GM exceeds Malibu sales expections in the first month by, oh, 2,500 cars
GM spent $150 million on the ad campaign for the new Malibu. Intriguingly, though -- and after all the work that went into the car, all the hype, all the ads (we dig the one with the jogger running into the car, even though it's not a new Malibu), and all the great reviews -- GM only expected to sell 500 of them in November, the car's first full retail month. That's right: GM sent 3,500 of them to dealers. And they only expected 500 of them to get off the lot, down the road burning gas.
Well, as George W. Bush said, GM "misunderestimated." GM's on track to sell nearly the entire allotment, with 3,000 cars looking to be on the move. Lutz said dealers don't have any because they keep selling out of them. The same phenomenon is being reported for the Buick Enclave. which is not only exceeding sales expectations, but swiping the expected younger buyers from the Saturn Outlook. Hey Mr. Lutz: that's because the Enclave looks curvy and cool, and the Saturn, uh, doesn't.
In a Wall Street Journal article about the perception gap between American cars and imports, GM chief Rick Wagoner said "Building a better car and assuming people will buy it doesn't work." To you, Mr. Wagoner, we would like to present the Malibu and Enclave as Exhibits A and B, and retort: wanna bet? If they prove to be as reliable as we know you can make them, then you shouldn't have any problem selling them. Now, get us a Camaro that looks like the concept, a CTS Coupe, a hot Solstice coupe, and a Volt by 2010, and you might be able to shift your concerns to building inventory as opposed to moving it.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Apu 9:40AM (11/25/2007)
Any new car sells out in the first month. Even the Aztek.
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Gregg 10:06AM (11/25/2007)
Not true. It took Ford much longer to build sales of the Fusion/Milan/MKZ triplets. The 500/Montego nver achieved production goals and the change to Taurus/Sable hasn't helped. It takes awhile to build enough awareness of a new model for it to reach its sales equilibrium. Looks like the Malibu is going to do well.
compy386 12:24PM (11/25/2007)
Their production goal was 500 for the first full month??? Does GM have that little faith in their own vehicle? 500? Ford sold 4000 Fusions in the first full month and 1400 Milans. GM is trying to drive demand by under supplying and under forecasting. It's a lot better than over forecasting and over supplying I guess.
rgseidl 1:45PM (11/25/2007)
@ compy386 -
this is the oldest marketing trick in the book: underpromise and overdeliver. It increases product hype and margins for long-suffering dealers. Clearly, GM can produce way more than 500 Malibus a month and will do so in short order.
jmaes 5:53PM (11/25/2007)
I think they set teh figure for new sales very low and they all along knew they were going to beat it.
Ten Gears http://www.tengears.com
steve 9:50AM (11/25/2007)
that's a nice looking car
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xspeedy 9:52AM (11/25/2007)
Bring me the new Vectra with the Euro engines and otherewise unadulterated and I'll be stepping into a GM store.
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sk 10:16AM (11/25/2007)
If you're looking for the new 09 Vectra you have to step into a Saturn store. It should be available in late 09 as the new 2010 Aura.
Sam 9:54AM (11/25/2007)
I am, and have been an import buyer every time I have bought a new vehicle. If the Malibu is as good as I read that it is (I haven't driven it yet), I would buy a domestic car once objective reliability data is out. I gotta tell you that Honda makes a good vehicle. Our family has owned two Honda SUV's which have NEVER had ANYTHING go wrong. It's hard to leave that.
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AlexP 10:09AM (11/25/2007)
You're aware that it will take over 4 years for that data to go public, right?
Richard 12:13PM (11/25/2007)
I've also owned many many GM vehicles and had nothing go wrong with them.
Hello Moto 6:49PM (11/25/2007)
I have had two Acuras, A 2000TL and an MDX, and while both still run perfectly they have both had small issues. For example the heated seats on the TL have failed twice and the air conditioner failed once as well. Recently the right tie-rod failed for no reason.
They are great cars and will run year after year, but to say you have never had one problem seems to me that you must be lying. All cars have problems, even a perfect design will have some manufacturing flaws due to the thousands of pieces being constantly heated, cooled, moved, etc.
P.S. New STS hasn't had a problem in 8 months, so comparatively it has had less problems so far and its domestic.
Buy the car that’s best, not the one that was better for the last 5 years. This is the same reason Detroit managed to make horrible cars for several years, people purchased them while they were worse and they continued to build junk for generations. Now they have built good cars for several years, but people continue to stay away from good cars. Buy what’s good NOW.
Whitie 10:08AM (11/25/2007)
Predictable. The Malibu is a quality car for surprisingly low $$. The General has a hit on their hands.
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AlexP 10:09AM (11/25/2007)
Make that several hits, although the Malibu is the one they needed the most (game changer).
David 10:11AM (11/25/2007)
I haven't been looking at GM's sales numbers lately but that sales number sounds awfully low. For 150 million dollars worth of ads they only could get 3000 sold? GM obviously low balled how many they thought they were going to sell, expecting the best but preparing for the worst. Granted, that's the first month of sales but that's usually when the all the hype helps to move cars but this is probably one of the best gm cars to come down the road in a long, long time. Certainly one of the few in my lifetime that "seems" as nice as the japanese competition and one of the first in a long time that I would be interested in purchasing. All forms of GM marketing are in bad need of an extreme makeover with a better focus on the demographics of their marketing area. I live in a large city with almost no blacks and almost every ad I see on t.v. has black actors, black sports folks or black voiceovers. Hey gm, how about marketing cars to whitey? I did hear that gm recently fired/forced out their America marketing executive, who was black, so maybe that's one of the reasons for all the ads. The new Cadillac ads seem pretty classy though.
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AlexP 10:27AM (11/25/2007)
They're not making that many in the first few (2-3) months, usually.
buddy 3:18PM (11/25/2007)
So does this mean that every ad on television that has a white narrarator or has white actors in it are NOT meant for black consumption?
Wow. Whoduh thunkit. Now that you mention it, I am tired of all of those blacks in those 'This is our Country' Chevy Truck commercials. Sheesh....no wonder they're losing market share.
JPorter 1:57AM (11/26/2007)
David,
You must be ignorant to believe you "live in a large city with almost no blacks." What world do you live in? You must walk around with your hands over your eyes. Or maybe you're just so out of touch with reality that you believe white folks are the only folks in your big 'ol city.
That alone makes me distrust anything you have to say.
geo.stewart 5:28AM (11/26/2007)
J Porter,
It is you who must be walking around with rose colored glasses. Blacks make up around 10% of the country's population. Milwaukee, Minneapolis, several other north/mid- west cities have very low %. Major cities are not all like Atlanta.
tbirdkatz 10:10AM (11/25/2007)
The new Malibu looks cool and is about the same price as a Fusion. No wonder they are sold out of them. A v6 camry is over $30,000 while the Malibu is about $4000 cheaper.
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