Is GM doing better than first quarter numbers suggest?
Expressed in percentages - Stats are always hard to nail down
(5/6/2010)
If you just read the headlines after the close of the first quarter of 2010, you would have learned that Ford sold 25 percent more vehicles in the first quarter of 2010 than it did in the same period of 2009 - good news however you look at it. GM on the other hand reported overall sales growth of just 7 percent. Not bad, but, at least on the surface, pales in comparison to the Ford numbers.
According to analyst Rich Smith, writing in the financial advisory column known as The Motley Fool, this simple comparison does not tell the complete story.
According to Smith, GM's comparison to Q1 in 2009 included all the vehicles sold under the discarded brands of Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab - which experienced a drop of 95 percent against the first quarter of 2009.
Smith also points out that if GM had taken the tack that many other retailers do in reporting sales more aggressively - in this case only reporting retail sales for comparison purposes - the remaining GM brands of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC experienced an improvement of over 33 percent in Q1/2010. So, if we can coin a term - "same brand sales" - GM's same brand sales improved 33 percent, while Ford's same brand sales only (only?) increased 25 percent.
So after taking its medicine in the form of a bitter pill called bankruptcy, GM escapes virtually debt-free and with half the brands. It does appear after examining the sales results from this different angle that the reduction in brands has strengthened those that remain - and that GM's performance in those brands alone may have surpassed the bright Ford sales reports.
Expressed in percentages - Stats are always hard to nail down
(5/6/2010)
If you just read the headlines after the close of the first quarter of 2010, you would have learned that Ford sold 25 percent more vehicles in the first quarter of 2010 than it did in the same period of 2009 - good news however you look at it. GM on the other hand reported overall sales growth of just 7 percent. Not bad, but, at least on the surface, pales in comparison to the Ford numbers.
According to analyst Rich Smith, writing in the financial advisory column known as The Motley Fool, this simple comparison does not tell the complete story.
According to Smith, GM's comparison to Q1 in 2009 included all the vehicles sold under the discarded brands of Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab - which experienced a drop of 95 percent against the first quarter of 2009.
Smith also points out that if GM had taken the tack that many other retailers do in reporting sales more aggressively - in this case only reporting retail sales for comparison purposes - the remaining GM brands of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC experienced an improvement of over 33 percent in Q1/2010. So, if we can coin a term - "same brand sales" - GM's same brand sales improved 33 percent, while Ford's same brand sales only (only?) increased 25 percent.
So after taking its medicine in the form of a bitter pill called bankruptcy, GM escapes virtually debt-free and with half the brands. It does appear after examining the sales results from this different angle that the reduction in brands has strengthened those that remain - and that GM's performance in those brands alone may have surpassed the bright Ford sales reports.
(courtesy DealersEdge)
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