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GM might lose 90-year U.S. sales crown over chip shortage

Automotive News editor Nick Bunkley tweeted on October 1 that according to AutoNews data, General Motors "has been the largest seller of vehicles in the U.S. every year since passing Ford in 1931." With automakers having turned in light car and truck sales data for the first three quarters of 2021, GM's 90-year-run might not reach 91. According to AN figures, Toyota was 80,401 vehicles ahead when the October workday started. Worse, GM is so far behind its historic pace that it might only sell enough light vehicles in the U.S. to match its numbers from 1958.  Meanwhile, the New York Times put a few more salient numbers to the pain GM and Toyota are enduring alongside the the rest of the industry. GM sold 33% fewer cars in Q3 2021 than it did in Q3 2019 during the dark days of the pandemic, 446,997 units this year as opposed to 665,192 last year. GM's Q3 2020 was only down 13% on Q3 2019. Over at Toyota, the bottom line showed a 1% gain in Q3 2021 compared to 2020, with 566,005 units moved off dealer lots. The finer numbers show two steps forward and one step back, though; Toyota's September sales were down 22% compared to last year.  GM remains optimistic about what's ahead, GM's president of North American operations telling the NYT, "We look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall." We'd like to see that happen, but we don't know how it happens. The chip shortage said to have been the inciting incident for the current woes isn't over, and not only can no one agree when it will be over, the automakers, chip producers, and U.S. government still can't get on the same page about who needs what and when. Looking away from that for a second shows articles about "No End In Sight" for supply chain disruptions in early September, before China had to start working through power supply constraints, global supply chain workers started warning of a "system collapse," and roughly 500,000 containers sat waiting to be unloaded at Southern California ports — a record number seemingly broken every week. And back to chips, we're told just a few days ago the chip shortage is "worse than we thought."   For now, the NYT wrote that GM dealer inventory is down 40% from June to roughly 129,000 vehicles, and down 84% from the days when dealers would cumulatively keep about 800,000 light vehicles in stock. However, GM just announced it would have almost all of its U.S. facilities back online next week, although some would run at partial capacity.

Cadillac's Johan de Nysschen clarifies a few points on the brand's future

Last week, Motor Trend ran coverage on a journo roundtable with Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen. During the roundtable, de Nysschen cited a few reasons for the decline in sedan sales, including gas prices, "young consumers" — read, millennials — less interested in driving dynamics than lifestyle accessories, and the state of U.S. infrastructure. Jalopnik homed in on the last two reasons, and those became the story, including here in our post on the roundtable. So de Nysschen called Jalopnik to add more context. The original reaction pieces painted de Nysschen's rationales as an excuse for sporty sedans not selling well, when the issue is Cadillac's sporty sedans not selling well. His main clarification: "I wasn't advocating the idea that the world is black and white, that if you're a young buyer a millennial or a teenager that you don't enjoy driving." On that note, it would be ridiculous to deny millennial and sedan-segment bugbears; de Nysschen has market research and the industry-wide, rabbit-like crossover breeding program to back him up. Yet even as he touted the success of the XT5, noting that it's "the third-best-selling luxury nameplate in the U.S. after the Lexus RX, and the Mercedes C-Class," he could add, "But the irony is not lost on me that the C-Class is a sedan." The circumstances laid out in the follow-up piece inject more likely color into the situation: the brand's onetime, singleminded focus on the U.S., followed by a singleminded focus on China that left the U.S. market wanting for attention. We could add to that: years of lackluster products and awful attempts at volume and brand engineering under the old GM at the same time that downsized premium luxury products, crossovers, and SUVs began their rocketship trajectories; trying to live off the Escalade success; and the carmaker's desire not to offend its older, traditional buyers while concurrently wooing "coastal influencers." De Nysschen also acknowledged that Cadillac interiors aren't where they need to be, saying, "We recognize that's where we want to improve." The result, as de Nysschen put it, "We're playing with the hand that we've been dealt.

2020 Cadillac XT6 fuel economy announced

Thanks to the EPA's fuel economy website, we finally know how frugal the 2020 Cadillac XT6, the brand's first three-row crossover, is with gasoline. The most efficient is the front-wheel-drive version, getting 18 mpg in the city, 25 on the highway and 20 in combined driving. The all-wheel-drive XT6 is just barely behind it with 17 mpg in town, 24 on the highway, and 20 combined. Both versions share the same 3.6-liter V6 with 310 horsepower and 271 pound-feet of torque and the same nine-speed automatic transmission. These numbers put the Cadillac XT6 very much on par with the competition. Both the four-cylinder and V6 versions of the Audi Q7 get 21 mpg combined, just beating the XT6, and both feature standard all-wheel drive. The Q7 with an inline-four makes less power at 255 horses while matching the XT6's torque at 273 pound-feet. The V6's 329 horsepower and 325 pound-feet beat the Caddy, though. Both Audi and Cadillac have almost the same starting price at about $53,000. Every version of the Acura MDX tops the XT6, including the least-efficient MDX A-Spec, which manages 21 mpg in combined driving. The non-A-Spec all-wheel-drive model gets 22 mpg combined, and the front-drive MDX hits 23 mpg. But the best is the Sport Hybrid that delivers 27 mpg combined. All of the non-hybrid MDXs are less powerful and less torquey than the Cadillac, though, at 290 horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque. The Sport Hybrid is a bit more powerful and torquey than the Cadillac with 321 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque. The Acura does start at a lower price of just over $45,000. The XT6 does beat one of its three-row crossover rivals, though. Its 20 mpg combined rating is comfortably ahead of the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class's most efficient V6 version at just 18 mpg. But the Mercedes also delivers 362 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, and there are even more powerful, but less efficient, V8s on offer. The Mercedes is much more expensive than the Cadillac with a base price of over $70,000.