GM shows signs of progress as its trucks, new vehicles drive up sales

Posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:51 PM EDT.

For the first time in 21 months, General Motors Co. is on track to see its first monthly sales increase, compared with the same time period a year ago, thanks, in part, to new products and strong pickup sales, the Detroit Free Press reported.

GM and other automakers won’t report their official October results until Tuesday, but GM officials said Wednesday that they expect improvement, the paper said. GM’s new vice president of U.S. sales touted the uptick, but noted that a lot more work lies ahead for the company, whose U.S. sales are still down 36.3 percent through September, the Free Press said.

“We expect GM to largely outperform the overall market and post its strongest market share of 2009,” Brian Johnson, industry analyst with Barclays Capital, said in a note to investors Wednesday, the paper noted. He estimated industry sales to be down 3 percent, compared with last October, the article said.

GM officials credited their sales increases in part to the launch of new vehicles—such as the Chevrolet Equinox midsize SUV—and to a strong month of truck sales, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)

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