Edmunds: GM market share will grow in October

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:15:00 EST

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, Earnings/Financials

According to the number-crunchers over at Edmunds.com, things are looking up for General Motors in the month of October. If preliminary figures hold up, The General's market share should come in at 22.4 percent, a notable gain from the 19.1 percent share the automaker averaged throughout the third quarter of 2009.

Driving this newfound marketplace success is thought to be GM's recent abundance of new product launches, which include important models like the Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac SRX along with the Equinox and Camaro from Chevrolet. GM has received mostly favorable reviews on each of these vehicles and has invested money into advertising and media campaigns.

Still, maintaining the measure of success seen over the last month and continuing to grow that momentum in the long term won't be easy, and GM isn't likely to recapture its position as the dominant player in America that it once was any time soon. Of course, we'll be watching.

[Source: Auto Observer | Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images]

Edmunds: GM market share will grow in October originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Global Dominance Shift: VW may have sold more than Toyota in Q1

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:01:00 EST

Filed under: GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials

Over the last several years, few automotive stories have held as much interest as the global fight between Toyota and General Motors for worldwide sales supremacy. Don't look now, but there's a new combatant hailing from Germany ready to take the reigns: Volkswagen. However, VW's ascendancy has less to do with the German automaker's output -- GM and Toyota are shedding sales at a much faster rate than VW.

Toyota - currently the undisputed leader in automotive sales volume - is expected to post about 1.23 million sales in the first quarter of '09, down an amazing 47% from the previous year. Volkswagen's 1.39 million sales represent a much smaller drop of about 11%. We're not yet sure where General Motors will fall in the rankings, but it seems likely to come in third place. What's caused VW's rapid rise in global prominence?

The two largest markets for Toyota are the United States and Japan, and vehicle sales in both countries have been some of the hardest hit by the global economic downturn. In contrast, VeeDub is very strong in Germany, China and Brazil, and, in attempt to boost new car sales, these three countries have recently implemented vehicle scrapping schemes. It's worked, and VW is reaping the rewards.

Of course, if there's one thing that General Motors and Toyota have proven over these last few years, it's that life's not easy at the top. It should prove interesting to see if VW can manage to maintain the market share that it's so recently inherited. Thanks for the tip, Axel!

[Source: Reuters]

Global Dominance Shift: VW may have sold more than Toyota in Q1 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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