| October 28, 2005
The good news is that GM and Ford are making some major gains in the quality of their cars. J.D. Power just reported that the new Buick Lucerne and the Chevy Monte Carlo had two of the higher ratings for initial quality. They also reported that American mfrs. have passed their European counterparts in quality and trail only the Japanese brands by a low margin. Let's hope the public finds this out before GM or Ford goes out of business.
I thought you might find the following market share numbers interesting.
U.S. sales year to date through August of this year:
GM
| Chevrolet |
1,914,886 |
|
| GMC |
425,368 |
|
| Pontiac |
299,699 |
|
| Buick |
209,566 |
|
| Cadillac |
166,293 |
|
| Saturn |
149,087 |
|
| Hummer |
31,211 |
|
| Saab |
30,163 |
|
| All Brands |
3,226,273 |
26.5% Market Share! |
Ford
| Ford |
1,900,826 |
|
| Mercury |
147,820 |
|
| Lincoln |
84,014 |
|
| All Brands |
2,270,560 |
18.6% Market Share |
Daimler/Chrysler
| Dodge |
837,532 |
|
| Chrysler |
449,856 |
|
| Jeep |
327,908 |
|
| Mercedes |
138,692 |
|
| All Brands |
1,753,988 |
14.4% Market Share |
:Others
| Toyota |
1,641,227 |
13.5% |
| Honda |
991,754 |
8.1% |
| BMW/Mini |
856,342 |
7% |
| Nissan |
742,386 |
6.1% |
| Hyundai/Kai |
503,939 |
4.1% |
| Volkwagen/Audi |
192,422 |
1.6% |
| Total Year to Date |
12,178,891 |
|
Here's the scary part. GM had one of their best sales events ever in June and July with their GM employee discount pricing strategy and they still only have 26.5% market share. In September they actually sold fewer cars than Toyota. Mainly because they had pulled many of their future sales into the June and July promotion period hurting September results.
GM has huge pension fund and health care bills for many of their retirees dating back to the days when they had 50% market share. Fortunately, the UAW has agreed to lower their health and pension requirements but at the expense of those that are depending on GM to keep paying them. It is very possible in the next few years that GM will be forced to further renege on its commitment to their retired workers due to their inability to fund these programs. If GM and Ford continue to lose sales to the foreign brands we can expect the government will have to bailout these retirement programs. Let's hope that GM gets it's act together and starts acting like a market leader instead of an old company that can't make the kind of cars that the market wants to buy. Time is running out for them to get their act together. It sure would be nice if they would lead the market in fuel- efficient vehicles instead of leading the market in trucks that get less than 15 mpg.
I'm still looking to see my first Solstice on the streets. Let me know if you see one. There should be a few trickling out through the dealers. They are really cool looking cars. I've heard several people say it looks like it should be a $40,000 car instead of only $20,000.
Sell those club calendars!
Until next time...
The "Real" Bill McCoy |
