GM’s April U.S. Sales Tumble 7.1%

General Motors daily sales tumbled 7.1% in April, as the automaker continued to hold fleet sales in check to focus on the more profitable retail channel and deliveries from its Cadillac luxury-vehicle division screeched to a halt.

GM sold 259,557 cars, trucks and CUVs last month on daily basis compared with 269,056 in like-2015, according to WardsAuto data. There were 27 selling days last month and 26 in the year-ago period.

Fleet sales were 23% of that total, inline with the company’s guidance but off from the 25% or more mix from the automaker historically. Sales to rental-car companies alone were reduced 18,000 units in the month. If GM’s fleet sales would have matched year-ago, the automaker’s year-over-year sales total would have increased.

Retail sales, GM says, grew 3% year-over-year on strong demand for vehicles from the automaker’s Chevrolet, GMC and Buick brands.

“GM’s retail growth over the last 12 months has outpaced the industry by a wide margin because our redesigned large pickups and SUVs are hits, we made smart investments in new segments like small (CUVs) and midsize pickups, and our momentum in the car business is accelerating with each new model introduction,” says Kurt McNeil, vice president-U.S. Sales Operations.

“GM bucked the industry trend with flat year-over incentives, we are managing with lean inventories and our commercial and government fleet business is growing,” he says in a statement.

However, GM also saw further weakness at Cadillac, where it is investing more than $12 billion over the next several years to re-establish the brand in the U.S. and grow abroad. Sales fell 31.5%, as new cars such as the ATS compact sports sedan and CTS midsize sedan were down 21.1% and 25.5%, respectively.

Demand for the stalwart Escalade large SUV slipped 10.5%, likely because the boost it had been enjoying from a recent redesign is slackening.

There were a couple of surprises on the CUV side, too. The Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain 5-passenger CUVs, which usually sell big for GM, saw deliveries wilt 31.2% and 19.6%, respectively. The pullback in rental-car sales might have been a factor, because both of those models are popular among vacationers and business travelers.

Chevrolet’s overall sales dwindled 6% to 183,442, although even with one fewer selling day in April deliveries of the redesigned Malibu midsize car jumped 20.2%. Buick sales declined 6.4% to 17,720, with the Encore small CUV  the sole gainer at the brand, up 13.6%. GMC demand eroded 3.8% despite a 9.3% sales increase by the Sierra large pickup.

So far this year, GM sales are off 1% to 943,255 from 953,095.

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