Lower gas prices have resulted in declining small car sales and rising large vehicle sales for a while now. For General Motors, though, those trends have been somewhat reversed recently.
GM posted a slight U.S. sales increase for March, despite many of its nameplates seeing double-digit declines, according to Automotive News. The increase, in part, was due to surprising gains for the Chevrolet Cruze.
Yet GM’s pickup sales reportedly fell 13 percent last month, and Chevy’s Silverado ranked behind Fiat Chrysler’s Ram in sales for just the third time since 1999, per Automotive News.
Although the Cruze’s success in the face of pickup and SUV decline is good news for small cars, it likely won’t be long until large vehicles are back on top.
Following February’s “truck month,” a GM spokesman reportedly said the company reduced incentives on large pickups by “quite a bit.” He also insinuated that larger discounts on the Ram enabled it to surpass the Silverado as the auto industry’s second best-selling vehicle.
Ford’s F-Series once again was the country’s top-selling vehicle in March, as Ford sold 81,330 of its popular pickups, according to the Associated Press.
Thumbnail photo via Chevrolet
