GM Sales Slump 6.8% for September

General Motors' dealers in the United States sold 338,380 new cars and trucks in September. The company sold 1,385 more retail vehicles in September than the year before. Retail truck sales, led by full-size pickups and utilities, were up 2 percent. Retail car sales were down 12 percent, partly due to inventory constraints of Chevrolet Aveo, Cobalt and Malibu. Retail sales of 246,797 vehicles were down 3 percent on a sales day-adjusted basis.

"GM's truck business was boosted in September by our segment-leading fuel economy and the addition of the industry's best coverage, including the 5-year/100,000 mile warranty program," said Mark LaNeve, General Motors North America vice president, Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing.

GM continues to reduce its reliance on low-margin daily rental sales. Sales to daily rental companies were down 26 percent compared to year-ago levels, while our commercial fleet business was up 12 percent. This ongoing planned pull-down of low-margin daily rental sales resulted in total September sales of 338,380 being down 6.8 percent compared with a year ago on a sales day-adjusted basis.

bubbahotep - 10/3/2006 3:31:20 PM

+2 Boost

Now I know it took a lot of work on the accounting dept to come of with the figure of 6.8% decline... Why don't they just say, "we're still in the red and will be in the red til 2010 ..." Saves a lot of time and effort...Or how about, "we'll get back to ya when we turn a profit..."

Agent009 - 10/3/2006 4:11:23 PM

+1 Boost

I kind of like the spin they gave at first to make it sound like they were up in sales. You had to read to the bottom to get to he truth. They weren't the only ones spinning the facts this month.

OBSERVER1984 - 10/3/2006 4:49:42 PM

+1 Boost

GM has no future in this structure of brands!!!

kart1 - 10/3/2006 5:00:13 PM

+1 Boost

Somebody get Ghosn on the phone, and show Wagoner the door.

delan - 10/3/2006 11:22:17 PM

+1 Boost

Only 6.8%? I'm shocked.

bigslick83 - 10/4/2006 2:09:03 PM

+1 Boost

what i dont get is how these figures make nothing known about the actual state of the company. if they make an 8% profit last year, and were down 6.8% they still made a profit. they should be telling us how sales are in relation to the last month/3 months/6 months and a full year, not just the month of september last year.

all of the car makers are taking a beating by offering all of their vehicles to lease for rental companies. they demand to get the cars so much below invoice that the company loses more money to them than its own employees purchasing their cars at no profit. they need to pull out of that market even if it drives the rental costs up.

with gm's and fords high heath care and retirement costs, low appeal vehicles, price slashing, and all this stupid warrenty hike, they are going to really be hurting down the road.

i dont know of many gm vehicles with more than one owner, and 100k miles that has never had the transmission, engine, clutch, air compresser, or other high cost parts replaced.