Cars and Drivers

GM November Sales Up as Cadillac, Buick  Rise Sharply

Paul Ausick

Published: December 1, 2016 10:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 5:14 pm

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) on Thursday posted total November U.S. sales of 252,644 vehicles, an increase of 10.2% compared with November 2015. Retail deliveries rose 1.6 points for the year to date to 2.2 million units and fleet deliveries slipped 3.2 percentage points for the year to date.

GM’s new vehicle sales for November were forecast at 248,600 by analysts at Edmunds.com. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) estimated an average transaction price of $39,826, flat month over month and up 2.5% 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 November transaction prices slipped from $36,155 in September to $35,767. The company also said that November incentive spending equaled 13.7% of its average transaction price, slightly higher than the industry-average October incentive of 12.4%.

November sales of the company’s top-selling Silverado pickup rose just 0.6% year over year to 45,280 units, while GMC Sierra sales jumped 14.4% to 18,900 units.

Sales of the Colorado midsize pickup rose 39.1% to 8,669 units.

Cadillac retail sales increased 14.5% in November, following a 9.4% decrease in October. Cadillac sales totaled 15,326 units in November.

Total Chevrolet deliveries in November increased by 8.1% year over year to 169,675 units, but retail sales rose 5% to 126,078 units.

The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year total sales boost of 16.1% in November and an increase of 22% in retail sales.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 17.9 million for November, down from its October estimate of 18 million.

For the year to date, GM’s total sales are down 2.5% and retail sales are up 1.6%.

GM’s stock traded up about 4.7% Monday morning at $36.14 in a 52-week range of $26.69 to $36.52.