GM April Sales Slip 3.5%

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) posted total April U.S. sales of 259,557 vehicles, a decrease of 3.5% compared with April 2015. Retail deliveries rose 3.3%, fleet deliveries slipped 5.1 points and commercial sales rose 4% in April.

GM’s new vehicle sales for April were forecast at 262,963 by analysts at Edmunds. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) had estimated sales of 261,000 at an average transaction price of $38,768, down about 0.3% month over month and up about 4.6% year over year. GM reported that its average April transaction prices slipped to $35,400 from February’s average of $35,800. KBB does not include applied consumer incentives to its calculation. GM reported that April incentive spending equaled 10.3% of its average transaction price, compared with an industry average of 10.2%.

The best-selling vehicle in the month was the Chevy Silverado pickup, which saw a year-over-year sales increase of 8.7% to 49,990 units. Sales of the GMC Sierra pickups rose 13.5% in April to 20,531 units, while the Colorado midsize pickup posted a sales increase of 47.8% to 10,362 units.

Cadillac retail sales fell 28.9%, following a 5.1% decline in March. Cadillac sales totaled 11,236 units in April.
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Total Chevrolet deliveries in April fell 2.3% year over year to 183,442 units, although retail sales rose 4.5% to 134,562 units.

The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year total sales decrease of 2.8% in April but an increase of 13.3% in retail sales.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 17.6 million for April, up from its March estimate of 17.1 million.

GM’s stock traded down about 1.5% in the noon hour Tuesday, at $31.27 in a 52-week range of $24.62 to $36.88.