GM sales show weakest growth among big 3 in September

This month saw big gains across the industry compared to September 2009 thanks to the slump caused by the end of the government’s Cash for Clunkers program.  However, General Motors was still the weakest of the Detroit automakers in terms of year over year growth with their remaining brands accounting for just shy of 173,000 units sold last month.  This number allowed GM to show an improvement over September of 2009 but compared to August and July of this year, the September numbers show a healthy decline in sales.  Most importantly, General Motors was the top selling automaker in the US market last month with 172,969 units besting Ford’s 160,873 vehicles.

The strongest of the General Motors brands in terms of year over year growth was the GMC with a 42% increase over last year.  This brand is comprised of all trucks and sport utility models, helping to show that the useful but not-so-efficient vehicles are far from dead in the American auto industry.  The top seller for the GMC brand was the Sierra pickup with just over 11,000 trucks sold, accounting for an improvement of 53% compared to last year.  Next in line was the GMC Terrain with 4,777 units sold, giving the compact SUV a brand-leading growth of 258% and the Arcadia finished third in volume with 4,608 units sold for an increase of 62% over last September.

Next in terms of growth was the Buick brand, as the redefined low-cost luxury lineup continues to move full speed ahead.  Buick’s 12,875 units sold gave them a year over year increase of 36%, with the LaCrosse continuing to be the bestseller with 4,741 units sold – a brand leading 99% improvement over last year.  The Enclave was second in sales with 4,408 SUVs sold followed by the out-going Lucerne with 1,950 sedans sold…giving this aging Buick a decrease in growth of 55%.  The Buick Regal continues to build momentum in the segment with 1,776 units of the German-built midsized sedan sold last month.

The third strongest brand from GM was Chevrolet, with 121,479 units leaving the lot in September 2010 for an increase of 18% over last year.  The Silverado pickup was the top seller from Chevy with over 32,000 trucks sold in the month of September 2010 – giving the model an increase of 66% compared to last year.  Next, the Chevy Malibu came in with 16,289 sedans sold for an improvement of 55% and the Equinox came in third with 11,658 SUVs leaving the lots.  The top performer in terms of growth was the Aveo with the 6,552 compacts sold accounting for a 244% increase over last year.

Finally the luxury line of the GM pulls up the rear as Cadillac’s 12,620 units sold accounted for just an 11% improvement over the same month last year.  The SRX was the top seller in terms of volume with 4,027 of the sporty crossover reaching the consumers for an increase of 41% over last year.  The Cadillac CTS lineup was next in terms of volume with 3,760 units sold for an 8% improvement and the DTS was next in sales with 1,870.  Surprisingly, the STS sedan was the tops from Cadillac in terms of growth with its 745 units giving the sedan a 72% growth over last September.

Though General Motors is down a bit compared to prior months, the General is still the top seller across all companies offered in the US.  As the 2011 Chevy Cruze hits the market at full speed and joins the other new GM models, we can expect to see increasing growth if these models shape up as well as GM expects.  General Motors can also look forward to the upcoming 2011 Camaro Convertible (click here for more on that) along with the high performance Camaro Z28 (click here for more on the LSA-powered Camaro).