Cruzin...GM makes big gains with high-mileage small cars like the Chevy Cruze.
General Motors sales increased 27% in April with gains driven by surging demand for GM’s lineup of fuel-efficient passenger cars and crossovers.
While many makers have yet to report their April numbers, preliminary estimates suggest the market showed an overall gain of 19%, with the month’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate, or SAAR, coming in around 13.4 million and 13.5 million units, according to Don Johnson, vice president, U.S. Sales Operations.
But Johnson cautioned the SAAR, could fall during second and third quarter because of low inventories at some big Japanese carmakers.
Compared to March, GM retail sales rose 4% last month, even though the maker’s incentive spending – which it had bumped up during the first quarter — decreased more than 10%, Johnson said.
Data from tracking service TrueCar suggests overall industry incentives were down 4%, with some Japanese makers, like Toyota and Honda, decreasing their givebacks by closer to 20% as Japanese-made products slipped into shorter supply.
Ironically, some of the vehicles hardest hit by that shortage, triggered by Japan’s March 11 natural disaster, are fuel-efficient models like the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. That creates an opportunity for domestic, European and Korean makers; what with gasoline averaging almost $4 per gallon, consumers are beginning to trade in larger vehicles for smaller, more fuel efficient ones.
“Recently, rising fuel prices have led many to re-think their vehicle choice,” GM’s Johnson said.
“Because of the investments we’ve made in fuel-efficiency and global product architectures, the company is well positioned to meet these needs,” he added.
During the first quarter of 2011, GM’s retail share of the small, compact and compact crossover segments improved by an estimated 3.4 full share points, compared to the first quarter of 2010. Much of this improvement is due to improved availability of the popular Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers and the launch of the all-new Chevy Cruze compact sedan, Johnson said.
Retail sales for the Cruze were 180% higher than the Chevrolet Cobalt it replaced. The Equinox and Terrain also posted retail sales records, up 53 and 61% respectively.