Cars and Drivers

GM Sales Rise on Boost in Pickup Sales, Help From Cadillac

GMC Sierra pickup
courtesy of General Motors Co.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) posted total April U.S. sales of 269,056 vehicles, a rise of 6% compared with April 2014. The April total reflects stronger Cadillac and Chevrolet sales, and a jump of 20% in sales of GMC trucks. Retail deliveries were up 5%, fleet deliveries were up 8% and commercial sales reached their highest level since March 2008.

GM’s new vehicle sales for April were forecast at 263,000 by analysts at Kelley Blue Book and nearly 265,000 by analysts at Edmunds.

The best-selling vehicle in the month was the Silverado pickup, which saw a sales gain of 7.5% to 45,978 units. The GMC Sierra pickups posted a gain of 4.8% in April, and the Acadia sport utility vehicle (SUV) saw a sales gain of nearly 40% to 8,767 units in April.

Cadillac sales rose 13.7%, overcoming a 7% decline in March. Cadillac retail sales rose 1.1% in April, a step in the right direction after an 8.4% drop in March. For the year to date, Cadillac sales are down 1%.

GM reported that fleet sales comprise 27.8% of April sales, up less than a point year-over-year. For the year to date, fleet sales make up 27% of sales, up 1.7 points compared with the first three months of 2014.

Total Chevrolet deliveries in March were up 3.4% year-over-year. The two pickups aside, sales rose most for the compact Equinox SUV (up 42%) and the mid-size Traverse crossover (up 27.6%).

GM said its average transaction price in April reached $34,750, a drop of $450 from March, and up $1,580 year-over-year.

ALSO READ: 10 Cars Americans Don’t Want to Buy

The company’s Buick brand saw a sales decrease of 5.2% in April. Buick sales are down 4.7% for the year to date.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 16.7 million for March, down from 16.9 million in March.

GM’s stock traded up about 0.6% Friday morning, at $35.21 in a 52-week range of $28.82 to $38.99.

Credit Card Companies Are Doing Something Nuts

Credit card companies are at war. The biggest issuers are handing out free rewards and benefits to win the best customers.

It’s possible to find cards paying unlimited 1.5%, 2%, and even more today. That’s free money for qualified borrowers, and the type of thing that would be crazy to pass up. Those rewards can add up to thousands of dollars every year in free money, and include other benefits as well.

We’ve assembled some of the best credit cards for users today.  Don’t miss these offers because they won’t be this good forever.

 

Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.

AI Portfolio

Discover Our Top AI Stocks

Our expert who first called NVIDIA in 2009 is predicting 2025 will see a historic AI breakthrough.

You can follow him investing $500,000 of his own money on our top AI stocks for free.