Cruze confidence remains

February 3, 2016 at 12:04a.m.

LORDSTOWN

The leaders of the United Auto Workers unions at the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Plant remain confident in the compact car their members build.

On Tuesday, GM posted a 23.2 percent year-over-year drop in sales for the Chevrolet Cruze in January. The Cruze posted 14,362 sales in January 2016 compared with 18,693 in January 2015.

“All in all, we are still pleased that our current model sold as well as it did over its lifetime,” said Glenn Johnson, president of UAW Local 1112, which represents the Lordstown assembly workers.

The current model has been built at the plant since November 2010. In October 2014, an updated version of the Cruze came out, and this spring, the revamped, next-generation Cruze with a new design, updated technology and enhanced safety features will hit sales floors.

“We are right on schedule at this point in time,” Johnson said regarding production of the next-generation Cruze.

UAW Local 1714 President Robert Morales, who represents the fabrication plant workers in Lordstown, believes the committed Cruze customers are waiting for the next-generation model to come out.

“There’s been a lot of hype about it,” Morales said.

At the same time, there’s been a lot of hype about larger vehicles. Last year, the compact-SUV segment surpassed sales of cars.

The new year hasn’t changed the trend so far. And analysts don’t see it changing.

“It’s a new year but the same old story,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader.com.

The larger-vehicle trend isn’t centralized to the U.S., Krebs explained, but a global trend. And low gas prices aren’t the only factor leading to the trend, Krebs said, noting millennials are now purchasing bigger vehicles for family use, and baby boomers want them, too.

For GM, the Chevrolet brand continued its growth and gained nearly 2 percentage points of retail market share in January. Chevy had the largest retail market share increase of any full-line brand in 2015.

Chevy had its best passenger sales since January 1997.

GM dealers in the U.S. delivered 203,745 vehicles in January 2016 for the company’s best January sales performance in eight years. GM’s retail sales were up 9 percent year over year on the strength of a 12 percent increase at Chevrolet and a 45 percent increase at Buick. Total sales were up 0.5 percent.

GM’s plan is to continue to cut back on its fleet sales. In January, the automaker sold 13,000 fewer rental vehicles compared with January 2015.

“They are shifting the focus on profitability versus volume,” Krebs said.

Overall, U.S. auto sales fell slightly in January because of the East Coast snowstorm, but analysts say demand remains strong and buyers likely will head back into dealerships this month.

Sales fell less than 1 percent to 1.1 million, according to Autodata Corp. The mid-January storm, which buried New York and Washington, D.C., under more than 2 feet of snow, cost automakers about 15,000 vehicle sales, said John Humphrey, J.D. Power’s senior vice president of automotive.

But automakers said sales volumes returned to normal levels in the last weekend of the month.

Ford, Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen all saw sales decline from last January. General Motors’ sales were flat. Fiat Chrysler, Nissan and Hyundai posted sales increases.

Ford Motor Co. reported total U.S. sales of 173,723 – a 3 percent drop from last January’s sales.

The automaker’s SUVs shined with 50,212 sales. The Edge was the biggest driver in sales with a 26 percent gain.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles U.S. reported sales of 155,037 in January for a 7 percent increase over January 2015. Jeep, Dodge and Ram Truck brands all saw year-over-year gains.

Honda reported a sales drop of 2 percent to 100,497 for Honda and Acura vehicles.

Honda’s new Civic led the division with 26,741 sales compared with 18,699 sales reported in January 2015 for a 54.9 percent increase year over year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.