GM December Totals Rise on Strong Pickup, Crossover Sales

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) posted total December U.S. sales of 290,230 vehicles, an increase of 6% compared with December 2014. Retail deliveries rose 8%, fleet deliveries slipped 1.9 points and commercial sales rose 2% in December.

Total sales for 2015 rose 5% year over year and retail sales were up 8%. GM is reducing rental deliveries and raising its commercial deliveries by design. Rental sales were down 11% and commercial sales were up 38%. Rental unit deliveries are expected to continue declining in 2016.

GM’s new vehicle sales for December were forecast at around 299,000 by analysts at Kelley Blue Book (KBB). GM’s average transaction price in December came in at $38,902, up 0.5% month over month and down 0.6% compared with December of last year, according to the KBB analysts. GM reported that its average December transaction prices rose to a record $37,000, up $1,150 year over year and the full-year average rose $630 to $34,500. KBB does not include applied consumer incentives to its calculations. GM reported that December incentive spending equaled 11.2% of its average transaction price.

The best-selling vehicle in the month was the Chevy Silverado pickup, which saw a year-over-year sales gain of 8.9% to 62,992 units. Sales of the GMC Sierra pickups rose 17.1% in December, and the Yukon XL sport utility vehicle (SUV) saw a sales gain of 39.1% to 4,536 units in the month.
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Cadillac retail sales jumped 28.7%, following a 3.7% decrease in November. For the year, total Cadillac sales rose 2.6% and retail sales are down 0.9%.

Total Chevrolet deliveries in December were up 2.1% year over year. Sales of the Express van rose 31.2% year over year, and the new Colorado midsize pickup saw a sales gain of 95.9%.

The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year sales decrease of 1.7% in December. Buick sales slid 2.6% for the year.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales is 17.5 million for December, down from the October estimate of 18.2 million.

GM’s stock traded down about 3% late Tuesday morning, at $32.31 in a 52-week range of $24.62 to $38.99.