GM to End Monthly Sales Reports, Says Quarterly Figures More Useful

The AIADA newsletter reported that General Motors will end decades of tradition when it stops reporting how many vehicles it sells each month after it announces March sales on Tuesday.

According to The Detroit Free Press, the automaker says reporting every three months will provide data that’s more useful because it’s less likely to be skewed by irrelevant factors like a major storm or what day of the week a holiday falls on. “Thirty days is not enough time to separate real sales trends from short-term fluctuations in a very dynamic, highly competitive market,” GM U.S. sales chief Kurt McNeil said. “Reporting sales quarterly better aligns with our business, and the quality of information will make it easier to see how the business is performing.” Other automakers will probably follow suit, because the monthly reports require a lot of time and effort. Until they do, having such a big player missing from the report two-thirds of the time will make analysis of the industry less accurate. Read more here.