Chuck
12-18-2007, 09:36 PM
Honda, Nissan and Toyota will take a beating like everyone else because this is the type of economic environment that hurts everyone (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22294724/)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Car_Stocks.jpgRoland Jones - MSNBC – Dec. 18, 2007
Now the economy is going to make it hard even if you have a good car to sell. -- Ed.
Sometimes it seems Detroit just can’t catch a break.
Just as the automotive industry is about to reap the savings from a new cost-saving labor contract, and just as some of Detroit’s newest products are starting to sell well, turmoil in the housing market will likely slow U.S. car sales in 2008.
“It started over the summer, and we expect it to continue in 2008, hitting hard in the first half of the year,” said George Magliano, director of automotive industry research at Global Insight, who recently wrote a report on the outlook for next year called “The Long, Cold Winter Descends Upon the Auto Market.”
Magliano and other industry analysts expect auto sales to be hit hard as the housing downturn continues to drag the economy down.
“It’s going to be a rough year,” Magliano said. “The issue is we are getting battered by a really bad economy right now, so the consumer will pull back and get more cautious ... All that means interest in buying [vehicles] will drop through the floor."
Amid dwindling sales and continued fierce competition from overseas rivals, the Big Three U.S. manufacturers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — each secured a landmark, four-year labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union this year, despite brief strikes against two of the manufacturers.
The deals are significant because they free the automakers from the shackles of their past, giving them the ability to hire new workers at lower wages and shift their expensive health care liabilities to a union-run trust fund, potentially saving billions of dollars… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22294724/
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Car_Stocks.jpgRoland Jones - MSNBC – Dec. 18, 2007
Now the economy is going to make it hard even if you have a good car to sell. -- Ed.
Sometimes it seems Detroit just can’t catch a break.
Just as the automotive industry is about to reap the savings from a new cost-saving labor contract, and just as some of Detroit’s newest products are starting to sell well, turmoil in the housing market will likely slow U.S. car sales in 2008.
“It started over the summer, and we expect it to continue in 2008, hitting hard in the first half of the year,” said George Magliano, director of automotive industry research at Global Insight, who recently wrote a report on the outlook for next year called “The Long, Cold Winter Descends Upon the Auto Market.”
Magliano and other industry analysts expect auto sales to be hit hard as the housing downturn continues to drag the economy down.
“It’s going to be a rough year,” Magliano said. “The issue is we are getting battered by a really bad economy right now, so the consumer will pull back and get more cautious ... All that means interest in buying [vehicles] will drop through the floor."
Amid dwindling sales and continued fierce competition from overseas rivals, the Big Three U.S. manufacturers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — each secured a landmark, four-year labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union this year, despite brief strikes against two of the manufacturers.
The deals are significant because they free the automakers from the shackles of their past, giving them the ability to hire new workers at lower wages and shift their expensive health care liabilities to a union-run trust fund, potentially saving billions of dollars… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22294724/