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Cobalt sales drop 67.2% from 2008
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Pontiac Solstice at the 2009 Cleveland Auto Show
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Chevrolet Cobalt at the 2009 Cleveland Auto Show
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In this Vindicator archive photo, Cobalts are seen on the assembly line at GM Lordstown.
The Pontiac G5 had its best sales month of the year last month.
STAFF/WIRE REPORT
The locally built Chevrolet Cobalt had one of the biggest sales drops of all General Motors vehicles in June.
GM said Wednesday that it sold 6,847 Cobalts in the U.S. last month, which was down 67.2 percent from the 20,888 that were sold in June 2008.
Overall, GM’s light-vehicle sales were down 33.6 percent last month.
Among vehicles that still are being produced by GM, only the Saturn Aura and Sky had larger declines than the Cobalt last month. GM has said, however, that it intends to sell the Saturn brand, and it will not be part of the company’s long-term future.
Barry Gonis, general manager of Spitzer Chevrolet in North Jackson, said he wasn’t sure why the Cobalt dropped more than other GM vehicles. The same $2,500 rebate that was offered in May was available in June, he said.
Buyers could have been attracted to some other vehicles that had increased incentives, he said.
In May, GM sold 12,764 Cobalts.
For the first half of the year, GM has sold 51,676 Cobalts, which is down 54.8 percent from last year’s pace at the same time.
Because of the slow sales, GM has shut down the Lordstown plant for June and July.
The other car made at the plant, the Pontiac G5, had its best sales month of the year in June. GM sold 1,671 of the models. The previous monthly high for this year was 767 in January, but June’s total was still 34.9 percent lower than the number sold in June 2008.
Overall, GM held its own even though it entered bankruptcy protection.
The automaker’s 33.4 percent sales drop was slightly larger than the 30 percent drop it reported for May before it entered bankruptcy protection. GM plans to sell or close Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab to focus on four core brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
Meanwhile, sales at Ford and Chrysler last month offered sharply different views on the downtrodden U.S. market for cars and trucks.
Ford’s June sales showed signs of stabilization, as the healthiest Detroit automaker posted its smallest sales decline of the year at 10.7 percent. It also said it gained market share.
But Chrysler Group LLC, just weeks after leaving bankruptcy protection, reported a 42 percent drop in sales, hurt by a big cut in fleet sales and declines in all its models except the Dodge Challenger muscle car.
June sales from other automakers indicated that the industry downturn has begun leveling off. Toyota’s U.S. sales fell 32 percent in June to 131,654 units — a smaller decline than in previous months for the Japanese automaker.
Economists say there are signs the economy is recovering, with housing starts rising more than expected in May and wholesale prices remaining in check.
But the Conference Board reported Wednesday that consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in June.
“We’re making steady progress,” Jim Farley, the company’s group vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “We remain grounded, however, given challenging industry and economic conditions.”
Analysts predict that June sales, adjusted for seasonal variances and multiplied to determine an annual rate, will top the 10 million mark for the first time this year. During several months earlier in 2009, U.S. car and truck sales dropped to a rate of about 9 million vehicles, a huge reduction from more than 16 million as recently as 2007.
But any jump in the annual rate could be fueled by fire-sale prices at 789 Chrysler dealers that were fired by the company during the bankruptcy process and told to get rid of their inventory by June 9.