43
Cruze sales drop by 37 percent in August
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
Several factors could have led to the double-digit percentage decrease in sales for the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze last month.
General Motors reported Tuesday the Cruze had 14,661 sales compared with 23,435 last August, which included an extra sales day and Labor Day weekend sales.
The Cruze, in the fifth year of its life cycle, will have a fresh redesign on the sales floor come 2016, but for now it faces tough competition from compact cars and larger vehicles.
GM also has pulled back on its fleet sales while focusing on sales to individual customers, which could have impacted Cruze sales this time around, analysts said.
Even though the Cruze took a hit in sales by 37.4 percent in August, United Auto Workers Local 1112 President Glenn Johnson wasn’t disappointed.
“We have had this before, and we have weathered this,” he said.
He thinks GM will come up with a great marketing strategy to get customers thinking about the all-new, next-generation Cruze and its long list of new features before it comes out.
Robert Morales, president of UAW Local 1714, thinks customers may be holding back on buying a new Cruze until the next-generation model comes out.
“I think as far as competition goes, our vehicles are at the top of the competition,” Morales said of the Cruze and other GM vehicles. “Overall, we are satisfying customers’ needs with safety and looks.”
The Cruze, GM’s best-selling car, still has yearly sales higher than the Chevrolet Malibu and Impala. The Cruze has had 163,938 sales so far this year compared with 189,699 sales at this point last year. In comparison, the Chevrolet Equinox, a hot-selling crossover, has had 192,505 sales so far this year compared with 167,539 sales between January and August last year.
“Cars remain the big challenge,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for autotrader.com. “It will be interesting to see how GM promotes the Cruze when the market isn’t loving cars.”
Overall, GM’s four brands had 270,480 sales in the U.S. in August 2015.
Retail deliveries climbed 6 percent compared with a year ago, while fleet sales were down 24 percent on a 38 percent decline in rental deliveries. Total sales were down slightly by 0.7 percent.
“GM’s retail sales increase far outpaced the industry in August, and we have grown our retail share for five months in a row compared to last year,” said Kurt McNeil, GM’s U.S. vice president of sales operations. “We will continue this momentum with the redesigned Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu, the launch of diesel engines for our midsize pickups, a dramatic restyling of the Chevrolet Silverado and the aggressive rollout of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.”
Top performers for the automaker were crossovers and pickups, which both had double-digit gains.
Across the board, analysts underestimated sales for automakers in August.
“We have been warning that these big increases will not continue,” Krebs said. “We expect the market to continue to be healthy, but we are a little more cautious. The increases are getting smaller and smaller. We will have months were there are dips.”
For the year, analysts expect sales to hit about 17.2 million.
Ford Motor Co. delivered its best August U.S. sales in nine years on strong demand for new cars, SUVs and trucks. Sales totaled 234,237 vehicles, a 5 percent increase.
Fiat Chrysler reported U.S. sales of 201,672 vehicles, a 2 percent increase compared with sales in August 2014 of 198,379 vehicles.
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. reported August 2015 sales of 224,381 units, a decrease of 8.8 percent from August 2014 on a volume basis. With one fewer selling day in August 2015 than in August 2014, sales were down 5.3 percent on a daily selling rate basis.
American Honda Motor Co. Inc. reported August 2015 sales of 155,491 Honda and Acura vehicles, a decrease of 6.9 percent over August 2014.