October 1, 2008

May be best ‘08 market share

By KATIE MERX
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

General Motors Corp. reported a 15.6% drop in sales for September compared with the year earlier.

GM reported U.S. light vehicle sales of 282,806 vehicles in September, down from 334,974 in September 2007.

Despite the continued drop in vehicle sales, GM believes it marked its best market share of the year in September, with an estimated 27% of the market, marking its second consecutive month of market share gains, led by what the automaker called strong performances in the mid-sized car, crossover and full-size truck segments.

“In a very difficult and challenging industry, our relative performance was outstanding,” Mike DiGiovanni, GM executive director of global market and industry analysis, said in a conference call today.

GM believes the overall market will drop more than 20% for the month.