Cars and Drivers

GM December Sales Rise 10% as Chevy Shines

Paul Ausick

Published: January 4, 2017 11:15 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:10 pm

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) on Wednesday posted total December U.S. sales of 319,108 vehicles, an increase of 10% compared with December 2015. Retail deliveries rose 3.4 points for the year to date to 249,983 million units, and fleet deliveries slipped 2.4 percentage points for the year to date.

GM’s new vehicle sales for December were forecast at 299,286 by analysts at Edmunds.com. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) estimated an average transaction price of $40,749, up 1.6% month over month and up 1.7% year over year. KBB does not include applied consumer incentives to its calculation.

Incentive spending per unit totaled $4,305, according to a forecast from TrueCar, an increase of 12.7% compared with November 2015 and a decrease of 3.4% compared with October 2016.

GM reported that its average December transaction prices rose from $35,646 in November to $36,386. The company also said that December incentive spending equaled 13% of its average transaction price.

December sales of the company’s top-selling Silverado pickup fell by 13.8% year over year to 54,272 units, and GMC Sierra sales tumbled 15.1%% to 23,290 units. Sales of the Colorado midsize pickup rose 19.2% to 9,431 units.

Cadillac retail sales increased 3.2% in December, following a 14.5% increase in November. Cadillac sales totaled 21,466 units in December.

Total Chevrolet deliveries in December increased by 12.8% year over year to 212,959 units, with retail sales rising 8.1% to 163,452 units.

The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year total sales boost of 2.8% in December, but a decrease of 0.6% in retail sales.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 18.2 million for December, up from its November estimate of 17.98 million.

Compared with 2015, GM’s total sales slipped 1.3%, although retail sales rose 1.8%.

GM announced layoffs totaling about 3,300 in the final two months of the year, and it recently got sideways with President-elect Trump for building some of its Cruze models in Mexico.

The company cut its inventory from 874,162 units at the end of November to 844,942 units at the end of December. Days of supply dropped from 87 to 71, much nearer the desired 60 days of supply automakers prefer.

GM’s stock traded up about 3.8% Wednesday morning, at $36.47 in a 52-week range of $26.69 to $37.74.