July 02, 2009
Plant Closures Drive Down GM’s June Fleet Sales
DETROIT - Although General Motors experienced higher retail sales in June than the previous month, fleet sales of 32,725 vehicles were down 49 percent compared to a year ago, contributing to an overall sales decline of 89,366 vehicles versus June 2008, the automaker reported.
The drop in fleet sales was a direct result of GM's decision to schedule down weeks at a number of its plants to tightly control inventories and better enable GM dealers to reduce their stock of vehicles, according to the automaker. GM total truck sales in June (including crossovers) of 93,458 were down 40 percent, and car sales of 83,113 were off 24 percent compared with a year ago.