GM SALES FROM THEIR FOUR CORE BRANDS FROM AUGUST 2009

General Motors has emerged from bankruptcy. That's old news. GM sales are lower this year than last. Hmm... old news. General Motors has plans to operate more safely and sanely as a smaller auto conglomerate by reducing brands with just four makes on sale in the future. You've heard about that, but have you examined the consequences?

Pontiac sold 29,921 vehicles in August. But Pontiac is soon to die. Saturn has been sold, but that also means 8,479 sales down the tubes. But for one Hummer statistic thrown in for fun, the three Graphs below show the strengths and weaknesses of a renewed General Motors. Take a look at August's car sales, then SUV sales, and finally truck sales. Click any Graph to see a larger view of these Sales Stats.

SECOND DEEPER LOOK AT THE AMERICAN MARKET

Details are wonderful things. After all, the forest is made up of many trees. To see yesterday's look at the American automotive marketplace (circa 2007) click here. For today's look... umm, keep reading.

Although the large pickup market fell 7% last year, Chevrolet Silverado sales were down just 3.1%. That leaves the Silverado with 618,257 units sold; more than a quarter of all Chevy's.

Nissan is beginning to successfully ride the coat-tails of Toyota and Honda. The midsize Japanese duo should really be considered a trio now, with Altima sales up 22.1% in '07 to 284,762.

General Motors bosses were rewarded for making obvious (and correct) decisions with Saturn sales in 2007. Few would be surprised by the fact that sales were up 5.7%. The lineup is completely different than it was just a couple years ago. L-series now equals Aura. Ion was replaced with Astra. Vue is new. Outlook is Enclave-lite. Sky never used to be. Expect Saturn to improve again this year, or in case of economy troubles, to struggle less than other domestics.

Check out AmericanTrucks.com and their

large selection of Ford Truck Wheels

That note above about Silverado sales not falling as sharply as the sector it competes in? Ford's F150 tumbled 13.5% last year. Ouch. Officially, the F150 is still the best-selling vehicle in America with 690,589. Technically, the combined effort of what is basically the same truck (Silverado and GMC Sierra) forms 826,500. So, Ford has the single best-selling vehicle, but General Motors sells more light-duty pickups.

In 2007, Hummer sales were down 22%. Enough said. Well, actually, for more on that, click here for The Good Car Guy's test drive of an H2.

Nissan's luxury brand, Infiniti, could use some help from the G35's teammates. With the FX35 and FX45, M35 and M45, QX56, and new EX lux-cute-ute, the G's 54,015 units sold seems fine. But last year, the other non-Good 12-winning elements of Infiniti's lineup combined for just 73,023 vehicles sold. That needs to improve.

THE GENERAL'S NEWS

Conventional thinking and official General Motors releases would lead you to believe the upcoming Corvette ZR1 will be priced like an inexpensive supercar (or a very expensive Chevy sports car), but conventional thinking is wrong this time. The first ZR1 sold for 10x the MSRP. The Barrett-Jackson produces big numbers every time this year, and a Corvette ZR1 for a cool million bucks is one of those big numbers, indeed.

Overt, startling, and distracting to the point of appreciation - the Cadillac CTS coupe concept will become a production car in 2010. Expect Cadillac to build 15,000 at the Lansing Grand River facility every year.

The port at Benicia, California is about to accept four ships full of Pontiac G8's from Down Under, mate. By launch time, Pontiac hopes to have 7,000 G8's in America. This first batch is near equally split between V6 and V8 models.

Speaking of Oz, a blue police-liveried Hummer H3 is on active duty at community events in Australia. Police hope to 'foster relationships between police and local youths.' The Australian Conservation Foundation's Phil Freeman sounds disappointed in Victoria's police. "We would much prefer to see Victoria Police encouraging kids to ride bikes both for their environment and their health."

Forget the Volt - Saturn wants to sell you a full-on plug-in hybrid in SUV form in 2010. (December 31st of 2010 is 35 months away.) The Vue plug-in would recharge at your home's electrical outlet in less than five hours and would achieve twice the fuel economy of any SUV on the road today. Well, well, well; we shall see.

As described here on GoodCarBadCar, the previously mentioned Pontiac G8 sportwagon will not be sold in North America, but the genuine Australian article, Holden's Commodore wagon, will be offered in seven versions.

HUMMER JAPAN

You may've already heard about General Motors decision to send Hummer on a fast ship to Japan. Yes, Japan.

Japan is not the country where the Ford F-series outsells everything and the ever-growing Camry is the best-selling car. No, folks, Japan is the country where the Honda Fit is attempting to wrest the best-selling crown from the Toyota Corolla. Japan is not the country where legislators are trying to... er, legislate 35mpg standards while others moan and complain and try to negotiate with OPEC. No, Japan is the country where citizens receive tax breaks for driving very small cars with very small engines. You know the kind - 0.8L engines. 800cc's.

That sounds like the perfect market for Hummer. Sure, it'll be the H3, the brand's smallest member. Cadillac/Saab dealers will host their brutish affiliate.

"This looks like Hummer country, don't it Bob?".... "I believe it is, Mr. Wagoner, I believe it is."

And I have a feeling. I think I see the method to their madness. Japan's population is in decline. Attempts at incentivizing multi-child families haven't taken hold quite yet. So.... Hummer's plan? As the humans disappear and the land opens up, the remaining few will want bigger vehicles. They'll want to climb Mt. Fuji and safely deal with the snows of Hokkaido - where the depopulation is greatest - and a Honda Fit or Mitsubishi i won't cut the mustard.

Smart folks; those GM product planners. Smart folks.