Cobalt sales surge 29 percent

May 4, 2010 at 12:04a.m.

STAFF/WIRE report

news@vindy.com

DETROIT

Photo

Jim Graham

Photo by: William D. Lewis

Photo

In this Vindicator archive photo, Cobalts are seen on the assembly line at GM Lordstown.

TOP-SELLING VEHICLES

The Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cobalt sold 13,701 units in April 2010, 2,960 units short of making the top 10 list:

Ford F-series: 40,946 units 2. Chevrolet Silverado: 29,618 3. Honda Accord: 29,311 4. Toyota Corolla: 27,932 5. Toyota Camry: 27,914 6. Honda Civic: 25,042 7. Ford Escape: 19,146 8. Ford Fusion: 18,971 9. Hyundai Sonata: 18,536 10. Honda CR-V: 16,661

Source: Autodata

The auto industry stayed on the road to recovery in April after last year’s dismal numbers, with most major automakers seeing double-digit sales gains.

Although General Motors’ overall sales were up only 6.5 percent compared with April 2009, sales for the Detroit automaker’s four “core” brands — Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet — were up 20 percent in April.

“We fully expected that once the economy came back, we would rebound,” said Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 in Lordstown. “General Motors has been putting out a good product. We expect good things to happen in the next three years.”

The Chevy Cobalt — manufactured in Lordstown — had a strong April, with 13,701 vehicles sold, up 29 percent from 10,627 vehicles sold in April 2009.

April’s Cobalt sales were also up from the 10,316 sold in March 2010.

Some 51,080 Cobalts have been sold to date this year, up from 32,065 sold over the same period in 2009.

The Chevy Malibu also improved by 13 percent, making it the most popular car in the Chevrolet lineup at 16,536 units.

A.J. Saculla, sales manager at Greenwood Chevrolet in Youngstown, said sales were up by about 10 percent in April. The Malibu was the most popular car, he said.

GM also saw strong sales of several new products, including the Chevy Camaro, the Equinox, the Buick LaCrosse and GMC Terrain. Full-size pickup truck sales rose 8.4 percent, an indicator that the construction business is in recovery.

Ford Motor Co. saw last month’s sales rise 25 percent from a year earlier. April was the fifth month in a row that Ford posted a year-over-year increase of 20 percent or more.

Chrysler reported a 25 percent sales increase, its first double-digit sales gain in nearly five years.

Sales for Toyota Motor Corp. rose 24 percent. Honda, Hyundai, and Subaru also continued to see gains.

Overall auto sales were down from March, however, as the lure of big incentives faded.

“April gave us a sense of what true demand is out there,” said Jessica Caldwell, an industry analyst with Edmunds.com. “There was no holiday weekend, and it was tax time. The sales we got in March were not really sustainable.”