GM boasts record first quarter sales in Europe

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For years GM has tried to expand its European presence beyond just local brands Opel and Saab, building up Cadillac as a luxury competitor to Mercedes and BMW and creating special-edition Corvettes exclusively for the old world. Now it looks like all that effort is finally paying off, as the General announced that European sales in the first quarter of 2008 have hit an all-time record.

GM moved 572,137 vehicles in Europe between January and March of 2008, up from 554,026 over the same period in 2007. As always the charge was lead by Opel/Vauxhall with 418,496 sales, but the largest increase came from that most American of brands, Chevrolet, which posted a 29.9 percent increase over last year. Chevy proved especially popular in Russia, where sales rose by 60 percent, and the Ukraine where the brand doubled its volume. GM sales as a whole grew throughout Eastern Europe, with Opel particularly strong in Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.

So which Chevy did Europeans want the most? The new Aveo compact, of course (what, you were expecting the V-8 Impala SS?), which has just launched in many of the continent's markets. However GM's frugal models weren't the only ones to post gains -- Cadillac sales grew by 13 percent from the first quarter of 2007, and Hummer jumped a whopping 59 percent (you think it's expensive to fill up an H2 here). In fact the only losers in GM's stable were Corvette and Saab, which posted 30 and 11.6 declines, respectively. Saab's falloff mirrors the brand's overall slowdown, and with only 1,278 total sales in 2007 Corvette has yet to make inroads in Europe against the likes of Porsche and Ferrari.

Overall GM's sales earned the automaker a 9.6 percent market share. If more Europeans are willing to take a look at American brands, maybe the Big 3 will benefit from the fat profit margins offered by the dollar's weakness against the Euro. Just think, in a few years you might see G8 GXPs and Mustang Bullitts on the Autobahn, running right alongside all the Audis and BMWs going 100-plus miles an hour. Okay maybe not...but there's bound to be a few Aveos tooling along in the slow lane.