Challenge For Brand Leadership

GM Backs Claim of No. 1 Brand Despite Ford Challenge For Title

General Motors Corp. stood by its claim that Chevrolet was the top selling brand in the U.S. in 2005, despite Ford Motor Co.’s challenge to that assertion.

Ford composed a letter asking GM to cease claiming that Chevrolet is the No. 1 brand, relying on data released by R.L. Polk & Co. that showed Ford’s blue oval brand had more 2005 vehicle registrations than GM’s Chevrolet brand. GM responded that it doesn’t rely on vehicle registrations for sales figures because there is often a time lag between when a vehicle is purchased and when it is registered.

Chevrolet sold 2,651,125 vehicles for all of 2005, compared with 2,634,041 sold in 2005 by the Ford brand.

About 28% of total 2005 sales for GM and Ford came from fleet transactions. Toyota said only 6% to 7% of its overall sales went to fleet deals for 2005, with retail sales of 1.83 million, compared to Ford’s 1.874 million and Chevy’s 1.869 million.

“This whole thing should be rethought by GM,” said Ford spokesman Jim Cain, “We can’t let an unsubstantiated claim go unchallenged.”

This isn’t the first time Ford and GM have argued over sales figures. In 1998, GM’s Cadillac brand said it had surpassed Ford’s Lincoln brand in sales. Later after disputes over that claim, GM launched an investigation and ended up apologizing to Ford, saying its figures were incorrect.