle
June 4, 2007

The past year has seen the United States’ Big Three carmakers face their toughest challenge. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler has already taken steps to bring their companies back to profitability and with the May sales reported, General Motors looks as if it is back on the track.

Due to the additional selling day for last month as compared to May of last year, computations put General Motors’ sales figure to an increase of 4.7 percent if adjusted to the extra selling day. If unadjusted, General Motors’ sales increase is at 8.8 percent.

“Our May results were extremely positive as we saw strong total and retail sales increases,” says Mark LaNeve, the Vice-President for General Motors North American Sales, Service and Marketing. “Our significant market share gains in full-size trucks and crossovers validates the decision we made to invest in industry-leading fuel economy in these important segments,” he added.

“We are particularly pleased with the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, which pushed our full-size truck sales up more than 10 percent for the month. As with many of our vehicles, these great all-new trucks offer what the customer is looking for - best-in-class fuel economy, terrific performance and tremendous value. And our newest entry to the crossover segment, the Buick Enclave, is performing ahead of our expectations. Dealers are selling them as soon as they arrive from the plant. Our mid-size crossover segment performance, including the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook, continues to grow at a blistering pace.”

For the month of May, General Motors sold a total of 375,682 vehicles. Last year, for the same month, the Detroit, Michigan-based car manufacturer sold 345,157 vehicles. That brings the company’s total sales for the first five months of the year to 1,596,463. That figure is lower than last year when General Motors sold 1,653,484 vehicles.

The Saturn brand indeed shows the highest increase in terms of sale of all the brands under General Motors. The effort exerted by General Motors on the development of new Saturn vehicles equipped with the Saturn strut bar and the likes resulted in a 68.6 percent sales increase. That makes the brand the biggest winner for the month of May in terms of sale. Last month, the General Motors subsidiary sold 26,905 cars and light trucks. Last year, the company only sold 15,347 vehicles.

Last year, the brand is ranked sixth in terms of sales among General Motors marques. This year though, thanks to a revitalized lineup, the company posted the fourth highest sales output among General Motors brands. The only brands which sold more vehicles than Saturn are Chevrolet, GMC, and Pontiac. Saturn has overtaken Buick and Cadillac in terms of sales for the past month.

Chevy is still the best selling brand under General Motors. Chevrolet sold 220,870 vehicles last month and that is a 1.6 percent improvement as compared to the 209,108 Chevy vehicles sold in May of last year. GMC is the second best-selling brand with 48,336 vehicles sold last month marking an 8.6 percent increase compared last year for the same month.

Pontiac also showed an increased sale at 13.7 percent when it delivered 36,325 new vehicles to consumers last month. Last year’s May saw the brand sell 30,728 new vehicles. Buick, Cadillac, Hummer, and Saab all suffered declining sales last month.

Source:  Amazines.com