GM March 2012 Sales Up 11.8%

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Cruze breaks through the 20,000 vehicles sold barrier again but it’s the Silverado that brings home the bacon.

Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - April 3, 2012

2012 Chevrolet Silverado HD towing a heavy load – Base light duty Silverado’s begin at $22,195 and offer a rather paltry 17 mpgUS combined rating at best.

With a broad range of body styles and connectivity technology, the Silverado can be configured for just about any job for those that need said job done. We are not talking about urban cowboys here Hauling equipment and a crew to a job site is what the Silverado’s was built for and it does that particular job oh so well.

The Silverado 1500 lineup is built on GM’s full-size truck architecture with a lineup of small-block V-8 engines and six-speed automatic transmissions. It can be equipped as a somewhat efficient vehicle with Silverado XFE (2WD crew cab) delivering an EPA-estimated 22 mpg on the highway and a towing capacity of 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg).

The range of body styles and configurations for 2012 include three cab styles – regular, extended and crew cab, three cargo box lengths – 5 foot 8 inches (short), 6 foot 6 inches (standard) and 8 foot (long) and five trim levels: WT, LS, LT, XFE and LTZ, all available in 2WD and 4WD (except XFE, which is 2WD only).

GM March 2012 Sales

GM this morning reported its March total sales were up a healthy 11.8 percent to 231,052 vehicles from 206,621 sold in March of 2011.

Highlights

Year-over-year sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra sales were up 12.1 percent and 19.2 percent from March of 2011, respectively. Total GM passenger car sales increased 22 percent, with small and compact car sales up a combined 62 percent. Compact crossover sales were up 47 percent and mid-size car sales were up 38 percent. Full-size pickup sales were up 14 percent.

Sales of the 2012 Chevrolet Cruze reached 21,607 units and finished above the 20,000 sales mark for the seventh time while finishing behind Ford’s Focus, Honda’s Civic and Toyota’s Corolla in the US C-Segment sales last month.

According to GM, March monthly totals included a record 100,000 cars and crossovers that achieve an EPA-estimated 30_mpg highway rating or better.

Sales of the Sonic have increased steadily since it launched in August 2011, with March reaching 8,251 vehicles.

Other March highlights include a 12 percent year-over-year increase in GMC sales driven by strong Sierra and Terrain results.

Total sales at Buick and Cadillac were down by 16.3 and 13.4% respectively for the month, while Chevrolet and GMC experienced sales increases of 16.8 and 13.8% respectively.

VOLT vs. LEAF Watch

The Volt had its best month ever with 2,289 new owners stepping up to purchase the $39,000 PHEV. By comparison, the LEAF experienced just 579 vehicles sold in March. This was 50 percent higher than December 2011, which had been the vehicle’s previous best month since launch. Eye opening indeed!

GM March 2012 Overall Sales

Model	Mar-12	Mar-11	Mar-DSR % change	Mar -12 YTD	Mar-11 YTD	YTD-DSR % change
Sonic	8,251	NA	NA	21,863	NA	NA
Cruze	21,607	18,018	+15.6%	57,083	50,205	+10.7%
Silverado	36,491	32,555	+8.1%	95,638	92,455	+0.7%
GM Totals	231,052	206,621	+7.8%	608,320	595,545	-0.5%

The daily selling rate (DSR) is calculated with 28 selling days in March of 2012 and 27 selling days during March of 2011.
Year-to-date, the DSR is calculated with 77 days for 2012 and 75 days for 2011. All percentages reflect DSR.

Top 10 – March 2012 US Automobile Sales Leaders

Sales Rank	Make	Model	Mar-12	Mar-11	Mar-DSR % change	Mar-12 YTD	Mar-11 YTD	YTD-DSR % change
1	Ford	F-Series	58,061	53,272	+5.1%	143,827	126,627	+10.6%
2	Toyota	Camry	42,567	31,464	+30.5%	105,405	76,821	+33.6%
3	Nissan	Altima	41,050	32,289	+22.6%	96,360	69,551	+34.9%
4	Chevrolet	Silverado	36,491	32,555	+8.1%	95,638	92,455	+0.8%
5	Honda	CR-V	30,868	21,998	+35.3%	74,587	57,433	+26.5%
6	Ford	Fusion	28,562	27,566	-0.0%	63,949	65,023	-4.2%
7	Ford	Focus	28,293	17,178	+58.8%	66,043	37,071	+73.5%
8	Toyota	Corolla	28,289	30,234	-9.8%	68,428	76,675	-13.1%
9	Honda	Civic	28,199	31,213	-12.9%	77,169	64,968	+15.7%
10	Ram	P/U	26,960	21,898	+18.7%	67,464	52,739	+24.6%

The daily selling rate (DSR) is calculated with 28 selling days in March of 2012 and 27 selling days during March of 2011.
Year-to-date, the DSR is calculated with 77 days for 2012 and 75 days for 2011. All percentages reflect DSR.
Prius sales combined reached 28,711 but within the sales breakout, none were in the top 10.

Top 10 Sales Leaders - Items of note: Ram sales fell to tenth on the list, Camry and Altima are neck and neck and the Cruze sales fell out of the top 10 even with sales of over 20,000 units.

B-Segment Sales Rank

1. Nissan Versa - 15,587
2. Hyundai Accent - 8,337
3. Chevrolet Sonic - 8,251
4. Ford Fiesta - 6,502
5. Honda Fit - 4,559
6. Kia Rio - 4,509
7. Toyota Yaris - 3,547

C-Segment Sales Rank

1. Ford Focus - 28,293
2. Toyota Corolla - 28,289
3. Honda Civic - 28,199
4. Chevrolet Cruze - 21,607
5. Hyundai Elantra - 19,681
6. VW Jetta - 14,966
7. Nissan Sentra - 14,092
8. Mazda3 - 13,235

D-Segment Sales Rank

1. Toyota Camry - 42,567
2. Nissan Altima - 41,050
3. Ford Fusion - 28,562
4. Honda Accord - 26,771
5. Chevrolet Malibu - 23,887
6. Hyundai Sonata - 23,281
7. Kia Optima - 15,008
8. Chrysler 200 - 14,914
9. VW Passat - 10,032

March segment ranking items of note: Versa had a stunning month, Accent now #2 passing the Sonic, Fiesta outsold the Fit again and the Rio caught up to and surpassed Yaris. The Focus outsold all including Civic for the first time. The Camry and Altima broke through the 40,000 sales barrier together.

Automobile Manufacturer's US Sales Rank - March 2012 vs. March 2011 Comparison and Total Sales

1. GM March Sales up 11.8% with 231,052 vehicles sold.
2. Ford March Sales up 5.0% with 223,418 vehicles sold.
3. Toyota March Sales up 15.4% with 203,282 vehicles sold.
4. Chrysler March Sales up 34.2% with 163,381 vehicles sold.
5. Nissan March Sales up 12.5% with 136,317 vehicles sold.
6. Honda March Sales down 5.0% with 126,999 vehicles sold.
7. Hyundai February Sales up 12.7% with 69,728 vehicles sold.
8. Kia March Sales up 30.2% with 57,505 vehicles sold.
9. VW March Sales up 34.6% with 36,588 vehicles sold.
10. Subaru March Sales up 20.3% with 32,387 vehicles sold.
11. Mazda March Sales up 4.8% with 32,376 vehicles sold.
12. BMW March Sales up 13.0% with 29,806 vehicles sold.
13. Mercedes-Benz March Sales up 13.1% with 25,508 vehicles sold.
14. Audi March Sales up 18.0% with 11,585 vehicles sold.

March manufacturer sales rank items of note: Hyundai/Kia combined sales top Honda/Acura and Subaru outsells both Mazda and BMW.

SAAR is running at a very healthy 14.8 Million units.