Cruze was the highlight. Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – June 1, 2017 2017 Chevrolet Cruze LS with the 6-speed AT (LT trim shown) - $20,400 incl. the $875 D&H fee to start while provides owners a 30/40 mpgUS city/highway rating. Dealers are letting this one go for just under $18k + TTL. What does the LS trim include? Under the hood, a turbo charged 153 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque 1.4L I4 w/ Auto Start/Stop mated to a 6-speed AT. Outside, 15" steel wheels with bolt-on covers, P195/65R15 tires, outside power-adjustable and manual-folding mirrors, and body-colored handles. Regarding the infotainment, Chevrolet includes its MyLink Radio1 with a 7" color touch-screen and rear-view camera, AM/FM stereo, Bluetooth streaming audio, and both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. My favorite feature of the 2017 Chevrolet Cruze is the availability of the hyper efficient 30/52 mpgUS city/highway rated 137 hp 240 lb-ft torque 1.6L Turbo Diesel mated to a 6-speed MT. It is sold as LT trim with the turbo diesel, heated front seats, and an 8-way power driver seat. It lists for $24,670 incl. the $875 D&H charge, Another highlight is one that nobody else offers. That being 10 standard airbags including front, side, side curtains, driver/front passenger knee and outboard rear side airbags. GM May 2017 Sales Overview In May, GM sold 237,364 vehicles, down 1.3 percent below the 240,450 sold in May of 2016. On a daily selling rate basis, May sales were off 5.2 percent. YTD sales of 1,171,291vehicles were down 1.0 percent below the 1,183,705sold through the same period of 2016. GM’s May U.S. retail sales of 191,388 vehicles was up slightly over last May’s results. Commercial sales were up 14 percent, while Government sales were up 21 percent. Daily rental sales were down 36 percent. GM stated its incentive spending as a percentage of average transaction prices (ATP) was 11.6 percent in May, approximately equal to the industry average and lower than any domestic competitor. As a percent of ATP, incentive spending was down 0.8 points from April. The May of 2017 ATP was $35,283, up more than $640 per vehicle over April’s results. For the second month, GM’s profit center(s), the Silverado, Sierra, Colorado, and Canyon, sales were not only down but outsold by its crosstown rival F-Series. As a counterpoint, Barra is focusing more on profits so in particular, fleet volumes reduction for higher profits is not a bad angle to take. Especially given what just happened to Ford’s CEO over Q1 profits. The Chevrolet Cruze had another positive month with 17,120 vehicles delivered, up 2.7 percent over the 16,671 sold in May of 2016. YTD sales of 92,360 is up a much more impressive 35.7 percent over the 68,065 sold through the same period of 2016. The U.S. Automobile May 2017 vs. May 2016 Market Share results. To begin, Ford outselling GM in May and gaining 0.5 percent market share was the big news. Both Hyundai and FCA lost .6 percent market share. The Accord broke back into the Top 10 last month and this month moved to number 5. I have not looked up incentive addons but there appears to be a hard push to move Accords at Honda dealerships nationwide. Not a bad car to be pushing either. Segment Items of note Despite the large incentives, both the aging Focus and new Cruze outsold the new Elantra. Sonata sales are slumping. The Tucson at 10,600 units in May is closing in on making Sonata the number 3 seller in the flying H lineup. Something that has never occurred before. CUVs are still hot. In the pickup truck segment, for the second month in a row Ford’s F-Series has outsold the entire GM pickup truck lineup, RAM outsold the Silverado for the third month in a row and Nissan's Titan appears to be leveling off near the 5k mark with Ridgeline hovering around 3k/month. When it comes to Hybrids, the Prius lineup is beginning to feel competitor’s offerings with the Kia Niro and Hyundai Ioniq together taking 4,487 sales that may have went to the Prius or possibly the hot selling RAV4 Hybrid previously. Kia’s Niro achieved sales of 2,660 and its monthly sales volume for the first time since its intro has fallen below the prior months result. Prius c is way off the mark and if there was ever a time to see a second gen, now is that time. In the Electric segment, Toyota's Prius Prime for the second month outsold the Volt while the Bolt picked up quite a bit from last month’s sub 1k/mo sales result. U.S. May 2017 Sales vs. May 2016 Sales Ranks and Results for the top 18 Automobile Manufacturers Ford May 2017 Sales Up 2.2% with 241,126 Vehicles sold GM May 2017 Sales Down 1.3% with 237,364 Vehicles sold Toyota May 2017 Sales Down 0.5% with 218,248 Vehicles sold FCA May 2017 Sales Down 0.8% with 193,040 Vehicles sold Honda May 2017 Sales Up 0.9% with 148,414 Vehicles sold Nissan May 2017 Sales Up 3.0% with 137,471 Vehicles sold Hyundai May 2017 Sales Down 15.5% with 60,011 Vehicles sold Kia May 2017 Sales Down 7.0% with 58,507 Vehicles sold Subaru May 2017 Sales Up 12.1% with 56,135 Vehicles sold Mercedes-Benz May 2017 Sales Down 7.0% with 30,290 Vehicles sold VW May 2017 Sales Up 4.3% with 30,014 Vehicles sold BMW May 2017 Sales Down 11.1% with 29,878 Vehicles sold Mazda May 2017 Sales Down 7.9% with 26,047 Vehicles sold Audi May 2017 Sales Up 2.5% with 19,197 Vehicles sold Jaguar/Land Rover May 2017 Sales Up 13.9% with 8,106 Vehicles sold Mitsubishi May 2017 Sales Up 13.9% with 9,429 Vehicles sold Volvo May 2017 Sales Up 12.0% with 6,202 Vehicles sold Porsche May 2017 Sales Up 2.2% with 5,529 Vehicles sold In May, Ford moved ahead of GM as the number one U.S. Auto Manufacturer. This is a May anomaly but one we will be watching going forward. Mitsubishi moved ahead of Jaguar/Land Rover for the 15th spot. On a volume basis, May 2017 U.S. auto sales were up 4.1 percent. On a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis, May sales were up 0.05 percent. 2017 YTD sales of 6.97 million vehicles is down 1.6 percent from the 7.08 million sold through the same period and same number of sales days in 2016. There were 25 selling days in May of 2017 vs. 24 in May of 2016 and 125 days in both 2017 and 2016 as described numerous times above.
I just found out that the 2017 Cruze is available with a 1.6 diesel engine with a 6 speed manual, price is under $25,000. EPA is 52 mpg highway with the 6 speed stick and 47 mpg hwy with the automatic. Car and Driver I believe got 52 mpg on the highway at 75 mph with the 2017 Cruze diesel with the automatic. They claim the diesel beat the Prius by something like 6 mpg or so at the same highway speed. Looks like another new car for Wayne to reviewing. http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2017-chevrolet-cruze-sedan-diesel-automatic-test-review I bet Wayne can squeeze out 80 mpg with the Cruze 6 speed manual......
HI Alster: We have done a number of stories on the Super Diesel. The Most Efficient Turbo Diesel in America Comes From Chevrolet – 52 mpg Highway I drove it last week on a short loop. It was efficient but not blowout on the city/suburban loop we were allowed to drive it on. The NVH at idle was still high just like the previous Gens TD. Having made numerous requests for the Malibu Hybrid and the Cruze TD over the past year with no reply's, I end up just wasting my time banging my head against the wall with them. IHTHs? Wayne
Thanks Wayne. The Malibu Hybrid still is somewhat of a mystery, little or hardly any write ups about it. I wonder if Chevy is hiding something there, or perhaps has a 2018 or 2019 surprise waiting...
Hi Alster: The Malibu Hybrid sure is and I still no idea? It had a rather large change/restatement from 2016 to 2017 47/46 mpg city/highway to 49/43 mpg city/highway with new stricter EPA test cycle calculations harming the highway results and the new GM Hybrid tuning boosting the city results but I still have no idea. Wayne
GM though its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac subsidiary dealerships delivered 31,149 vehicles in May, an increase of 35.8 percent over the 22,939 sold in May of 2016. It was the company’s best May sales results since 2009. YTD sales of 123,345 are up 18.4 percent over the 104,157 sold through the same period of 2016. GM stated it was the retail sales leader for the third month in a row with May’s retail sales up 46 percent. Pickup truck sales were strong in May and led by the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. May full size trucks sales of 11,473 were up 44.0 percent over the 7,967 sold in May of 2016. YTS sales of 47,920 were up 22.4 percent over the 39,153 sold through the same period of 2016. GM Canada cars sales outpaced the industry with 27 percent growth, driven by the all-new Chevrolet Cruze (3,496, up 122 percent over the 1,574 sold in May of 2016), Volt (404, up 49.6 percent over the 270 sold in May of 2016). Non-daily rental fleet sales were up 18 percent in May and 14 percent calendar year-to-date. Opposite of the direction GM is heading in the U.S. Chevrolet achieved its best total sales since 2007 and best retail sales since 2003. GMC achieved its best total sales since 1989 and best retail sales since 1998. Cadillac achieved its best total and retails sales in history.
