GM Reports First Annual Profit Since 2004; TrueCar.com Analyzes Data

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Feb 24, 2011, 12:49 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- General Motors (GM) reported its first annual profit since 2004 – less than two years after filing for bankruptcy, and three years after reporting the largest annual loss* in automotive history. TrueCar.com, the authority in new car pricing, trends and forecasting analyzes the data to help understand GM's profitable year.

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Two factors in GM's 2010 success were lowering their incentives spending while increasing transaction prices. The company's average transaction price in 2010 was $34,149, a seven percent increase from 2009, when the average transaction price was $31,906. Their average incentives spending decreased in 2010 to $3,397 per unit, down 5.3 percent from $3,587 in 2009. Compared to the industry, GM outperformed the industry average when it came to increasing transaction price and lowering their incentive spending.

"This has been a remarkable year for GM following their emergence from bankruptcy," said Jesse Toprak, Vice President of Industry Trends and Insights at TrueCar.com. "Their recovery has been fueled by significant cost-cutting, arrival of new products that consumers were seeking along with better management of incentives and supply"


General Motors	Unit Sales	Market Share	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Fleet Sales Percentage	Days In Inventory
2009	2,063,069	19.8%	$31,906	$3,587	24.5%	94
2010	2,211,091	19.1%	$34,149	$3,397	28.7%	60
Year Over Year (2010 vs. 2009)	7.2%	-0.7%	7.0%	-5.3%


General Motors (Four Remaining Brands Only: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC)	Unit Sales	Market Share	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit
Full Year 2009	1,803,063	17.3%	94	$31,545	$3,584
Full Year 2010	2,199,399	19.0%	60	$32,735	$3,392
Year Over Year (2010 vs. 2009)	22.0%	1.7%		3.8%	-5.4%

Industry	Unit Sales	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Fleet Sales Percentage
Full Year 2009	10,424,800	62	$27,707	$2,770	17.0%
Full Year 2010	11,583,045	49	$29,182	$2,722	20.3%
Year Over Year (2010 vs. 2009)	11.1%		5.3%	-1.7%

"The sky is the limit for GM after becoming profitable at this low of a sales pace," added Toprak.

Among the brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC all saw their unit sales increase by double digit percentages while incentive spending also decreased for each brand for 2010. Only Cadillac saw a decrease in transaction price in 2010 compared to 2009.


Buick	Unit Sales	Market Share	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Average Age of Buyers
Full Year 2009	102,306	1.0%	81	$34,395	$3,712	62
Full Year 2010	155,389	1.3%	39	$36,512	$3,093	61
Year Over Year (2010 vs 2009)	51.9%	0.3%		6.2%	-16.7%


Cadillac	Unit Sales	Market Share	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Average Age of Buyers
Full Year 2009	109,092	1.1%	87	$49,017	$5,217	57
Full Year 2010	146,925	1.3%	47	$48,212	$4,580	57
Year Over Year (2010 vs 2009)	34.7%	0.2%		-1.6%	-12.2%


Chevrolet	Unit Sales	Market Share	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Average Age of Buyers
Full Year 2009	1,338,612	12.8%	98	$28,886	$3,326	52
Full Year 2010	1,563,881	13.5%	67	$29,908	$3,237	51
Year Over Year (2010 vs 2009)	16.8%	0.7%		3.5%	-2.7%


GMC	Unit Sales	Market Share	Days In Inventory	Average Transaction Price	Average Incentive Per Unit	Average Age of Buyers
Full Year 2009	253,053	2.5%	81	$36,924	$4,193	49
Full Year 2010	333,204	2.9%	46	$37,416	$3,732	50
Year Over Year (2010 vs 2009)	31.7%	0.4%	1.3%	-11.0%

*$38.7 Billion in 2007

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs. TrueCar.com is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data. TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally. TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers. These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others. Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month. TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009. With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 200,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information.

You can follow TrueCar on Twitter @truecar and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/truecar.

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space. We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more. TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100 percent of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem. Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry. TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only. TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Scott Painter

https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94535

Jesse Toprak

https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94534

SOURCE TrueCar.com