2009 is officially over and although many models experienced sales declines, some were worse than others. The Chevy Corvette had its worst year since 1961, with only 13,934 Corvettes sold.
According to Edmunds, 2009 was the worst sales year for the Corvette in 19 years when only 17,472 units were sold in 1991. And according to Auto Observer's Bill Visnic, who did an informal survey of Corvette Black Book data, sales in 2009 haven't been this low since 1961. 2006 and 2007 were great years for the Corvette with 36,518 and 33,685 units sold, respectively.
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Comments (11)
Well, public not trusting GM plus bad economy will do that.
Posted by SteelCity1981 | January 7, 2010 8:56 AM
Posted on January 7, 2010 08:56
Think its more bad economy. Market share for GM is up on the year as well as Q4 over Q3.
Posted by Avatar | January 7, 2010 10:23 AM
Posted on January 7, 2010 10:23
@Avatar
Their sales may be up from the previous quarter, but they were still down 30% for the year 2009. They were down 22.9% for 2008.
1999 was the last time that GM posted a growth for the year in cars sold from the year before - 5,017,150 cars. It's gone down every year since then to only 2,084,492 (as of the most recent numbers released) last year.
GM's problems came long before the bad economy (though I'm sure the bad economy is specifically singling out the Corvette) and them taking taxpayers money to avoid going bankrupt due to their poor management and other decisions definitely isn't helping them.
Posted by Totenglocke | January 7, 2010 1:03 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 13:03
You know Tot, I was being nice and not going to post anything in the last post when we had this before, but here we go again:
GM Market Share for 2009 is up over 2008 despite sales being down 30% and losing 2 brands (not counting Saab or Hummer since they are low numbers). Market share is up over Q3 as well. Oh. and if you want to talk about profitability, their fleet sales were down 38% which accounts for most of the 30% decline. GM also ended the year with their lowest inventories ever, which means they aren't over producing like they use to. GM is on track to be profitable in 2010, once again a year ahead of Ford.
I didn't say growth on the year, I said MARKET SHARE. Maybe if I type in caps you can read better.
Posted by Avatar | January 7, 2010 3:03 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 15:03
I'm going to assume their market share is up because the leaders (Honda/Toyota) sales are also down considerably?
Posted by Noya | January 7, 2010 4:49 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 16:49
@Avatar
Market share doesn't mean jack if you don't sell enough cars to keep the doors open. Also that's market share of cars sold IN THAT YEAR, not all the cars on the road.
Posted by Totenglocke | January 7, 2010 5:20 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 17:20
Wow, I think I have reached the point that I can deduce that you are an idiot.
We went over this last time, GM has higher cash flow with selling less cars. They aren't offering nearly as much incentives anymore and all the new models are selling like crazy, all are up double if not triple digits percentage wise over models they replaced. Also the fact that they now aren't losing about $2,000 dollars per car for employee benefits makes it much easier to make a profit with less. It doesn't matter if they sell 2 cars or 5 million cars, as long as they make money doing it. Market share simply shows that buyer confidence isn't lost like everyone keeps claiming it is and moving more iron then the other guys. They aren't going to sell as many cars next year as they did in 1999 but are still going for profitability.
Whitacre's priorities are as follows: Profitability, Market Share. He is proving that they are doing both.
PS, the new Aveo photos were leaked and it looks like it is going to wipe the floor with the Fiesta all while being the only B segment car made in the USA. They also rolled off the first production battery for the Volt today.
Posted by Avatar | January 7, 2010 5:48 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 17:48
Bring back the pricing to that of '99 and they might sell a few more.
Posted by isimokov | January 7, 2010 7:11 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 19:11
I know why the sells droped here! Simple GM sucks and their cars arent worth a penny.
Posted by GTR | January 8, 2010 6:47 AM
Posted on January 8, 2010 06:47
I know why the sells droped here! Simple GM sucks and their cars arent worth a penny.
Posted by GTR | January 8, 2010 6:48 AM
Posted on January 8, 2010 06:48
Did GM buy TorqueReport? Is that why comment section is broken now?
Posted by Patrick | January 31, 2010 9:15 PM
Posted on January 31, 2010 21:15