Officials pleased with Cruze figures

By Karl Henkel | February 2, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

LORDSTOWN

General Motors Lordstown Complex officials say they are satisfied with January sales figures for the Chevrolet Cruze, up 10 percent from a year ago.

“Based on the fact we have a slow time between November and March, I’m very happy with the numbers,” said Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112. “I think General Motors is very happy with the production.”

GM sold 15,049 of the Lordstown-built Cruzes in January, up from 13,631 last January.

“That’s a reasonable expectation,” said Jesse Toprak, auto analyst at TrueCar.com, of the January Cruze sales figures. “Based on current demand, 15,000 is a sustainable figure.”

There were 24 selling days in January 2011, the same number as in January 2010.

Graham said that Cruze “inventory numbers are a lot lower than other years with other vehicles” and said that represents the company is “doing extremely well for a slow time of year.”

“The lower the field supply, the more the product is selling,” he said.

Graham did not release inventory figures.

Dave Green, president of UAW Local 1714, said GM management has told plant officials it will carefully monitor inventory levels; the Lordstown plant shut down for one week at the end of November because of increased inventory.

A typical inventory level is between 50 and 70 days; January inventory levels won’t be reported until next week.

The Lordstown plant had a 68-day supply as of Dec. 31, 2011.

In a related side note, GM reported it sold one new Chevrolet Cobalt in January; the Cobalt was the last vehicle model manufactured at Lordstown.

Overall, GM’s sales decreased 6 percent compared with last January.

“Chevrolet drove our performance once again and sales of our fuel-efficient new cars were especially good,” said Don Johnson, vice president, U.S. Sales Operations. “The strength that the economy and the auto industry showed in the fourth quarter carried into January, so we believe the year is off to a good start.”

Volkswagen sales in the U.S. rose 48 percent. Chrysler Group LLC reported sales increases of 44 percent during the first month of 2012. Ford Motor Co. posted a modest 7 percent sales jump.

Nissan North America sales rose 10 percent; American Honda Motor Co. sales climbed 8.8 percent and Toyota Motor Corp. sales increased 7.5 percent.