Filed under: Government/Legal, Ford, GM, Earnings/Financials Opponents of the US auto bailout - specifically that of "Government Motors" - should have a field day with this information. According to data compiled by Automotive News from the Government Services Administration, General Motors became the largest supplier of new cars to the US Government; overtaking Ford for the first time since 2009. Before the bailout, GM had held this lead dating back to at least 2005. For fiscal year 2012, GM sold 19,404 units worth $409.2 million to the government, while Ford's sales to the feds dropped by 43 percent to 10,734 units worth $241.3 million. While some might want to attribute this finding to favoritism toward GM, GSA says that the majority of vehicle purchases, with "only a few exceptions," are driven solely by price. The report says that GM's vehicle prices climbed just 1.9 percent, and Ford's prices have risen by 12 percent. The overall top-selling car purchased by GSA? The Chevrolet Malibu. Although it has a retail price of $21,995, GSA acquired the cars for an average price of just $15,778. Other vehicles among the top 10 to be purchased by the government include the Grand Caravan, Ram 1500, Tahoe, F-150. And as we previously reported, the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid was the top hybrid model purchased by GSA. GSA spending has also dropped in recent years with last year's $1.3 billion down from $1.36 billion in 2011 and $1.55 billion in 2010. Vehicle purchases were also down 8.6 percent from the previous year with overall purchases totaling 50,114 units. GM had previously stated that it was going to buy back 200 million shares of its own stock by the end of the year, but we have yet to hear any confirmation on such a deal, which would be worth an estimated $5.5 billion.GM passes Ford in government sales, first time since bailout originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments More...
I don't want to be political but since Washington owned part of GM I wonder if the decisions to buy GM was motivated by that, IMO it was
