GM Has Best June Sales Since 2007 Despite Recalls

In spite of a devastating year of recalls, General Motors had its best June sales since 2007 this past month, according to a company announcement.

Sales increased 1 percent year-over-year even following GM's plethora of recalls that have affected models going back to 1997. The American automaker has recalled nearly 29 million vehicles in North America, breaking its previous record.

"June was the third very strong month in a row for GM, with every brand up on a selling-day adjusted basis," said Kurt McNeil, US vice president of sales operations at GM, as quoted by the Christian Science Monitor. "In fact, the first half of the year was our best retail sales performance since 2008, driven by an outstanding second quarter."

In the latest announcement, GM recalled 8.45 million vehicles this week, some of which had ignition switch issues similar to those in the infamous small car recall from earlier this year.

"General Motors is resilient," said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at AutoTrader.com, as quoted by the Monitor. She added that the high number of GM recalls could be causing buyers to tune them out. 

Additionally, "Consumers understand that the GM of today is not the GM that made the recalled cars," said Krebs. "They are making a different product."

GM has had a difficult year following the recall of 2.6 million vehicles with ignition switch problems that have been connected to at least 54 crashes and 13 deaths. For the most recent recall, the automaker is aware of seven crashes, eight injuries and three fatalities that have been connected with the recall of Chevrolet Malibus from 1997 to 2005 and Cadillac CTS cars from the 2003 to 2014 model years.

CEO Mary Barra has been working to revamp GM culture to focus more on safety, firing 15 executives in the wake of the small car recall and restructuring the engineering department.