Lordstown’s Cruze still sells above 20k after 5 years

July 2, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

LORDSTOWN

Although the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze has some tough competition and is in its fifth sales year, the compact car continues to post monthly sales figures above 20,000.

In June, Cruze figures hit 22,647 — a 12.9 percent decrease from last year’s 26,008 sales.

“I think, given the environment, the number north of 20K for Cruze is still pretty decent,” said Alec Gutierrez, Kelley Blue Book senior analyst.

Overall, larger- vehicle sales continually have outshined passenger cars for automakers.

But the Cruze’s sales beat the top-selling Chevrolet Equinox’s 21,760 sales in June.

“It is a testament to the popularity of the vehicle even in its last days,” said Glenn Johnson, head of United Auto Workers Local 1112. “The car speaks for itself.”

The Cruze has been on the market since late 2010. It’s successor – a sleek, lighter, larger model – made its global debut June 24 in Detroit.

A local debut for the about 4,500 plant workers and others will take place July 9 at the Lordstown plant. More than 1.3 million Cruzes have been built in Lordstown. Globally the best-selling vehicle in 115 counties, the Cruze has topped more than 3.5 million in sales.

“Customers are still excited about the current Cruze that we are building at Lordstown,” said Robert Morales, president of UAW Local 1714. “I think we are still winning back customers from pre-bankruptcy time. They still believe in our cars.”

General Motors posted a 3 percent decline in sales across its four brands with 259,353 sales compared with 267,461 last June.

The automaker excelled in retail sales with a 7 percent increase year over year, but took a 29 percent hit in fleet sales.

Chevrolet’s retail sales were up 8.5 percent year over year; GMC had a 12.1 percent retail sales gain; and Cadillac’s retail sales were up by about 3 percent.

All three helped make for GM’s best June for retail deliveries since 2007 and its best June for retail market share since 2011.

Chevrolet crossovers had the best June ever, and Chevrolet’s total pickup deliveries were up 33 percent.

Low interest rates and gas prices “helped the SUVs grow in terms of interest from consumers,” Gutierrez said.

Despite the trend with larger vehicles, Chevrolet has debuted five cars this year for 2016: Cruze, Spark, Malibu, Camaro and Volt.

Rumor has it the new Cruze model will have a hatchback version, which is available in other countries outside the U.S.

“It could be an interesting time for a hatchback Cruze,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader. “It might have a place like the diesel Cruze has its place.”

Right now, the auto industry is standing strong with higher average transaction prices and low incentives.

“The strength is coming mostly from individual retail buyers,” Krebs said. “There is this underlying strength in the market, and it is not being juiced by outlandish sales and sales of fleet.”

Kelley Blue Book analysts expanded their yearly sales forecast from 16.9 million to 17.1 million, which Gutierrez still called “conservative.”

“The second half of the year should be very strong,” he said.

The industry has seen sales growth every year for the past six years, which is unprecedented, said Eric Lyman, TrueCar’s vice president of industry insights.

“The question is whether the industry can handle continued growth across the board,” he said. “At some point there is going to have be some winners and losers year over year.”

Honda, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota all reported year-over-year gains.

American Honda Motor Co. Inc. reported June 2015 Honda and Acura vehicle sales of 134,397 units, an increase of 4.2 percent.

Ford Motor Co.’s total U.S. June sales rose 2 percent year over year to 225,647 vehicles.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles U.S. LLC reported U.S. sales of 185,035 vehicles for June, an 8 percent increase compared with 171,086 sales in June 2014, and the group’s best June sales since 2006.

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. reported June 2015 sales of 209,912 units, an increase of 4.1 percent from June 2014 on a volume basis. With one more selling day in June 2015 than in June 2014, sales were down 0.1 percent on a daily selling rate basis.