2019 wasn’t particularly terrible for General Motors. The company’s four brands posted a combined 2.3% decline as demand for GM’s sedans decreased significantly. Like Ford and Hyundai, it doesn’t seem like the drop in passenger car volume impacted GM all that much. Buick and Cadillac got by just fine because of their utilities. Chevy made out alright too. Except for the Silverado. Fresh off a redesign, the full-size truck is down 1%. And it now occupies third place in the American pickup truck hierarchy, having been usurped by Ram. Trouble on the horizon? Maybe.
Let’s start with Chevy’s 2019 truck performance. GM CEO Mary Barra probably isn’t too happy with the data. Unlike Ford and FCA, GM reports the specific sales numbers of their light and heavy duty pickups, instead of lumping them together. That extra bit of transparency might go by the wayside in the future though, because the numbers aren’t good. The medium duty Silverado was down 7.1% to 131,953 units. Perhaps more importantly, the 1500 slipped 1% to 438,686 sold. GM almost certainly expected the redesigned Silverado lineup to perform better. Was it the controversial front end that turned off customers? Or is the new model just not that compelling when compared to what Ram is offering? In any event, the company is going to have to switch things up if they want to regain some of the market share they’ve lost.
“At least the Colorado did well!” is a statement that GM executives cannot say without their noses growing by at least five inches. Chevy sold 122,304 Colorados last year. That’s a 9.3% drop compared to 2018. Is the Ranger responsible for that decline? It’s a possibility. That’s a trend that might not go away anytime soon.
I’m not going delve too deeply into Chevy’s cancelled sedans because they all just posted the exact kind of double digit sales decreases you’d expect. But the deaths of the Cruze and Impala definitely skewed the brand’s 2019 sales numbers. The Cruze experienced a 66% drop and the Impala was down about 20% compared to 2018. Models like the Camaro and Malibu, which are rumored to be on the chopping block, didn’t do so hot either. GM’s muscle car trails the competition by a significant amount. Chevy convinced 48,265 people to buy a Camaro last year, which was a 5.3% drop from 2018. Dodge sold about 60,000 Challengers and Ford moved approximately 72,000 Mustangs during the same period. Like the Silverado, did buyers get turned off by the Camaro’s front end styling? It’s not outside the realm of possibility.
Chevy’s mid-size also left 2019 in a weakened position. The Malibu’s 8.7% drop left the sedan at 131,917 units sold. Fortunately, Fairfax Assembly added the Cadillac XT4 last year, so the workers can probably rest a little bit easier now that they have a crossover in their lineup.
Chevy’s crossovers spectacularly flamed out in 2019. Just kidding! Customers ate them up. The Trax jumped 29.9% to 116,816, making it one of the best performers in the subcompact segment. Its compact brethren, the Equinox, also did well. Sales were 4% higher for a total 346,048. GM is no doubt pleased with the Equinox. Chevy now sells about 100,000 of them per year when compared to 2014, when approximately 240,000 customers took one home. The Traverse only gained 0.4% last year, but it’s an older model competing in a segment that’s seen a lot of newcomers lately. Sometimes, holding your ground counts as a victory. With 101,189 sold in 2019, Chevy’s three-row ultimately did pretty well for itself. Last but not least is the Blazer. In its first year of life it convinced just over 58,000 shoppers that it was the vehicle for them. That’s well behind the Ford Edge (140k) but within spitting distance of the Nissan Murano (68k).
By contrast, the Tahoe and Suburban were disappointing. Chevy sold about 8,000 fewer examples of the duo in 2019. Don’t be fooled by that number though, because the combined 152,000 in Tahoe and Suburban sales make them far and away the segment leader. The next closest competitor is the Expedition at 86,000. A redesign this year will probably help them maintain their stranglehold on the segment.
Buick remained completely flat for 2019. An additional 70,000 in sales did not move the percentage needle due to the steep decline of the last Buick sedans. Combined sales for the LaCrosse and Regal topped out at around 17,000. That’s down from just under 30,000 in 2018. As for the Cascada, about 2,500 people thought that taking one home was a good idea.
The brand’s future clearly depends on crossovers. The Encore, Envision, and Enclave more than made up for the dying sedans. Buick’s smallest crossover continues find a substantial audience. With 102,402 sold in 2019, the Encore was up 10%. The mid-sized Envision was also up by a similar amount, with 33,229 sold. Fortune also favored the Enclave to the tune of a 3% increase. At 51,156 units, the three-row crossover sold less than the Telluride but more than the Pathfinder. With the addition of the Encore GX this year, Buick should at least be a stable brand for GM.
GMC gained some market share on the strength of its crossovers. The Acadia sold just under 100,000 units last year for a 12% gain while the compact Terrain experienced the exact opposite percentage decrease. Its sales totaled just over 100,000 for 2019. GMC’s trucks didn’t follow suit. The Canyon sold about 800 fewer examples than 2018 but it still found about 32,000 buyers last year. Sierra sales grew by slightly over 8% as 172,000 people took one home. GMC’s Yukon still sells in decent numbers too, but it experienced a 7% loss for about 74,000 sold.
Finally, Cadillac barely overcame its declining sedans for a 1% increase. Every single sedan lost volume. The CT5 only just started trickling into dealerships and the CT4 isn’t out yet, so we have yet to see if they end up resonating with customers. Crossovers fared better, with the XT5 being the exception. While Cadillac gained an additional 11,000 sales from the newly introduced XT6, it lost roughly the same amount in XT5 sales. Perhaps buyers prefer the Nautilus? In any event, the luxury brand also sold about 31,000 examples of the subcompact XT4. Escalade sales dropped by about 600 units to 35,500. Cadillac will probably improve on the figure when the new model arrives later this year.
Crossovers prevented GM from having a bad year, but trouble is on the horizon. Their trucks are facing stiff competition in the form of the Ranger and Ram 1500. However, their 2.3% drop was less than half what analysts expected. Overall, the company held its ground and will probably be fine, as long as crossovers fill the hole left by sedans. With incentive spending dropping 4.7% and the average transaction price rising 0.5%, GM probably isn’t sweating the demise of vehicles like the Cruze, Impala, and Regal.
The lackluster performance of the new pickup line should be concerning, as is the poor showing of the Camaro. These two vehicles, it seems to me, are the ones that measure Chevrolet’s relevance with its core customers. Are we seeing the effects of a generational change where Chevy can no longer count on those diehards to build up a solid baseline of popularity?
The Buick Encore is encouraging in the way it seems to be finding a market. Anecdotally, we have some friends who bought one. They have purchased a number of Fords and Hondas over the years (including a new CR-V about a year prior to the Encore). It is the first GM vehicle in their garage in something like twenty years. And it doesn’t seem like a bad little vehicle.
My eyes glaze over at the Cadillac model lineup – I am a long time car nut but when I hear those alphanumeric designations, I have no idea what each one looks like. When someone like me doesn’t have a mental picture come to mind when a model name is mentioned, this is a problem.
+1 on Cadillac’s lineup. I’m predicting once again that Lincoln will see more buyers, very likely because people can remember the names of their vehicles and put a name to a “face”.
And from my perspective in the Tampa Bay area, you’d never guess Buick only sold 2500 Cascadas in 2019. But then again I suppose if they were going to sell them anywhere this is the place. Florida must have gotten at least 2000 of them, likely mostly in fleet sales.
From the south side of the bay, I can agree that the Cascada sales must have been centered here. But I don’t think it was fleet sales. Anecdotally, my elderly yet active uncle was one of those buyers. He went out and got one when a friend purchased one. It was a perfect replacement to the old 1996-2006 Sebring convertibles for him and a lot of folks like him. American, seated 4, room for golf clubs, and reasonably priced, compared to a European convertible of similar size. The Mustang and Camaro were too sporty and rode too harshly for older folks taste. And it could be serviced at the local Buick dealer, who they knew from previous purchases.
It’s typical GM that it had a niche hit and chose not to keep it going. And I do also agree that Lincoln will be lapping up new (old) customers with their lineup, as I think the names and designs will appeal more to the mature crowd, you know, the ones with money to buy the product.
From just looking around here in GM Country, it was quickly apparent Chevrolet’s pickup sales were down as seeing one is an infrequent event. They indeed are down in sales but not to the same extent I had suspected. It looks like some number of customers saw that front end and opted for a less repelling looking GMC.
Poor Cadillac just makes my head hurt. There is a long heritage at Cadillac that could be molded for current purposes but it appears nobody there is either interested or capable of doing so.
GM is about to deliver a refresh of the Colorado/Canyon. Only the ZR2 and the Canyon have been shown off so far, I wonder if the base Chevy is being held back for an emergency redesign to look less like the new Silverado.
What’s needed now is a followup to the Bolt EV which, despite having all the hallmarks of one, is not perceived as a crossover and has suffered from being compared to a car that it actually didn’t compete with (and didn’t actually exist for the Bolt’s first two years on the market). IMO they abandoned Voltec too soon and the Blazer should’ve had that instead of being IC-only. Or both powertrain options in the one body.
Cadillac showed up to the sports-sedan party in force only to find the party was over, the cool people had come and gone and the seven-layer dip had turned into one layer of…something…
It would have been a challenging year in terms of sales volume for GM for many reasons.
1a. FCA now, finally, has a third full size truck up and running. So they can build more trucks, and if priced right the market will take them (that is before factoring in the very favorable reviews of the new trucks, while old ones still have fans and continue to be sold).
1b. GM probably had some challenges getting the new truck into production in volume. You can only sell the inventory you have.
1c. GM’s Tahoe/Suburban plant is pretty maxed out, so 2018 is probably ceiling on sales.
2. The new 3-row CUVs from Korea and Subaru.
3. The new Ranger. While it competes with the Nissan for worse in class, inevitably some of the customers will come from Colorado.
4. As noted, GM dropped the Cruze. The Impala was built all year.
This armchair quarterback would have kept the Cruze. More importantly, as FCA is doing, I would have kept the ‘old’ Silverado Classic in production.
I would have upcontented and/or reduced the price of the Impala, perhaps made it V6 only, and kept it in production.
That would help volume, and probably not hurt, perhaps even slightly boost profit.
Finally, perhaps it’s my connection, but this is running much slower…hope it’s not the new ‘normal’
The problem with the Chevrolet truck is most likely the front-end styling. Note that the GMC version experienced a sales increase.
The Camaro’s problem is the gun-slit greenhouse. Sitting in one is like sitting in a bath tub. The Challenger may be “old,” but at least its front seat compartment is livable on a daily basis.
I’m surprised that the Blazer has sold that well, because adding the features that most buyers want makes it expensive compared to the competition.
Count me in that appearance issues are dragging down Chevy truck and Camaro sales. The Silverado is growing on me a bit, but that’s not saying much. I still wouldn’t buy one. Besides the front being too busy and tall, the overall body doesn’t say “Chevy” to me. The wheel arches are too rounded and that awkward curve from the doors to the front fenders just doesn’t work. Chevy spent 45 years building a brand image with a distinct look, and gave it up to chase who knows what.
The 2010 Camaro was a big hit, largely because it was such a looker. They have managed to keep the worst aspects of that car while jettisoning its charm. The latest edition looks like an evil transformer, not the car one wants to live with when the Mustang and Challenger are still so attractive.
BTW, the new logo banner looks great!
The Ranger outsold the Colorado in the fourth quarter, 33k to 25k.
It took a while but the Ranger finally seems to be picking up steam and I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of 2020 it outsold the Colorado.
That’s a pretty impressive performance for the Ranger and Ford (though I stand by my assessment).
Any chance CC will show a chart of sales by make and model (vs the by make only), so that we armchair strategists can comment?
I don’t think GM is all that worried about their pickup performance. Certainly it has to hurt for Chevy to take the #3 spot, but some of it was due to reduced supply as they did the change over and it took a while before they had full availability.
News just in:
Making your vehicles look incredibly stupid means people wont buy them.
Ive never seen such a disgusting design language as this GM front end, it looks there are bits missing off the front end, people can counter with the Lexus front end, but at least it looks like it was completed at the factory.
Maybe there’s a market for aftermarket front ends for GM vehicles.
Remember car bras? They would be an improvement over the Star Wars Stormtrooper theme.
+1
GMC Sierra sales were up considerably, so maybe the Silverado’s styling is a factor. Regardless, the quality of the new GM full size trucks seems impressive so far.
What about the strike? Dealers in my area were running low on inventory of many models.
No figures on the Bolt? By all reports it’s a great EV, but sales are disappointing. The problem as with other Chevys is styling.
What’s needed is a refresh that gives it some class and makes it look like it’s a $35,000 car. Today’s Bolt looks like it came from ToysRUs. Compared with a Tesla Model 3 it’s just silly.
I like my 2019 Cruze so far. It has enough power, rides great over the crappy roads here, seems to like going into a curve faster than I should take it and gets great mileage. No rattles, no trips to the dealer for any problems yet and it’s great on a trip. It’s a shame Chevy stopped making it.
Once upon a time, when one out of four new-vehicle buyers said “yes” to Chevy, most any model you could choose came with an attractive face and its own personality.
The Camaro, by many accounts, is a BMW 3-series fighter depending how you option it. But those gunslit windows and BUGLY face are a total turnoff.
And the Silverado’s almost as bad, which is a shame since mechanically, it seems like a home run. Would love to stuff a 5.3 in a Colorado Double Cab, which is one truck I find VERY attractive.
I’ll miss Cruze, Impala, Sonic and now, Malibu? Do we know yet that it’s on the chopping block?
It’s Important that incentive spending is down and ATP is growing. Hopefully it’s an indicator that GM’s better able to sell on desire and less on cash-on-the-hood.
Cadillac. Holy f -ing sheet. When I was a kid it was the American dream. Now it’s just another Jello mold at the church supper. No other brand has fallen so far. Dump it and make Buick the premium brand.
Maybe the Silverado is down, in part, due to the standard 4 cylinder engine.