General Motors reported a 5.4% increase in July U.S. sales on August 3, the 10th consecutive month of sales gains following a government-financed restructuring under bankruptcy protection.
"This month concludes our first full year as a company and in that year a lot has happened," said Don Johnson, vice president for U.S. sales.
"We moved from eight brands to four, we're managing our inventory... and we're managing our incentives prudently," he said..
"I believe our plan is working and we're making very good progress."
Sales of GM's remaining core brands -- Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC -- rose 25% to 199,432 vehicles in July and were up 31%t for the year to date.
July was also the seventh consecutive month that sales of those core brands grew by more than 20 %.
Total sales for the year to date were up 11.9% at 1.3 million vehicles, which Johnson noted means the new GM sold 125,210 more vehicles with just four brands than the former company sold with eight brands during the same period a year earlier.
Total sales for July -- which included sales of 210 Hummers, 20 Pontiacs and 30 Saturns as dealers cleared their lots of eliminated brands -- totaled 199,692.
Johnson cautioned that while GM is "optimistic" about future sales and is maintaining its 2010 forecast of total industry sales of 11.5 to 12 million vehicles "the continued recent economic news still points to a slow recovery."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
