GM Q2 sales drop worldwide
General Motors saw worldwide sales dip 7.7 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, down to 2.4 million units. U.S. sales are dragging down GM's global results, falling 15.4 percent compared to the same quarter last year. With U.S. sales making up roughly half of GM's global sales, the U.S. drop of 200,000 units in Q2 accounts for nearly all of the worldwide decline in sales.GM attributes the decline to the sales bubble caused by last year's "Employee Pricing for Everyone" incentive program and a decline in fleet sales in Europe.
The company is also hoping that the fall launch of the new Silverado pickup, and a ramp in Captiva sales in Europe and Asia will perk up Q3 sales.
[Source: Automotive News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mal Fuller 4:32PM (7/28/2006)
Excuses, Excuses!
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Finished.Law.School 4:37PM (7/28/2006)
And the recent stories regarding GM marketing stupidity, consumer related ignorance and rebadging help provide the true reasons as to why GM continues to fail. And that is without mentioning the continuing use of 30+ year old technology and designs in each and every vehicle they make.
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jjaxon 4:48PM (7/28/2006)
so what is the 30 year old tech? push rod engines?? if y ou will check overhead cam engines are 100 year old tech... nothing new about ohc...
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KT 4:59PM (7/28/2006)
jjaxon...don't worry, they're just regurgitating stuff they read on some other dometic bashing forum.
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Pushrod Engine 5:13PM (7/28/2006)
"And that is without mentioning the continuing use of 30+ year old technology and designs in each and every vehicle they make"
Well, considering most of the things people expect in vehicles have been around for 30 years or more, what the heck are you talking about? Airbags, seatbelts, power windows, locks, seats, etc. have all been around for decades. Push rod engines and ohc too, as jjaxon pointed out.
I suppose you're just another uninformed, America hating loser.
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That One Person 5:18PM (7/28/2006)
First OHC engine was produced in 1912 by Fiat. So, its nearly as old as OHV engines.
Plus, GM has come a long way in the last decade. Hell, even in the last five years. Granted, they do have a little catching up to do. But with their new vehicles that are coming out (Acadia, Outlook, etc)GM should start rising again.
The one thing that I like that GM is bringing out is the six speed auto trans for their FWD vehicles. That may actually help sales.
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Aki 5:18PM (7/28/2006)
Yes, a new truck in a shrinking market for gas-guzzling cars will surely remedy GM's decline in sales. Not to mention the ingenious plan of swapping grilles and calling it a day.
But let's not hate on GM, which in effect, is hating America (of course). I mean, think of all those poor central american workers, and those spanking new factories right outside Mexico. Shame on you un-Americans for buying Nissans made in Tenessee. You indeed hate Unlce Sam.
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Kurt 5:59PM (7/28/2006)
Amazing how every time there is a post about anything GM related, the same people start saying the same things.
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gkz 6:32PM (7/28/2006)
let's see how the gm apologists try to belittle #7 for being right. same goes for several other "foreign" brands.
the bottom line is that gm was incompetently run for decades and the current management isn't a whole lot better. apparently they're in a pissing contest with ford's management as to who can damage a blue chip company the most.
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dave 6:53PM (7/28/2006)
if #2 really did finish law school, i don't think i'd hire him. some of the most rediculous statements come from this moron. probably drives a yugo.
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Lithous 10:17PM (7/28/2006)
"Not to mention the ingenious plan of swapping grilles and calling it a day."
It is ingenious to swap the grille for two reasons. First, they have been doing that with Chevy/GMC full size pickup trucks for years and if you put the sales of that "one" vehicle together it actually beats out the (not really) #1 Ford truck. Second, many people seem to dislike the here soon Silverado front end and with the clean look of the GMC version it might be another VUE out sells the Equinox scenario (not sure that was supposed to happen). I doubt GMC could pull off the difference in reality BUT it could take in enough of the Silverado front end haters to even *it* (that one front end only differenced vehicle according to you) out as the top seller. Actually I'll add a third reason. If you hate your local Chevy dealer then you buy the GMC or vice versa. I forgot, import fanboys keep getting trashed for dealership hapiness surveys so they write off *having* to go to a bad dealer and living with it. Don't they make a profit off of the full size trucks? And haven't they been doing the same thing they are doing now in the past with these trucks? EXCEPT aren't the interiors better than before? So actually it should work to keep sales in line with non-"employee pricing" numbers (i.e. it is known that it probably won't eclipse last years sales for a reason).
"But let's not hate on GM, which in effect, is hating America (of course). I mean, think of all those poor central american workers, and those spanking new factories right outside Mexico."
But with your tactic, I mean, statement, we *do* forget about the CLEAR majority of U.S. market GM factories that are actually in the U.S. (that was your intent). Your implication (that GM in some way is a majority producer of cars from Mexico) is as un-American as rigging a gas tank to set fire for an investigative TV show. So the Japanese don't make vehicles in each market they sell? Because I don't remember any Central American vehicles imported at the local GM dealers I have checked out. Wow, you really are trying to divert the TRUTH with the most incredible diversions from the truth that you can possibly muster.
"Shame on you un-Americans for buying Nissans made in Tenessee."
Sure when you *CAN* get American vehicles by American companies STILL. But can the Japanese move *all* their worldwide factories to American soil (your implication, right, that the Japanese build everything here and the domestic companies build nothing here, so, that must be the plan that you are the only one to know) in time to save us (http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/25/news/economy/econ_outlook/index.htm) so *we* grow as fast as the Chinese (http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/18/news/international/china_gdp.reut/index.htm)????????????
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Lithous 10:39PM (7/28/2006)
Change: "majority producer of cars from Mexico" = "majority producer of cars from just outside Mexico"
Or as many other import fanboys try to just use Mexico itself as in someway the only place GM vehicles come from.
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Rastus 2:22AM (7/29/2006)
Lithous,
How are you coping with this? This market losing GM of yours? Are you seeking therapy? Turning to booze? Meth? Dope? What?
I mean, I know it's terring your little F'd Up World apart.
GM is the White Trash of the Automotive World. So by association, what does that make you? Do you "Plege Allegiance" to the blue GM Flag, or what??
I'm sorry to hurt your feelings, there butthole surfer, you...but GM sucks ass, and HAS for so many years that I can't EVEN recall the meaning behing "GM, the Mark of Excellence".
What ever happened to that phrase-ology?
Ahhh, you see...they didn't have the balls to add THAT to the new GM "Badges".
Conspicuously absent...so brazenly cowardly, it's unbelievable.
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mikesright 2:42AM (7/29/2006)
I guess since GM's stock price and profits have gone up every quarter recently, GM's sales keep getting better (every month lately GM has more marketshare than the month before), and the SUV's and Trucks keep selling, it's gotta piss you guys off to no end that GM is doing well.
I just hope for your sake that you repent for your automotive sins because GM is going to go on a rampage for sales and marketshare, starting Q4. With $2 billion in cost cuts starting next quarter, GM will probably surpass Toyota again as "World's most Profitable Automaker" in Q4, and all will be well again as you domestic-bashers are put in your place.
They'll also be doing it selling big gas guzzling trucks and SUV's. Eat your heart out.
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iQuack 4:15AM (7/29/2006)
Don't worry about GM's success because it's assured with the introduction of the fabulous Pontiac G5.
There's just no question that the G5 will charm all auto buyers with its originality and thoughtful engineering.
Don't buy any car until you see and drive the Pontiac G5 because it's all new, all great, and all that GM needs to assure that people will say, "the hell with this" and buy a Toyota or Honda.
GM is its own worst enemy.
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Lithous 10:54AM (7/29/2006)
We all know the DEALERSHIPS were yelling for the G6 to happen since the Pontiac dealers are with Buick and GMC they have only the Vibe as a small car choice right now (which is a Toyota but still doesn't sell as well as the Toyota. Gee, I wonder if in Japan, or any other nation in the world with any pride what-so-ever, their loyalty would be to the home team brand if two cars came off the same assembly line like the Vibe and Matrix?). Still very interesting that GM even went and got a Toyota to sell all you domestic haters and you still won't buy it more than the Matrix. No wonder they don't waste their money in the small car sector.
My bet is that if they offered a Toyota as they do now and it sold like hot cakes (and surpassed the Matrix for starters) GM might think, "There is no bias against us in the small car market, it *wouldn't* be a waste to try real hard with real money to make a competitive small car of our own".
"Don't buy any car until you see and drive the Pontiac G5 because it's all new, all great, and all that GM needs to assure that people will say, "the hell with this" and buy a Toyota or Honda."
80% of the people out there don't know which divisions are GM or not (one step necessary to even realize any "badge engineering"). About 5% of *those* people care about badge engineering (amusingly enough they don't care that P&G has 3 different brands of the same detergents though, hmmm, I wonder why? maybe they weren't told to notice or to hate). Of those 5% who care that one company makes similar models only how many are in the market for a vehicle in the G5's market?
Maybe if Americans actually applied themselves more and didn't let the rest of the world graduate with more engineering degrees and our tests scores weren't so low compared to the rest of the world then some *other* Americans would step up to the challenge and show GM and Ford how to do it right.
Oh, I forgot, that is what Tesla if for. To shave a thousand pounds off of the already un-heavy EV-1, use cell technology which was 10 times more expensive 10 years ago when the EV-1 was around, hire all foreigners to design & engineer, build the engine in Taiwan and finally charge $80K. And call it revolutionary. The last iteration of the EV-1 went 130 miles on a charge (and didn't Honda EV+ and Toyota RAV-4 go 100 miles or more?) so by diffault Tesla's vehicle *should* go the distance it can go and have the specs it has. I want something truly revolutionary, I want no less than 350 miles on a charge, seats 5 and costs $25K (OK, $30K) max.
My guess is that Tesla will be foreign owned if it even comes close to succeeding within 5-10 years. The .com mentality forces such things.
I want a real American company with the staying power (to build a great product while staying American and not selling out to the highest bidder in 5 - 10 years) and creating more than a handful of American jobs while their at it.
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Barney 11:05AM (7/29/2006)
GMC trucks have been the tried & true. They were reliable and ran on neglect. Once again the fuel crunch is demanding more economical vehicles. Yesterday people demanded 300hp pickup trucks to carry the family around. The North American manufacturers were good at meeting that call. The Japanese had to make their cars bigger and more powerful and even came up with their own pickups. Once the consumer adjusts to high fuel prices, again the "bigger is better" syndrome will appear.
The 18 volt system will soon replace the 12 volt to accomodate the demand by on board electronics. OH cams are becoming the norm as are more elaborate transmissions. GM & Ford made the mistake "if it works don't fix it". Consumers come to the conclusion that only "new" technology is better. The attitude has become that if it's new, it's got to be better.
GM & Ford have to produce "new" on a daily basis to keep up and forget about reliability.
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gbh 2:47PM (7/29/2006)
Hey there Barney, it's migrating to 48 volt, not 18.
Mike, apparently you thought Enron was doing great until the day it all evaporated too, huh?
GM can't sell a volume car/truck without a huge giveaway one way or another.
It is always entertaining to read the GM fanbois regurgitate press release BS and spin as some sort of positive direction for the company.
You won't trust me, so go find 10 financial professionals who have no ties to GM stock. Ask them if you should buy GM stock or paper. Listen to their ananlysis of how bad GM's position is.
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Richard Warren 5:53PM (7/29/2006)
You know the old "badge engineering" really gets tiresom, because unless you've been asleep THEY ALL DO IT!
And as someone pointed out P&G does it, so do appliance makers, and let's see, we have food products that are in the same old can as "new and improved" Riiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhhttttttt. Ever look at labels? Lees product, same can, NEW! plastered on it.
How about "badge engineering" in sports shoes, clothes, made in the same factories with a different label, last years Nike, this years Walmart model. How about the same exact shoe made in the same factory sold at 24.95 in Walmart 39.95 at Pennys and yes it's the ecact same shoe with a different designer name on it. How about computer memory, different name, different package, different price.
Then let's talk cereal, generic, made in the same plant as the name brand. Cell phones anyone? Different case, same guts inside made in the same plant.
It's a badge engineered world, get the fuck over it.
In the meantime while so many have been whining about "badge engineering" I've nearly doubled my money on GM stock from when it was at the bottom. How well have you done?
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iQuack 7:13PM (7/29/2006)
Richard, other car makers (except Ford) don't badge engineer so blatantly. Platform sharing is another matter and quite different cars can be built from the same platform: Honda Accord and Acura TL, for example.
But slapping Pontiac nostrils on a Cobalt makes a joke out of both brands by blurring any distinction that makes branding meaningful.
Weak branding has been slowly killing GM for over 2 decades and you'd think the guys running GM would understand that, but it seems they don't.
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