GM: Core Brands Retain Share
DETROIT (
) --
General Motors
said its sales rose 14% in January, while sales of its four core brands rose 30%, capturing a 20.4% share of the U.S. vehicle market.
GM also reduced incentive spending by 22% from December, according to Edmunds.com. At the time, GM was desperately seeking customers for discontinued brands. Edmunds.com said GM incentive spending per car fell from $4,001 in December to $3,103 in January, within $40 of both
Chrysler
and
Ford
(F) - Get Report
.
January's sales numbers "crystallize why it was so important to (reduce) our non-core brands at the end of December, so we can focus," Susan Docherty, vice president of sales, said Tuesday on the automaker's sales conference call
Sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said GM retains an estimated U.S. share of 21%, with the four core brands -- Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac -- accounting for 98% of sales, compared with 85% a year earlier. The ability to retain market share while shedding unsuccessful brands like Pontiac and Saturn is a key to GM's long term strategy.
Overall, U.S. vehicle sales fell in January to about 700,000, the lowest since February's level of 690,401, according to TrueCar.com. Sales in January 2009 were 658,603, the lowest point during the recession, the firm said. January 2010 sales fell sharply from about a million in December. January is historically a slow sales month.
Meanwhile,
Toyota
(TM) - Get Report
sales fell 16% in January.
Both Ford and GM have offered incentives to Toyota owners who trade in vehicles. "If Toyota owners wanted to buy, we made it easy for them to do that," Docherty said. Going forward, she said, "We are going to do some focus groups and find out what they are thinking."
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
.