GM Going Dark on Monthly Sales Won’t Stop Reporting Shenanigans
- Tactics used to boost numbers may shift to quarterly ritual
- ‘It won’t put an end’ to ‘creative counting,’ analyst says
General Motors Co. is abandoning monthly sales and reporting them only quarterly instead.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A few years ago, BMW AG and Nissan Motor Co. were in heated races with their rivals, looking for buyers anywhere they could find. They found them all right -- in dealers’ corner offices.
The automakers padded their numbers by coaxing retailers into purchasing cars for their own demo and rental fleets. Dealers griped that the industry’s immense competitive pressures were distracting the companies from the goal they should have been focused on: getting actual consumers to buy new vehicles.