Cruze sales down for July

DETROIT — The July sales were down 17.8 percent for the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze with 20,926 sold last month compared to 25,447 sold in July 2013, General Motors said in its sales report today.

Overall, GM July sales were up 9 percent compared to last year. Retail sales were up 4 percent, commercial deliveries were up 69 percent and other fleet deliveries were up 21 percent.

Big sales included crossovers, which were up 26 percent, SUVs, up 32 percent and vans, up 65 percent. Combined sales for all three were 1,048,114 — making GM the first automaker to pass the million-unit milestone in 2014. GM was also the first last year.

“Sales of utility vehicles soared in July because American families feel better about the economy than they have in a long time, and they are finding an incredible variety of redesigned and all-new models in our showrooms,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “Small, compact, medium, large – sales were strong across the board.”

Although Cruze sales were down for the month of July, they are up 4.5 percent for the year.

Other Chervrolet models like the Corvette, Camaro, Volt, Sonic and Malibu were up in sales. In fact, Corvette deliveries more than tripled. They are up 356 percent with 3,060 Corvettes sold last month compared to 671 last year.

Total Chevrolet deliveries were up 8 percent. July 2014 marks the best Chevrolet July sales since 2007.