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GM Sales number December and 2018


jpd80

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9 hours ago, J-150 said:

Unifor isn't going to like the Equinox sales. It flies in the face of their argument that GM is shutting down all Canadian assembly plants.

That two plant strategy makes me think that GM is striving for +40K/mth sales consistently...

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Back in 2011-2012 Cadillac hated SUvs, they wanted to drop Escalade and SRX believing that Cars and chasing BMW was the future, now look at them, over 10, 000 from XT4/XT5 sales last month and 3,000 combined from Escalade and ESV. Cadillac Utilities are selling well, cars are nowhere.

Edited by jpd80
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4 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

Back in 2011-2012 Cadillac hated SUvs, they wanted to drop Escalade and SRX believing that Cars and chasing BMW was the future, now look at them, over 10, 000 from XT4/XT5 sales last month and 3,000 combined from Escalade and ESV. Cadillac Utilities are selling well, cars are nowhere.

And that's why JDN got canned 

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4 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

And that's why JDN got canned 

JDN didn't arrive until 2014, guys like Mark Reuss were already steering Cadillac to HP cars, his fingerprints are all over Alpha and Omega but the glaring issue was that Alpha was not engineering preserved for Utilities. GM could have quite easily stuck to the Zeta plan and applies aluminum bolt on panels and saved a fortune....Zeta would have carried them through to now with cars and utes.

Edited by jpd80
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I see Equinox and Compass everywhere in Detroit, so those sales do not shock me.

Ford's utility sales are really abysmal when you look at GM's, they outsold everything at Ford.  And if you break it down by segment, the sales gap is more than double or triple for segments like compact and full-size utilities. 

Edited by Assimilator
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Compact Utes are really taking off with Toyota, Honda, Nissan and now Chevrolet all reporting sales between 37K and 42K last month.

I see Ford starting off Louisville at two shifts and watching how demand goes, 2 x 8 hr shifts could become 2 x 10 hr shifts or 3 shifts.

 

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12 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

Compact Utes are really taking off with Toyota, Honda, Nissan and now Chevrolet all reporting sales between 37K and 42K last month.

I see Ford starting off Louisville at two shifts and watching how demand goes, 2 x 8 hr shifts could become 2 x 10 hr shifts or 3 shifts.

 

They will likely stay on a 10 hour 4 day schedule. That's what every 2 shift Ford plant does, though Flat Rock is going back to 5x8 next month 

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Ford intends to sell fewer Escapes for more money, according to Hackett anyway.  They are also cutting production that was originally expanded for export production of the MKC which will be going away with Corsair.  I believe it was 300,000 for Escape and 40,000 for MKC, not sure what the distribution will be now.

So cutting 1 shift should roughly shave 100,000 in volume at the plant, 80,000 from Escape and 20,000 from MKC.  But they can speed things up with a smaller workforce anyway and get production to about 260,000 units from 2 shifts.  We may also be facing a declining market by the time Escape is here by the end of this year.  Either way, with aggressive competition and more models from Ford and a weakened market, I don't think Escape has the potential to sell at the same volume again for years to come.  

Edited by Assimilator
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2 hours ago, Assimilator said:

Ford intends to sell fewer Escapes for more money, according to Hackett anyway.  They are also cutting production that was originally expanded for export production of the MKC which will be going away with Corsair.  I believe it was 300,000 for Escape and 40,000 for MKC, not sure what the distribution will be now.

So cutting 1 shift should roughly shave 100,000 in volume at the plant, 80,000 from Escape and 20,000 from MKC.  But they can speed things up with a smaller workforce anyway and get production to about 260,000 units from 2 shifts.  We may also be facing a declining market by the time Escape is here by the end of this year.  Either way, with aggressive competition and more models from Ford and a weakened market, I don't think Escape has the potential to sell at the same volume again for years to come.  

OK, now I see where you're getting your production projections from, a rich sales mix would be very important to maintaining a good ROI on products in this segments, it's possible that other companies are selling lots of compact utes that are only marginally more profitable than the cars they replace.

I just feel like Ford will be leaving a lot of sales on the table by doing this but time will tell........

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3 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

No doubt it will, but they don't care as long as it hits their mythical 10% margin....

Yeah, looks like Ford is adopting a Fusion vs Camry attitude with Escape, We'll sell the volume and trim mix that suits us not maximum sales.

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11 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

Wow, for the month of December almost everything at Cadillac showed dropping sales from the year before, but they still managed a 9.5% increase overall, all due to the new compact XT4 which is going gangbusters.

Wondering how many of those sales are conquest sales vs trading a Cadillac in for a Cadillac.

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5 hours ago, jpd80 said:

All the Lincolns were up to, could it be a seasonal thing like premium / luxury fleets sales?

Actually, if you are just looking at December sales, all Lincoln crossovers/SUVs were up (including the MKT), and the two sedans were down (though Continental not by much), with a net sales gain of 8.5%, if I remember right. It was almost the opposite for Cadillac, even though its net gain was greater, around 9.5%. But unlike Lincoln, that gain wasn't broad-based, but was almost entirely due sales of the new XT4 -- the only other Caddy with up numbers was the CTS, but on a very small sales base.

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6 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

Actually, if you are just looking at December sales, all Lincoln crossovers/SUVs were up (including the MKT), and the two sedans were down (though Continental not by much), with a net sales gain of 8.5%, if I remember right. It was almost the opposite for Cadillac, even though its net gain was greater, around 9.5%. But unlike Lincoln, that gain wasn't broad-based, but was almost entirely due sales of the new XT4 -- the only other Caddy with up numbers was the CTS, but on a very small sales base.

I meant to say all the Lincoln Utilites were up to but by the time I realized that, I'd timed out on editing....

I've been discussing this same thing over on GMI, 13,600 sales of Cadillac Utilites  from XT4, XT5 and the Escalades. versus 3,000 cars.

Edited by jpd80
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I still feel like Ford is backwards in their thinking... How about aiming to sell MORE cars for MORE money each?

 

That seems like a much more ambitious and worthy goal than "We'll just make less and charge more". 

 

At some point, you need to chase new customers. Not rely on repeat buyers forever. (An unsustainable strategy when you start cutting costs and cheapening your vehicles)

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13 hours ago, probowler said:

I still feel like Ford is backwards in their thinking... How about aiming to sell MORE cars for MORE money each?

 

That seems like a much more ambitious and worthy goal than "We'll just make less and charge more". 

 

At some point, you need to chase new customers. Not rely on repeat buyers forever. (An unsustainable strategy when you start cutting costs and cheapening your vehicles)

I get what your saying, but you have to look at this way-Ford is planning on selling less Escapes at a higher MSRP plus adding the Maverick (which will be roughly the same size) at a even higher MSRP also, dividing up the segment they compete in even more. I'm assuming Ford is planning that the Maverick will take Escape sales due to styling or perceved/needs wants of its buyers or people wanting a cheaper Bronco when they come in see the fullsize model. 

After seeing what the Escape is most likely going to offer, the Maverick isn't going to be a replacment for the Ecosport, its going to be additional model to the C segment that appeals to a different customer. 

As for cheapening up of th Escape-I think that boils down to its roots (being a European model) and being too ambitishous with selling higher end models. I think the thinking (later bore out in sales as time went on) is that base price of the Escape (say bare minium price of what it costs to make the cheapest model) was too high vs what the actual selling price was...thus why you saw the cheapening up of the last year of this model. Hopefully with the next gen they have that fixed without making it look/feel too cheap. 

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