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GM posts lower March sales
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April 7, 1999: 2:28 p.m. ET
1Q sales up 5.9 percent, but automaker can't keep up with truck demand
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - General Motors announced Wednesday that March sales were down a worse-than-expected 2.2 percent, saying the company is having trouble keeping up with demand for full-size pickup trucks.
For the first quarter, GM's overall sales rose 5.9 percent. The world's biggest automaker sold 1,158,437 cars and trucks in the quarter ended March 31, compared with 1,093,610 in the parallel period last year.
While the company's normally healthy truck sales dragged down its results, the industry as a whole posted record sales last month.
Americans bought more than 1.5 million new cars and trucks in March, up 7.9 percent from the year-ago period, Reuters reported. That beat the previous March record of 1.48 million sales in 1988. Total car sales rose 4.8 percent, while sales of pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and minivans leaped 11.4 percent.
GM sold 452,477 cars and light trucks last month, as truck sales dropped 5.9 percent to 206,806. The company blamed short supply of its popular full-size pickups and generous competitor incentives on smaller pickups.
"In trucks, we literally are selling every full-size pickup we can build, really pushing to meet the demand," said Roy S. Roberts, GM vice president and group executive of North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing.
Sales of the compact S-10 Chevrolet pickup dropped 21 percent to 20,323, the company said.
GM's first-quarter car sales were up 9.8 percent to 626,499 units, compared with a 1.7 percent increase for trucks. Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Saab posted gains, with Pontiac recording an increase of 11.7 percent over the previous quarter, the company said.
GM also said the Corvette recorded its best monthly performance in a decade with 3,281 sales.
Company officials said they are concentrating GM's car business on mid-size and compact cars as part of an effort to introduce fewer but stronger models.
"Both our car sales volume and our car share of industry has remained constant over the past year, even as we have reduced the number of our models," Roberts said.
Analysts had predicted GM would report March sales that were flat or up 3 percent from last year.
A day earlier, No. 2 automaker Ford Motor Co. (F) released record sales data for March. Sales jumped 13 percent over the 1998 period, mostly on the strength of its truck business.
DaimlerChrysler (DCX) posted a monthly sales gain of 16.5 percent in its American brands.
Shares in GM were down 1 at 90-1/16 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading Wednesday.
--staff and wire reports
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General Motors
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