Rough weather in many spots around the country may have kept the lid on General Motors’ U.S. sales in February, which were up 4.2% from year-ago but finished below expectations for the month.
The February uptick came on a volume of 231,378 units, and was the same both overall and in daily rate, since the month had an identical 24 selling days this year and last. A WardsAuto forecast had GM sales rising 7.5% in February.
On the retail side, GM says sales inched up 1.4% to 168,782 vehicles.
Gains at Chevrolet (3.8%), posting its best February since 2008, and GMC (19.3%) drove the overall positive results, as Buick (-9.2%) and Cadillac (-12.6%) recorded declines. Both those brands are down for the year as well, while Chevy and GMC have maintained double-digit gains through the first two months of 2015.
Cadillac’s continued malaise centers on the car side, where most of its volume models were down by double-digit rates in February. That offset booming demand for the Escalade, which doubled its volume from year-ago.
It’s a similar story at Buick, where only the Encore small CUV landed in positive territory for the brand.
Hot is GM’s lineup of fullsize SUVs and its midsize and fullsize pickups. Like the Escalade, the Chevy Tahoe (49.4%) and Suburban (118.0%) and GMC Yukon (43.5%) and Yukon XL (84.5%) moved quickly in February.
The Chevy Silverado fullsize pickup notched a 24.1% jump in February and more than 9,000 midsize Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyons midsize pickups were moved.
“Six months into its launch, the Chevrolet Colorado is the industry’s fastest-selling pickup, regardless of brand or model year,” Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president-Sales Operations, says in a statement. “The Silverado had another great month, with sales, market share and average transaction prices up sharply.”
GM says overall its average transaction prices rose to $34,700, up $2,700 from year-ago. It says its incentive spending equaled 9.7% of its ATPs, below an estimate of 9.9% for the industry.
Fleet sales accounted for 27.1% of GM’s total deliveries in February, up two points from year-ago.
The automaker finished February with 732,394 vehicles in stock, equivalent to a 76-day supply.
