Pull up! Pull up!!!!

[GMJAP]

On Monday, GM posted a 26% slide in June U.S. vehicle sales versus a year agowhereasBMW said June U.S. sales rose 2.7% to 27,735 vehicles, compared with 26,999 vehicles in the same month last year.Honda subsidiary American Honda Motor Co. said total June vehicle sales rose to 126,449 from 126,416 during the same period in the prior year.Kia Motors America said it posted a 1.3% rise in June sales, to 27,443 units from 27,095 units during the year-ago period. Toyota Motor Corp. posted a 14.4% rise in June U.S. sales to 223,018 vehicles from 194,875 vehicles during the year-ago period. Subaru of America Inc. said its U.S. June sales rose 3% to 18,476 vehicles, compared with 17,946 vehicles in the same period last year.Although it should be noted that Nissan and Mitsubishi sales fell too, and the expanded article on the GM results did say "The car side held up relatively well, down just 2.3% to 171,494 vehicles, boosted by strong demand for the Pontiac G6 and Solstice, GM said."From the article: http://www.marketwatch.com/New...yahoo

[TRDman]

BMW outsold Subaru There is a logical stopping point for both GM's decline (and, for that matter, Mitsubishi's slow death spiral) and Toyota/Honda's meteoric rise, isn't there? There has to be. Although some of the decline, at this point in the game, has to be linked to the respective marketing departments of the automakers. Either that or GM's almost uncanny ability to screw up good models (Fiero, Allante, G6, Reatta, etc.) with awful marketing (advertising, availability of options, specifications, etc.). The other automakers on there are either tightly-focused, specialty manufacturers (BMW, Subaru) or manufacturers that put out models which are usually: spec'd with popular options from the factory or widely available with them, designed well, and advertised intellegently. They have also garnered greater brand loyalty than Detroit has, with people buying Toyotas year after year and doing the same thing with Hondas. A totally seperate note: does GM still own part of Subaru, or is that deal off now?