General Motors has posted a 12.8 percent year-over-year sales gain for the month of October, moving 183,392 vehicles over 31 days across the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands.
All four active GM brands saw sales increase in October. Year-to-date sales are up 5.7 percent for the group, while October fleet sales accounted for 24 percent of the units sold for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. Even in October 2010, 242 Hummers, 83 Pontiacs, and 42 Saturns were sold.
Year-to-date, Buick sales are up a startling 55.4 percent, driven not just by the 1634 Regals sold but also by the Enclave and LaCrosse, which saw October-over-October sales increases of 58.4 and 42.4 percent, respectively. The Lucerne full-size sedan is the only Buick with a decrease in demand, though it still outsold the Regal, with 1810 units. Through October, Lucerne sales are down 17 percent.
Cadillac is GM's other biggest gainer through the first 10 months of the year. With sales up 39.9 percent year-to-date, Cadillac has the hot SRX crossover to thank with sales of 41,153 units so far this year, compared to 12,247 at the same point last year. The CTS and Escalade ESV -- that's the long version -- also had high sales. The CTS was up 45.2 percent last month while 951 Escalade ESVs were sold, compared to 599 in October 2009. Cadillac managed to sell seven new XLRs last month, as well.
At Chevrolet, Silverado sales carried the brand, with sales of 34,283, up 15.6 year-to-date. Chevrolet was up 6.7 percent in October and 17.2 percent year-to-date. Equinox sales were, once again, through the roof with a 62.3 percent increase compared to last October and up 75.1 percent through October.
Slightly more Equinoxes were sold than the Impala, which sold 36 more units than the Malibu. Chevy's Cruze is off to a decent start, with sales of 5048. Last October, 5055 Cobalts were sold.
GMC saw its 13th consecutive year-over-year sales increase, up 28 percent. The Sierra truck leads the way, with sales of 12,983, an increase of 9.2 percent compared to last October. The Acadia and Terrain were hot sellers, each up more than 60 percent on a month-to-month basis.
Even the Yukon and Yukon XL full-size SUVs were up by 9.3 and 62.2 percent, respectively, compared to last October. With those types of numbers, some may wonder how significant a role incentives played.
"Of our October sales, 76 percent were new (2011) model year vehicles," said Don Johnson, vice president, U.S. sales operations. "This puts us in good position to continue growing, while moderating our use of incentives."