DETROIT -- General Motors' November sales rose 14 percent on strong retail demand across its four brands and helping to lift the average price of a GM vehicle to a record high.
It was the second straight month that GM sales outpaced the industry, putting the company in good shape to hit its goal of a modest market share gain from the 18.1 percent share it had at the end of 2012.
GM said its dealers sold 212,060 vehicles overall. Retail deliveries rose 19 percent, while fleet sales fell 3 percent.
All four brands posted double-digit increases, led by GMC's 20 percent gain. Sales for Chevrolet and Buick both rose 13 percent while Cadillac's sales grew 11 percent.
GM's average transaction price in November hit a record $34,896, up 6 percent from a year earlier, according to research firm TrueCar Inc. That was the biggest increase among the eight largest automakers.
GM, citing data from J.D. Power & Associates, said its spending on incentives was equal to 9.5 percent of its average transaction price last month, less than the industry average of 9.4 percent.
Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said the strength of several new and redesigned vehicles recently added to GM's lineup is allowing the company to command higher prices.
"We don't have to rely solely on incentives and matching people in a defensive mode," Reuss told analysts and reporters during a conference call today. "If you saw the company before bankruptcy, that's largely how it operated."
Sales of GM's redesigned full-sized pickups, the 2014 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, rose a combined 15 percent. That trailed a 16 percent increase for Ford's F series and a 22 percent jump for Ram.
Matching rivals
Some Chevy and GMC dealers have complained that GM has been slow to counter its rivals' more generous pickup incentives. Reuss said GM doesn't feel the need to match competitors on truck pricing.
"If you're a company that has the best product, you live through those 30-day cycles and you don't over-incent on a monthly basis," he said.
Cadillac sales have cooled over the last three months, rising a combined 10 percent, after jumping 32 percent through the first eight months of the year.
That likely will cause Cadillac to miss its goal of a 35 percent increase in retail sales for the year. Through November, Cadillac's retail sales were up 22 percent, to 150,914 units.
In November, sales of Cadillac's top-selling model, the SRX crossover, slipped 10 percent, to 4,823, the third straight monthly decline.
Chevy sales, which accounted for 68 percent of GM's total, were propelled by a big rebound in Malibu demand. Sales shot up 41 percent, to 14,405 units, following a hurried re-engineering of the mid-sized sedan, which rendered better fuel economy and interior improvements.
Chevy sales chief Don Johnson said the Malibu's overhaul "has really positioned the Malibu as a serious contender in the market."
