GM sales emerge strong amid burgeoning recalls

LORDSTOWN

May sales numbers released Tuesday by General Motors Corp. beat the expectations and forecasts of auto analysts during a month that saw a list of vehicle recalls.

GM dealers delivered 284,694 vehicles in the U.S. in May, up 13 percent compared with a year ago — making the company’s best May in seven years and its best total sales since August 2008. Retail sales were up 10 percent and fleet sales were up 21 percent, according to the company.

Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze sales went up 41 percent from last year with 32,393 sold this May compared with 23,055 sold last May. The highest amount of Cruze sales is from June 2013 at 32,871, according to Vindicator files.

“There is just so much speculation about the recalls, but I think [the numbers] show that [GM] is strong and is going to come out of this,” said Jessica Caldwell, a senior analyst for Edmunds.com. GM “is definitely in a [difficult] place, but the fact that the people are still buying the cars says a lot about [the company] and that its cars have changed and gotten a lot better over the years.”

Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at Lordstown, called the numbers “fantastic” and a depiction of how hard the team members work to produce quality cars.

Read the complete story in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.