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Cruze sales up again in October
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
For three consecutive months now, the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze has posted year-over-year increases in sales.
October 2016 had two fewer selling days, and the Cruze came in with 17,126 sales, compared with 15,710 sales in October 2015, according to figures released Tuesday by General Motors.
“The last three months, [the Cruzes] have hit their stride,” said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst for Edmunds.com.
Broken down, the Cruze’s sales are mostly retail, or sales to individual customers, as GM has focused its selling efforts on the more profitable retail side.
In October, the next-generation Cruze had 11,595 retail sales and 4,038 fleet sales. Other Cruze sales included in retail were 462 sales of the first-generation Cruze and 1,031 sales of the Cruze Hatchback.
In August, total Cruze sales were up 52.4 percent year-over-year, and in September, sales were up 8.4 percent.
“We are real pleased that the product we are building is selling well, and we are looking forward to continue meeting supply and demand for our customers,” said Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, which represents assembly workers.
The Lordstown plant has built the Cruze since 2010. Production of the new, next-generation Cruze launched this year with Cruzes heading to dealers in late March. GM said a high demand for the Cruzes and low supply led the automaker to supplement the U.S. market with Cruzes built at the GM plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, where the Cruze Hatchback also is produced.
The Ramos Arizpe-built Cruzes started to temporarily supplement the market in September and have continued to be shipped to the U.S. GM would not specify to what degree the Mexico-built Cruzes have supplemented the U.S. market.
The Cruze, a compact car, is competing in a market that’s driven by compact sport utility vehicles and trucks. Analysts foresee a continual contraction of the compact- and midsize-car segments as competition pulls away their audience.
“Our main goal is to provide a quality vehicle,” said Robert Morales, president of UAW Local 1714. “We can’t control the market.” Local 1714 represents fabrication plant workers.
GM’s total U.S. sales in October were 258,626 vehicles, down less than 2 percent from last year. The automaker sold 208,290 vehicles in October to individual customers for a 3 percent increase from last year. GM’s rental sales were down about 8,000 vehicles, or about 19 percent, in October compared with last year.
Retail sales of the Colorado, Suburban, Tahoe and Trax were up 42 percent, 35 percent, 49 percent and 37 percent, respectively, the automaker said.
“Those are all vehicles that give beefy profits,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for AutoTrader.com, about sales of larger vehicles.
American Honda Motor Co. Inc. reported October sales of 126,161 Honda and Acura vehicles, a decrease of 4.2 percent over October 2015. Honda highlighted sales of its light trucks, which had the largest gains during the month for the automaker.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported a 10.3 percent drop in sales year-over-year. Toyota Motor Sales Inc. reported October 2016 sales of 186,295 units, a decrease of 8.7 percent from October 2015.
This month, analysts expected to see sales dip from October 2015, which was a record month with 1.45 million sales. October 2016 auto sales are forecast to hit 1.3 million. Since Ford did not release its sales Tuesday because of a fire at its headquarters, its total October auto sales were not released.
“On the year, we still expect to see sales at 17.4 million units,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book.
That estimate puts this year’s sales in a race to challenge last year’s industry record of 17.47 million.