General Motors U.S. Sales Plunge 34% in April

There was a glimmer, but just a glimmer of hope. Total sales were up 11% compared to March, as traditional spring selling season begins.

Declining sales continues to be the trend at General Motors in the United States, with sales off -34% in April. The company wholesaled 173,007 vehicles. GM total truck sales (including crossovers) of 102,032 were down 28% and car sales of 71,775 were off 41% compared with a year ago.

Year to date, GM sales have declined 45%, with cars, at -47%, leading the drop.

As a result of a continued weak market, GM’s 2009 second-quarter production forecast is set at 390,000 vehicles (172,000 cars and 218,000 trucks), which is down about 53% compared with a year ago, when GM North America built 834,000 vehicles (382,000 cars and 452,000 trucks) in the second-quarter of 2008. Virtually all of GM’s North American plants will be closed for this summer. 

There was a glimmer, but just a glimmer of hope. Total sales were up 11% compared to March, as traditional spring selling season begins. However the sales increase was largely attributed to an increase in fleet sales. GM’s car sales compared with March were up only 2,900 vehicles (4%), while truck sales increased more than 9,500 vehicles (16%), and crossover sales were up nearly 4,200 vehicles (14%).

Critics of GM, who say that it is too dependent on truck sales, apparently are not talking to buyers. And politicians and others who keep babbling on about the industry’s “green future” should also note the distinctive lack of customer greenbacks supporting hybrids. Only 1,534 hybrid vehicles were delivered in the month. This includes total sales from a wide range of GM hybrid products: the Chevrolet Malibu, Tahoe and Silverado, GMC Yukon and Sierra, Cadillac Escalade, Saturn Aura and Vue hybrids. So far, in 2009, GM has delivered 5,156 hybrid vehicles.

The company tried to put positive face on what remain disastrous results.

“From a retail standpoint, GM and the industry continued at about the same selling rate as February and March. We see that stabilization, along with a firming up of our fleet business and improvement in Silverado and Sierra sales, as an encouraging sign,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing.

LaNeve, like other industry sales executives, continues to think that “pent-up demand” is growing, and this will eventually, result in sales increases. May the company and its dealers survive long enough to see this.

GM has until the end of the month to come up with a revised viability plan that will pass muster with the Treasury Department’s Auto Task Force or face bankruptcy and liquidation. The Task Force rejected GM’s previous plan because it used sales volumes in the 12.5 annual unit range. Instead, it wants GM to use volumes in the 10.5 million unit annual range for the short term, a rate that the industry has not obtained thus far in 2009.

Yesterday, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, BorgWarner, a large and respected industry supplier, said it is setting production levels at 10 million units for the balance of 2009.

GM’s four core brands under its pending restructuring performed slightly better in April than in March. Total Chevrolet sales, 115,000 vehicles, were up 22%; Cadillac sales, 8,300 vehicles, increased 2% percent; GMC sales, 20,400 vehicles, were up 7%; and Buick sales of nearly 9,000 vehicles were up 21%.

The company is also extending its incentive program announced last month. 

“We’re hearing very positive feedback from dealers and customers, so we’re keeping the rally going by extending the Total Confidence plan for Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Saturn customers in May,” LaNeve said. “More than 750,000 people visited our Total Confidence website in April, and about 70% of those folks came to us from third-party sites.” 

The elimination of Pontiac from Total Confidence, which is itself being eliminated by GM, is understandable. But last we heard Cadillac still has a future at GM?

“We’d also like to see continued actions by the government to stimulate sales, such as the proposed scrappage program. The President’s comments yesterday encouraging customers to buy American cars and trucks were also very positive.” LaNeve added.