General Motors dealers in the United States reported 215,358 total sales in June, an 11-percent gain compared to June 2010 according to a GM press release on Friday July 1. The gain was the result of continued solid retail demand for the company’s wide selection of fuel-efficient vehicles. Retail sales for GM’s brands rose 16 percent for the month, compared to a year ago, and were 4 percent higher than May.

For the month, Chevrolet Cruze had retail sales 153 percent higher than the Chevrolet Cobalt it replaced, and total sales above 20,000 for the third straight month. The 32 MPG highway-rated GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox compact crossovers saw a combined retail sales increase of 78 percent during the month.  Passenger car and crossover retail sales also rose substantially, up 33 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

“With continued strong consumer demand for GM’s fuel-efficient vehicles, June was another solid month for us,” said Don Johnson, vice president, U.S. Sales Operations. “The month caps a successful first half of 2011 for us in the U.S. market – our sales are up and we’ve gained share profitably”, as reported in Forbes’ by Agustino Fontevecchia.

In the first half of 2011, GM dealers in the United States have reported 1,261,633 vehicles sold – a 192,056 unit increase over the first half of 2010 – leading to total and retail market share gains.

Passenger Cars
Total sales of GM passenger cars increased 28 percent during June, compared to a year ago. Retail sales for cars rose 33 percent for the month on the continuing strength of the Cruze, which was up 153 percent compared to the Chevrolet Cobalt it replaced. The Cruze Eco, which delivers an estimated 42 miles-per-gallon highway, accounted for 17 percent of the model’s sales during the month.

For the year to date, retail sales for GM’s full-size pickups are up 12 percent, while total sales of 259,101 units represent a 12-percent increase compared to the first six months of 2010.

Month-end dealer inventory in the United States stood at about 605,000 units, up about 21,000 units compared to May and about 168,000 units higher than June 2010.

It’s so nice to hear good news about the auto industry!  Let’s hope more good news is to follow.

The Transportation Department is preparing to suspend its $1 billion “Cash for Clunkers” program by the end of Friday, after it had all but run out of money, but said it would still honor the vouchers until midnight.  What’s going to happen now is that Congress will be approving another $1 billion dollars for the program so that they can leave for vacation and talk about how successful the ‘Clunkers’ program is. 

My math may not be the best but at a 10,000,000 sales rate for the year, with 6 sales days per week, that is about 32,000+ cars/day sold in the US. The CARS program will support a maximum of 285,000+ cars if everyone only gets $3500, and 222,000+ if everyone gets $4500 (The actual number lies somewhere in between). At around 32,000+ cars/day, that translates into 7-9 days of sales if every car purchased qualified for CARS. If only half qualified, then that would be 14-18 days.

It sure looks to me like someone didn’t bother to check their math to see how much of a difference this would make, or how long it would likely take to burn through the money.

The surprise revelation came FOUR DAYS after the program started and prompted an urgent series of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the Transportation Department to figure out if and how it would replenish the funding.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made a round of calls to members of Congress notifying them that the program was out of money, talking to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, among others. He was making a push to try to find funding to keep the program alive.

It’s not clear what will happen if dealers submit more requests for vouchers beyond the $950 million in the program but I’m hearing that all the vouchers will be honored if submitted by midnight today. The remaining $50 million is set aside to cover administrative costs.  You know, for another $50 million plus $950 million more, we can do it all over again.

The White House said late Thursday it was considering its options.  I just can’t imagine what those would be, can you?

“This is simply the most stimulative $1 billion the federal government has spent during the entire economic downturn,” said U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township. “The federal government must come up with more money, immediately, to keep this program going.But action must be taken fast, as the House was set to adjourn today for its August recess and not return until after Labor Day.  I’m still betting that they will approve more money before they leave for vacation to listen to their constituency.

In an article posted by Michelle Krebs of Edmonds, she noted that dealers think the CARS.gov gauge is in reality on empty. Dealers and dealer organizations have expressed their concern to government officials as the program began, 4 days ago, that they had far more transactions in the works for consumers to trade their clunkers for more fuel-efficient vehicles than the program had in funds. Dealers have always feared they would be left holding the bag for the vouchers of up to $4,500 if the government funds ran out.

On Wednesday night, sources said the National Automobile Dealers Association surveyed its dealers to gauge how many Cash for Clunker transactions they had in the works. The average number of working deals for the 1,900 dealers who responded amounted to nearly 14 transactions, with more deals qualifying for the top $4,500 voucher than the $3,500 voucher.

The program offered consumers up to a $4,500 voucher for turning in vehicles that in the case of passenger cars got no more than a combined city/highway 18 miles per gallon. To qualify for the full $4,500 the new vehicle purchased must have a 10 mpg improvement. To get a $3,500 voucher, it needed a 4-mpg to 9-mpg boost. The program is limited to vehicles no more than 25 years old, which the owner must have owned and insured for the previous year.

Well Time will tell – what will congress do?  What pressure will the White House put on Congress?  Will the American People support it or blow it off? I’m still saying they will approve another Billion or two dollars of your tax money to keep it alive.  Stay tuned ………