2014 Chevy Cruze Marks May Record with +30K Sales

While its old-school ancestor—the Cobalt—is a major player in the recent GM ignition-switch debacle, the 2014 Chevy Cruze seems to be avoiding most of the fallout. In fact, last month saw the Cruze join the Toyota Corolla (36,611 sales, up 30.8 percent) and Honda Civic (36,089 sales, up 19.2 percent) as the first three compacts of the year to break the 30,000-sales mark; the Cruze did so by delivering a May record 32,393 units and an impressive 40.5 percent jump in volume.

The 2014 Chevy Cruze also is ahead of it sales pace from last year by 18.4 percent through the first five months of this one, backed by 119,330 deliveries that lead all Chevrolet brand cars on a year-to-date basis. Which doesn't mean, however, that it's the only Chevrolet brand car that's putting together a strong selling season: The growth rate for the 2014 Chevy Cruze actually was bested by four other Chevrolet cars during May:

• The 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray garnered another triple-digit sales advance, with a 267.7 percent volume jump to 3,328 deliveries; Corvette sales are up more than 210 percent through the end of May.
• Continuing its successful transition from fleet fodder to full-size flagship, the 2014 Chevy Impala enjoyed a 23.1 percent improvement in deliveries and sold 13,348 units last month.
• The No. 1 muscle car in the country in May was the 2014 Chevy Camaro, thanks to 10,340 sales and a 30.4 percent gain in volume.
• More than doubling its sales was the 2014 Chevy Spark, spurred on by 5,177 deliveries that reflected a 100.6 percent surge in demand last month.

The brand further notes that even though the 2014 Chevy Malibu's 19,288 May sales marked a mere 2.1 percent year-over-year increase, retail sales of the 'Bu were up by12 percent.

All told, Chevrolet increased sales by 14.2 percent last month and delivered 205,010 new vehicles.