Ug. How else can one react to news that General Motors sales for January were down 49 percent compared to January, 2008? Yes, that would mean the company sold only half as many vehicles as it did in the same period a year ago.
Join us after the jump for a more detailed look at the General's numbers (bring your own Valium).
Some of the more interesting and/or distressing of GM's January results:
* Fleet sales were down 80 percent to just a bit more than 13,000 vehicles in January. That, according to GM, is the lowest level since 1975.
* GM's total car sales were down 57.9 percent. While total light truck sales were down 44.7 percent
* For division sales, Cadillac lost the least in terms of percentage at 42.5 percent. Pontiac lost the most at 60.5 percent. Yes, Pontiac was down more than Hummer, which saw sales slide 59.9 percent. Of course, in terms of units sold, Pontiac still outsold Hummer nearly 9-to-1.
* Curiously, GM lists two sales for the SSR in January, 2008. Naturally there were none in January 2009.
* The Pontiac G8, Cadillac DTS, Saturn Aura and Cadillac Escalade each sold almost exactly the same number of vehicles in the month, about 1,350.
* No surpise: The Chevrolet Malibu was the best-selling GM car with 9,312 sales last month. The Chevrolet Silverado was the best-selling GM vehicle with 23,987 sales.
* In fact, Chevrolet sold only 13 fewer Silverados in January (23,987) than it did all of its car sales combined (24,000).
firstwagon says:
12:56 PM, 02/ 3/09
How do January sales compare to Oct, Nov and December 2008?
Comparing sales that happened in a boom to those in a bust have great shock value but often do more harm then good.
All we need to end the downturn is for people to think it's ending. As soon as people and companies start spending again, it will show positive growth and the downturn is over.
Basically the bad economy is not being caused by the banks or by government policy anymore.
It's being caused by the media and nervous consumers.
fst1 says:
01:59 PM, 02/ 3/09
No need for us to up the shock value of January's dismal numbers. Here's the total deliveries for GM over the last three months:
November, 2008: 154,877
December, 2008: 221,982 (December is usually a very big month for carmakers as customers have more time to shop and incentives tend to be high)
January, 2009: 129,227
It's bad.
Dan
44diesel says:
05:44 PM, 02/ 3/09
Hey firstwagon,
It's being caused by the media and nervous consumers?
You need to quit listening to whatever propaganda that your being spoon fed. If your a business try borrowing money on collateral that you think is worth anything. People are losing their jobs, others know they may be next. Most people are not going to get approved for a car loan when they are upside down in all mayor bills to begin with. Also face the facts that most people buying a 30k vehicle during the free for all years had no business doing so.
cwc1 says:
06:57 PM, 02/ 3/09
Sure there are some fundamental problems at the root of this, mostly caused by Washington politicians and bureaucrats, but the typical media doom and gloom is adding to it and becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.
Mayor bills?