(from autonews.com)
2018 US Light Vehicle Sales – Just the Numbers, Please
– Posted on January 31, 2019
(from autonews.com)
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Nice dodge for GM, letting them just lump everything together rather than showing sales by division like everyone else. Maybe they’re hoping no one will focus on weakness at Buick and Cadillac (and probably Chevy too). I’m thinking it may be GMC that is holding up the whole house right now, at least in terms of divisional profitability.
As you probably know, they stopped issuing monthly sales stats a while back. I think they will only release the details with their quarterly earnings report.
Yep. It’ll be interesting to see how they try to spin the results. Quarterly “challenges” aren’t really any easier to package than monthly “challenges,” just less frequent…. I think GMC’s “image premium” has become like Jeep for GM (though nowhere near as cool or global), while Chevy trucks and the C1XX CUVs (Traverse et al) represent the other key pillars for profitable volume. I suspect much of the rest is a hot mess….
It may be about the costs inherant in the reporting. I remember when Chrysler stopped with the 10 day reports that were industry-standard through the 70s. Everyone else eventually followed suit.
A little sleuthing reveals GM sold 585,000 Silverados and 220,000 GMC Sierras in 2018, so this should give you an idea about GM’s car sales. The Colorado / Canyon twins are another roughly 168k.
Rough figuring, it’s 973k light trucks out of 3.0M for passenger car sales.
Arguably the bigger problem is at Ford with 909k F-Series sold out of 2.4M Ford branded cars. So GM is approximately 32% light trucks to Ford’s 38%.
https://news.pickuptrucks.com/2019/01/pickup-truck-sales-breakdown-fourth-quarter-2018.html
They sold 58 Chev SS Sport Sedans in 2018, most in January-February as would be expected with 2017 being the final model year.
They did, huh? Then they sold more in the US in 2018 than Holden could sell of the imported 2018 FWD replacement in Oz!
Well, not quite, but having sold 24,000 VF’s to October (and closure) in 2017, Holden pushed out a magnificent 6,300 of the imported newbie to October 2018 – when they stopped o/s production of the car due to massive overstocking (Equinox likewise, btw). As of now, Feb 1, there’s no news the production has restarted either.
Seems modern Australia sees little point in buying a selection of Korean-Thai-German-Tennesseean, all far from best in class, under the badge of “Australia’s Own” (which, despite huge tax dollars, it ofcourse never was anyway but that’s another story).
I am now certain Holden will be gone in five years time. Why would anyone want one?
Yep business as usual for GMH, our police like the new Peugadore they have them in ever increasing numbers but GMH holds the supply contract what they get when that comes up for renewal is anyones guess.
For all that hype about Genesis…ouch. Why can’t they make a nicer Santa Fe and Tucson under the Genesis brand? I know they have at least one SUV coming next year, but why couldn’t they have made a stop-gap to give dealers something to sell other than sedans?
And can you really still buy a new Smart fortwo? With those kind of sales numbers, no wonder I haven’t seen one since they redesigned it almost five years ago.
The Genesis is the Bee’s Knees, in Korea, where it is the executive car of choice. It appears that Hyundai doesn’t seem to realise gigantic SUV’s are all the rage in North America.
Genesis launched in Hyundai dealerships first and then decided that maybe they should have their own and discontinued sales through Hyundai stores with only a skeleton independent dealer network. That being said, I’m sure that any potential dealers are well assured the UVs are on their way.
There are NO Genesis dealers in the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Edit: ok, there are, but the Genesis website doesn’t show them.
Look at the increase in Tesla volume. There is a huge demand, in my parts anyway, for EV’s. From what I hear, the Model 3 has locally destroyed both the BMW 3 Series and the Audi A4, which are similar money.
The first company that has a C$25,000 EV that has a decent range is going to make a fortune, at least in my area.
That won’t continue for long. Price will prevent it. And I am a huge huge fan of Tesla. I want them to smash the guts out of all the other brands. But I know they are only going to destroy the prestigious marks. Lincoln, Cadillac, Mercedes, bmw, Porsche et al.
I think the self driving feature is going to be a bigger seller than the battery power. And Tesla will be there first with the best. I really don’t think the average joe cares that much about batteries, fuel cells or otherwise. Three things in this order will crown the next king of the auto marks in my opinion…
fully autonomous self driving capability
refuel in your own garage (nat gas, propane, hydrogen?, or electricity)
The *appearance* of being greener than gasoline.
You don’t know. Tesla could introduce their $25,000 long rage EV in a couple of years and make a fortune on it.
Where I live, we get 100% of our electricity from renewables. EV’s are clean.
I would love to see that happen…but…I just don’t see that happening.
Hats off to Kia for for somehow keeping sales within 0.0008% of last year. Slow but steady growth… have patience.
I had a similar thought…five more sales in 2018 vs 2017, Growth is growth.
Amazing how close all three “Big 3” manufacturers are…FCA with 1.5 million sales between Jeep and Ram
15.5k FIATs for the entire US. I bet all those FIAT dealers are so very glad they put down all that coin to get a dealership and build it. Even Alfa outsold FIAT.
Dead brand walking? (In the US)
I wonder if FCA is regretting the decision to create a dedicated Fiat dealer network.
I wonder if FCA is regretting the decision to create a dedicated Fiat dealer network.
It’s normal to see high end brands in separate stores, but not a mass market brand like Fiat, especially with FCA’s strategy of putting all the mass market brands in the same showroom. That strategy almost certainly seriously crimped the number of dealers willing to take on Fiat. A couple of years ago, FCA changed that policy, so now Fiat can be placed in the same showroom and the paperwork is set up the same as the other North American brands.
It crossed my mind that Marchionne’s plan all along in requiring Fiat to be in a separate showroom was to transition the stores to higher margin Alfas and Masers. Seems like every free standing Fiat store in my area is now carrying both Fiat and Alfa. Fiat’s offices are in the main FCA HQ building in Auburn Hills, while Alfa and Maser offices have been consolidated in the former Chrysler museum building on the HQ grounds.
I can see the appeal of an “Italian boutique” kind of dealership where Fiat, Alfa and maybe Maserati would all be available. That kind of buyer would be very different from the typical Chrysler/Ram/Dodge/Jeep buyer so a different experience might do some good. If only they can sustain the volume to keep the salesmen eating regularly.
If only they can sustain the volume to keep the salesmen eating regularly.
It’s not looking good. FCA is the only one of the big three still reporting sales monthly. Their report this morning shows Fiat sales down 39% and Alfa sales down 30%. Looks like the novelty wore off the Alfas in a hurry as the Giulia is down 44% and the Stelvio is down 11%. Alfa still outsold Fiat tho, 1150 to 751 for the month.
More worrisome for FCA is the Grand Cherokee extended it’s trend from late last year of small sales declines: down 8%. The Renegade was down 27% but dealer inventory is thin as the 2019s will not be available for a couple months yet.
I assume that any Fiat Studio owner would be regretting it. The one that I use for service on my 500 is also considered an Alfa Romeo Studio, but the Cadillac dealer next door shares the service department. It is the problem that Hyundai is having with Genesis in reverse.
If they did some reconfiguring and made the Studio owners a deal where they got Maserati and Alfa Romeo and tossed Fiat to the CDJR dealers, it would actually help. The Studios would focus on upscale Italian imports. CDJR’F’ would be mass market. There is nothing small available at the CDJR dealerships, and their service department could get used to servicing Fiat products. The issue would be that the dealers, having gone through trauma from Chrysler killing franchises and similar, would be rather gun-shy and balk at the idea.
Glad I jumped ship from MINI to Land Rover. Versus 2016 and 2017, in my time at MINI during the first eight months of 2018, it was evident how much slower we were and how many fewer cars we were selling.
MINI’s significant shift upmarket, reshuffling of trim levels, and ever increasing prices, particularly with the Countryman, have effectively priced it out of reach or desire of its faithful.
Meanwhile, Land Rover’s increase versus Jaguar’s decrease says it all. New car buyers wants SUVs, not cars.
Based on 2019 so far though, I suspect 2019 to be a used car year. New car manufacturer’s incentives and lease programs aren’t all that good. They typically aren’t in January but they seem less attractive this year in particular. Thankfully it’s been a busy January but I’ve been finding that most car shoppers have been gravitating to buying pre-owned versus leasing or buying new.
Where I live, the Hello Kitty crowd has abandoned the Mini. The Tesla Model 3 is the new Kittymobile.
So will F-Pace and I-Pace help turn that round for the Jaguar side, or is it too little, too late? I admit I’m no fan of these ‘uprights’ but I have noticed quite a few F-Paces around on the school runs here in North Wales.
If anyone had predicted 15 years ago that 700k vehicles would separate Chrysler from GM in 2018 he would have been laughed at. I certainly didn’t.
I suspect there are still huge regional variances, based on some of the comments. Here in the greater Silicon Valley area, obviously lots of Tesla’s, enough newer Smart forTwo’s to be regular sights, lots of Maserati’s but far fewer Alfa’s. As for Fiat, now that the 500e, which seemed to make up at least half the 500’s on the road a few years ago, is discontinued, they are fading here too. A 500L or X is as exotic as a Lamborghini or Ferrari, the 124 an even rarer find. The new Ram pickups are everywhere, and Cherokee appears to be picking up as well. Genesis? Either no one buys them or they’re just invisible to me in a gray sea of CamCordOnata’s.
Looking at this list, I’m a bit surprised that Subaru beat out the Volkswagon group, with all their brands..