Tuesday, April 2, 2013

GM sales up 6.4%; Caddy, Buick boom but Chevy flat


General Motors got help from its newest Buick and Cadillac models to rise 6.4% in March, compared to sales a year earlier.

It was the big car company's best March in five years. GM credited a rising economy and its new models.

Buick was up 37.4%. Standouts were the redesigned Enclave big SUV and new-to-the-lineup Encore, a very small crossover SUV.

Cadillac jumped 49.5%. Stars were its newest models, ATS small sedan and XTS big sedan. Those sales all were pure gains because the models weren't on sale a year ago.

Though Cadillac is well-known for its big Escalade SUVs, those are a handful of sales. The brand's top SUV, as always, was the SRX crossover. It also was the brand's top-selling model of any kind, but was up just 5.4% from a year earlier.

At Chevrolet, the Malibu midsize sedan plunged 22.4%. GM had been counting on Malibu to be a strong contender in the big midsize market. GM is hustling through an update hoping to make the car more competitive. Traverse big crossover SUV was up 54%.

GMC, which sells only trucks, had a strong showing from the Acadia big crossover SUV, which was up 77.1%.

Enclave, Traverse and Acadia, similar mechanically, all were updated for 2013.


Courtesy of USA Today

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