General Motors Corp. reported Wednesday that its U.S. vehicle sales rose 10 percent for December, but the world’s biggest automaker fell short of achieving a sales gain for the year.
GM finished 1997 down 0.3 percent, at 4.7 million light vehicles.
Although GM said its new models were selling well, a senior company executive said incentives played a big role in December’s gain.
“If you weren’t at the low price point through leases or incentives, you’d have been killed,” said G. Richard Wagoner, president of GM’s North American Operations. He said GM had to spend about $1 million more on incentives in 1997 than it had intended.
GM’s strong December sales of 391,047 were led by a 13 percent increase in trucks; car sales rose 7 percent. Percentage changes are adjusted for the number of selling days.
The top-selling Japanese automakers both finished stronger than Detroit’s Big Three. Toyota Motor Corp., reporting record December and year-end sales in the United States, had a monthly increase of 36.6 percent, to 116,585 vehicles. For the year, Toyota sold 1.23 million cars and light trucks, an increase of 6.4 percent.
Honda’s 1997 sales were up 11.8 percent, to 940,386, breaking the previous annual record of 854,879 in 1990. In December, Honda’s sales rose 15 percent, to 78,981.
Japanese automakers now have about 24.5 percent of the U.S. market, while Detroit’s three automakers lost about 1.3 points, to 71.6 percent.
Sales of pickups, mini-vans and sport-utility vehicles grew to 45.4 percent of U.S. passenger-vehicle sales last year from 43.7 percent, while car sales declined to 54.6 percent from 56.3 percent.
Full-year sales rose just 0.5 percent, to 15.16 million cars and light trucks, as an abundance of high-quality used vehicles helped entice consumers away from new models.
