GM Sales - September 2016 - Trends Reverse

Gorehamj · October 3, 2016

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
10-3-2016

General Motors sales report for September shows some interesting trend reversals. Looking at the GM brands first, Buick jumped in sales with about 21,000 vehicles sold this month. That is a healthy 14.1% increase over last year's monthly sales. The little Encore continues to be the hot Buick, outselling all other models by almost two to one, but the Verano had almost 4,000 units sold, up dramatically over last September.

Cadillac also stopped the bleeding and logged a slight increase of about 3%. Like at Buick, the top-seller is a crossover, the new XT5. Unfortunately, it is now selling at half the rate the SRX had been. Upticks in Escalade and XTS (sedan) sales helped Caddy make up for the lost crossover sales. Is it too soon to call the XT5, and its new marketing plan a failure? We asked GM that question, and they say no. A company spokesperson told GM-Trucks today "...XT5 is not selling at the levels of the SRX however, we are still building inventory on the all-new XT5. In addition, last year Cadillac was moving the SRX with very aggressive lease deals (due to the approaching end of the SRX lifecycle). We anticipate the XT5 volume will increase."

Chevy sales were flat in September of this year compared to last. GMC sales were down by 9% Interestingly, Chevy and GMC are now down 4% year over year. You wouldn't know that form the upbeat sales announcements every month. Silverado was down 15% this past month, Sierra down 9%. Colorado and Canyon pushed past a combined 13,000 units in September both up form last year when production capacity was lower. Malibu was up, Camaro was up, Cruze was up, Equinox and Terrain continue their scary declines.