GM’s February U.S. Sales Meet Headwind

General Motors’ U.S. sales tumbled 6.9% in February, as another strong month for its newly redesigned CUVs failed to make up for a surprisingly weak truck month and further erosion in car demand.

The Detroit automaker sold 220,905 light vehicles last month on a daily basis, compared with 237,251 in the same period a year ago, according to Wards Intelligence data.

Sales of CUVs rose 13% to 80,513 units from 75,015, while pickup, van and SUV sales dropped 12.3% to 93,478 units from 106,612. GM’s car deliveries slipped 15.6% to 46,914 units from 55,605, further reflecting industrywide consumer tastes for trucks.

The automaker blames difficult year-over-year comparisons and incentive spending down more than $500 per vehicle against an industry where discounts declined an average $64.

“We had a blockbuster February last year, including record truck sales,” GM spokesman Jim Cain says.

GM told investors earlier this year it expected its CUVs to prop up monthly sales until its next generation of large pickups greets the market sometime after this summer.

Each of GM’s freshly redone large CUVs enjoyed a strong month. Sales of the Chevy Traverse grew 10.2% to 11,584 copies compared with 10,477 last year. The Buick Enclave accounted for 3,143 deliveries, up 5.7% from 2,973, while demand for the GMC Acadia rose 21.9% to 10,705 units from 8,781.

The story was largely the same for the automaker’s redesigned midsize entries. The Chevy Equinox, which is GM’s No.2 seller behind the Chevy Silverado large pickup, saw sales rise 7.1% to 24,053 units from 22,464 year-ago, while deliveries of the GMC Terrain grew 16.8% to 10,255 units from 8,783. The exception was the Buick Envision, which suffered a 9.5% decline to 2,842 units from 3,139. A heavily reworked and less expensive version of that model is on its way to dealers.

Traditionally strong pickup sales went in the other direction. Deliveries of the Silverado fell 16.3% to 42,282 units from 50,504, while sales of the GMC Sierra plunged 25.3% to 13,162 units from 17,618. Sales of the Chevy Tahoe large SUV sank 9.3% to 6,948 units from 7,660, although the slightly larger Suburban enjoyed a 27.6% bump in demand to 5,004 units from 3,922.

However, deliveries of the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL large SUVs were off a combined 25.5% to 4,721 units from 6,336 year-ago.

On the brand front, Chevrolet sales dropped 8.8% to 149,605 units from 163,958 in the same period last year, while Buick deliveries inched up 1.2% to 16,322 units from 16,131. GMC sales stepped back 8.0% to 42,640 units from 46,339.

Cadillac drew 12,338 luxury buyers last month, an increase of 14.0% from 10,823 last year. Cadillac, which has been on the ropes with its car-heavy lineup, got a relatively surprising lift from 2,607 sales of the Escalade large SUV in a month when the redesigned Lincoln Navigator arrived on dealer lots.

Fleet sales accounted for 23.5% of GM’s sales mix in February, about even with last year, while inventories finished the month at 779,378 cars and trucks for an 85 days’ supply compared with 749,529 and 94 days’ a year ago.

Despite the February pullback, GM remains bullish on the year.

“Consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2000, the economy is strong, our newest products are selling very well and we have successfully managed the transition to the 2018 model year far better than most of our competitors,” Kurt McNeil, vice president-U.S. Sales Operations at GM, says in a statement. “Customer demand, GM’s new products and upcoming launches are in perfect tune.”

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