Jul 01, 2011

GM sales up 10% despite Cadillac drop, more June reports

By James R. Healey, USA TODAY
Updated 21m ago

Cadillac stumbled in June, but General Motors' other brands improved vs. a year ago and GM posted a 10.2% overall sales increase for the month. For the first half of the year, GM sales are up 16.8%.

More June sales reports:

VW booms on Jetta's best month ever

Other European makers

Ford Motor sales up 14% on cars, SUVs

Japanese makers: Nissan up; Infiniti hurt by supply

The gain is more impressive when you consider that last year, GM sales included tallies from Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn. GM sold Saab and discontinued the others.

Even so, the modest gain "is lower than we expected," says Edmunds.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs. That's apparently because GM cut back more on discount sales to rental-car fleets. It could do that, Krebs says, because the small cars usually provided to fleets now are popular among individual buyers seeking lower prices and higher mileage.

GMC, the company's truck brand, showed the biggest percentage gain -- up 14.9% from June a year earlier. For the half-year, Buick is the star -- up 33.7%.

Chevrolet, though, continues to be GM's main brand by far, posting 72.8% of GM's total sales. Chevy was up 10.9% in June. Cadillac was down 7.9%.

Chevy Cruze, a compact sedan that replaced the Cobalt, shined, snagging nearly 25,000 buyers last month, or more than twice what the Cobalt did a year before. For the half-year, Cruze sales were 58.9% better than Cobalt's a year ago.

Chevy Equinox SUV jumped 56.3% as SUV buyers sought modest-size models with better fuel economy to cope with gasoline prices that, though falling, remained high.

GMC's Terrain, a version of the Chevy Equinox SUV, was the big gainer for GMC, but the full-size Sierra pickup continued to be the best-selling model. Sierra sales rose 8.2%.

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