GM introduced its full-size SUV lineup for 2015 in a bi-coastal event led by President Dan Ammann.
General Motors needed some good news and it’s getting some from one of its traditional strongholds.
Sales of the maker’s recently redesigned full-size sport-utility vehicles, the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and the GMC Yukon, Yukon Denali, Yukon XL and Yukon XL Denali, are exceeding expectations, according to Rick Scheidt, GM vice president of truck strategy.
Scheidt said GM’s sales of the big utility vehicles alone bring in enough revenue to make them a Fortune 400 company.
Meanwhile, GMC’s total sales in April were the brand’s best for the month in seven years, with 17% retail and 13% overall year-over-year increases, noted Roger McCormick, director of marketing for GMC and Buick.
The full-size Yukon and Yukon XL SUVs led the brand in growth with year-over-year retail sales up 141% and total sales up 44%, he said. The gap reveals GM’s growing emphasis on the higher-profit consumer market.
The newest member of the GMC family: the full-size 2015 Yukon Denali
McCormick said the Yukon routinely delivers a lot of repeat GMC business, but also brings in a significant amount of new buyers, who are younger and more affluent than those in the general full-size truck segment. That’s particularly true for the upscale Denali model – which typically averages only 10 days on dealer lots – the so-called “days to turn” rate – compared with the 64-day average for the full-size truck segment.
(Major product changes coming at Fiat Chrysler as part of new 5-year plan. Click Here to learn more.)
The all-new 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are once again proving why they are the segment leaders with demand for the updated SUVs outpacing expectations.
Chevrolet created the large SUV segment with the Suburban in 1935, and has been the sales leader in the full-size market ever since. As with GMC, Chevy’s large utes don’t last on showroom lots long, the average turn rate running just 17 days for the Tahoe and 10 days for the Suburban.
(Click Here to read the review of the 2015 Chevrolet Suburban.)
Overall, Chevrolet and GMC combined share of the full-sized sport utility market has climbed to 78%, Scheidt noted.
“Chevrolet’s all-new Suburban and Tahoe offer improved quality, advanced technology and increased fuel efficiency, yet they retain their impressive towing capabilities,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book. “Robust sales confirm the ongoing market demand for traditional full-size SUVs with a compelling combination of performance and refinement.”
(GMC’s Denali becomes a major brand in its own right. Click Here for more.)
Retail sales of the Tahoe and the Suburban in April each more than doubled from a year earlier. Between the two models, Chevrolet alone held approximately 50% of the full-sized SUV market.
The revamped SUVs received special attention to interior quietness featuring new inlaid triple-sealed doors, as well as new safety technologies like forward collision alert and lane departure warning.
Meanwhile, customers are opting for fully loaded models. In April, fully half of all Tahoes sold were the top-of-the-line LTZ version while 65% of all Suburbans were in LTZ trim, noted Sandor Piszar, the marketing director of full-size trucks
The LTZ models come standard with such equipment as LED daytime running lamps, and the third-generation of magnetic ride control, a real-time damping system that delivers more precise body motion control by “reading” the road in milliseconds.