General Motors Company (GM): Why Its New Pickups Should Worry Ford Motor Company (F)

Why a Cadillac bodes well for General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s pickups
In any given month, GM might sell 50,000 pickups or more here in the United States. The combination of high volume and big margins mean that pickups are Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s most important single line of business — and they just might be GM’s, too.

In contrast, GM sold just 15,751 Cadillacs in the U.S. in March — but in its own way, GM’s ongoing effort to revive Cadillac is nearly as important to GM’s long-range profit goals as its bread-and-butter pickup trucks are.

Why am I bringing up Cadillac? Because GM’s latest Cadillacs have been home runs. The ATS, a compact sedan launched last year, has turned out to be a genuine, legit competitor to the BMW 3-Series, one of the best-regarded cars in the world.

The ATS, simply put, is really good, proof that GM is doing great vehicles nowadays. Its big brother, the CTS, was just unveiled in New York, and it looks like another home run, a car that will challenge BMW’s 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class head-on.

GM isn’t messing around anymore
I could pick other examples. The Chevy Cruze is General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s best-ever compact car. The Impala is a giant upgrade over its predecessor. The new Buicks are very strong entries. GM’s midsized crossovers are racking up big sales.

But here’s the takeaway: GM’s latest designs are miles beyond what we were seeing from this company even a few years ago. These folks aren’t messing around anymore.

And that’s why I’m willing to bet — heck, as a GM shareholder, I have bet — that these new pickups are going to be really good, as well as a fierce rival for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s F-Series. Wait and see.

The article Why GM’s New Pickups Should Worry Ford originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor John Rosevear owns shares of Ford and General Motors. Follow him on Twitter at @jrosevear. The Motley Fool recommends Ford and General Motors and owns shares of Ford.

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