Meeting Buyer Trends, GM’s Quarterly Sales Rise

General Motors capitalizes on America’s prevailing fondness for trucks, as the automaker’s stable of pickups, SUVs and CUVs spur a 4.6% sales gain to push its market share 0.5% higher in the second quarter.

“Customers are buying with confidence because the economy is strong and they expect it to remain strong,” says Kurt McNeil, vice president-U.S. Sales Operations at GM.

“GM is in a fantastic position with so many new crossovers at all four of our brands, the industry’s only three-truck pickup strategy and clear leadership in large SUVs,” he says in a statement.

The Detroit automaker delivered 758,376 light vehicles in the April-June period compared with 724,925 in the second quarter of last year. Its U.S. market share grew to 16.6%.

GM no longer publicly releases monthly sales, saying a quarterly report provides a more accurate snapshot of the automaker’s demand than a month-to-month picture that can be clouded by one-off circumstances such as inclement weather.

Chevrolet saw a 6.2% improvement in straight volume to 528,100 from 497,159 year-ago, including a record month for CUV sales.

The Chevy Silverado large pickup, GM’s best-selling vehicle, drew 155,529 buyers in the quarter, up 15.7% from 134,473 in the same period last year. So far this year, Silverado sales are ahead 10.7% to 291,074 units from 262,940 despite a redesigned model being just months away from launching.

GM’s second-best selling model, the newly redesigned Chevy Equinox 5-passenger CUV, witnessed a 4.6% sales gain in the quarter to 73,967 units from 70,745 year-ago. The Chevy Traverse large CUV, which also was recently refreshed, sold 35,892 copies, up 30% from 27,606 year-ago.

Sales of the Chevy Colorado midsize pickup, which along with the GMC Canyon and heavy-duty Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups comprise GM’s so-called three-truck strategy, gained 46.8% to 41,016 units in the quarter from 27,943 in the same period last year.

But reflecting the market’s preference for trucks, the Chevy car lineup slumped. Sales of the Malibu midsize sedan were down 13.6% to 42,276 units from 48,894, while deliveries of the smaller Cruze sedan and hatchback tumbled a combined 26.2% to 37,836 units from 51,265.

Buick sales fell 12% to 52,891 units from 60,111 year-ago, despite a 25.4% surge in demand for the newly redesigned Enclave large CUV to 12,551 units from 10,011. A brand that once satisfied America’s love of the large sedan, Buick’s best-selling vehicle today is the Encore compact CUV. Sales of the little crossover grew 4.1% in the second quarter to 23,167 units from 22,252 in the same period last year.

Cadillac, which has been stung sharply by the buyer migration to trucks from cars, enjoyed a 3% sales improvement to 39,222 units from 38,091 year-ago. The XT5 midsize luxury CUV, which will be joined shortly by the much-needed XT4 compact crossover, gained 4.3% to 17,045 units from 16,344.

GM accelerated a remake of Cadillac’s lineup to focus more closely on CUVs late last month with a $175 million investment at its Lansing Grand River, MI, assembly plant. The investment will consolidate two Cadillac sedans into a single vehicle.

Rounding out the GM portfolio, GMC sales were up 6.6% to 138,163 units from 129,564 on the strength of a 20.4% gain by the Sierra large pickup to 59,406 units from 49,343.

GM sales this year are up 4.2% to 1.5 million light vehicles from 1.4 million last year.

GM Chief Economist Elaine Buckberg, who in April replaced longtime GM executive Mustafa Mohatarem after his retirement, expects a strong second half to the year with a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate equal to the 17.2 million units witnessed in the year’s first six months.

“Tax reform raised take-home pay, consumer confidence is high and household balance sheets are healthy,” Buckberg says. “All of this, plus a strong job market, makes consumers more willing to commit to major purchases like vehicles.”

Buckberg comes to GM from the Brattel Group, where she was a principal in the global consulting firm’s Washington office. Buckberg counts 25 years of experience as an economist. She holds economics degrees from Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.