Silverado Sales Lead GM to Best Monthly Sales Since 2008

Cars and Drivers

Published: June 2, 2015 11:00 am

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 4:54 am

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) posted total May sales of 293,097 vehicles, a rise of 3% compared with May 2014. The May total reflects stronger Chevrolet and GMC sales including a jump of 30% in sales of Chevy trucks. Retail deliveries were up 7%, fleet deliveries were down 2.9% and commercial sales rose 5% in May, including a 9% gain in sales of full-size pickups.

GM’s new vehicle sales for May were forecast at around 282,000 by analysts at both Kelley Blue Book (KBB) and at Edmunds. Transaction prices rose 4.2% year-over-year and were flat compared with April’s average selling price, according to KBB.

The best-selling vehicle in the month was the Silverado pickup, which saw a sales gain of 10.6% to 51,602 units. The GMC Sierra pickups posted a gain of 3.6% in May, and the Acadia sport utility vehicle (SUV) saw a sales gain of 67% to 10,498 units in May.

Cadillac sales slipped 1.9%, following a 13.7% increase in April. Cadillac retail sales slipped 1.9% in May, after rising 1.1% in April. For the year to date, total Cadillac sales are down 1.2% and retail sales are down 5.6%.

GM reported that fleet sales comprised 24.9% of May sales, down 2.9% year over year. For the year to date, fleet sales made up 26.5% of sales, up 0.6% compared with the first five months of 2014.

Total Chevrolet deliveries in May were up 1.4% year over year. The two pickups aside, sales rose most for the compact Equinox SUV (up 29.8%) and the midsize Malibu (up 11.3%).

GM said its average transaction price in May was about $34,000, a drop of $750 from April and up $550 year over year.

The company’s Buick brand saw a sales increase of 0.5% in April. Buick sales are down 3.6% for the year to date.

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For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales is 17.6 million for May, sharply higher than April’s estimate of 16.7 million.

GM’s stock traded up about 0.2% late Tuesday morning, at $36.25 in a 52-week range of $28.82 to $38.99.

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