The results of GM's employee discount program have been circulating for the past two weeks: sales explosion! market share increase! inventory selldown! millions of Americans added to GM's health-care and pension programs (ok, so we're not really employees). But a closer look at some newly parsed data finds that around 64% of GM's customer-employees over May and June have traded in their existing GM cars to get their employee discounts. Wait, we're confused. According to JD Power, the company's market share broke 30% in June — wouldn't that increase require a few more "conquests" from other brands? ($1 to the first one who can explain this to us.)
Another interesting result regards the type of vehicles heading out the door lately: trucks. According to AutoWeek, around 69% of GM vehicles sold in June were trucks. That's weird news for the industry, considering most were ready to write off the V8-powered, body-on-frame market in the face of $60 barrels of Saudi gold.
Oh and, here's an interesting bit: Pontiac sold 14% fewer cars in June 2005 than it did the year before. We suppose those extra 50hp in the GTO wasn't enough to push $25,000 Grand Ams out the door.
GM deal fails to lure buyers from rivals [The Detroit News]
Even higher fuel costs can't slow down GM truck sales [AutoWeek]
Related:
GM Announces New Rebates Atop Employee Discount [internal]