Paul Taylor Sales Quotations

For our industry, that means diminished overall consumer spending, but NADA Industry Analysis believes that the economy will continue to grow from investment spending and increased exports, particularly to Japan and Europe. We think world automotive producers will continue to find ways to maintain yearly sales of at least 16.8 million units of light vehicles in this growth environment as we move into 2007.

That shows the potential of the new truck product to help GM truck sales over the course of the year.

December 2004 was a monster month at 1.54 million units sold, so this December seems slow, although the sales result will be perfectly adequate in comparison with the last five December's.

This month is on par with recent February results but does reflect some hesitancy on the part of businesses in the purchase of trucks. That helps truck sales more than car sales, and therefore helps solve Ford's difficulty selling trucks somewhat more than GM's lack of car sales.

Increased sales of cars in the second half of the year means that gasoline prices, as well as exciting new car designs, helped make this the year of the car.