David Healy Quotations

With their sharp decline in market share, they have frankly got too much capacity, too many plants, too many people to be profitable in North America.

My initial reaction was, 'What took them so long?' ... They had too many brands, too many fiefdoms, and they had to simplify it. Even after they phase out Oldsmobile, they'll have too many, but I don't see them making another move for the foreseeable future.

No disrespect to Sammy, but we've made progress from day one when Lawrie took the job,

October was even better than I expected. Cars are cheaper, GM is back from the strike, and despite what's happening in the stock market, consumer confidence levels are high.

My guess the strike will reduce profits by well over a billion dollars.

Obviously the market likes the Chrysler deal, ... But this doesn't have to cause a cascade of other mergers.

On paper, it could make GM more efficient, but what may work in terms of an engine may not work in terms of styling,

One of the necessities of the restructuring program is to downsize. GM has too many plants, too many people, and too many models.

I would be surprised if they show a third quarter that's better than my numbers, and I'd be interested in finding out why.

I guess I'm a little skeptical about the product side of this restructuring. Can they turn around the decline in market share with their new product?

I don't buy the bankruptcy talk. I think they have the resources to get through this. The stock has gotten so banged up, it could be an interesting speculation play. But I'm not going to try it myself.

Barring something we don't see coming, like $2 gasoline or 10 percent interest rates, I don't see the slowdown coming anytime soon.

I hate to disappoint the people who want to panic, but this is strictly housekeeping. I would think with all these things cleared up, it may clear out some small hurdles that otherwise might have gotten in the way of a sale.

Fundamentally speaking, GM has enough capacity to service one-third of the American vehicle business, but they only have about a quarter of it right now.

GM would be advised to give him that board seat before he makes more trouble and becomes more of a nuisance,

GM is losing market share overall, but mostly because of its fleet sales. GM's sales to actual retail customers were up a bit in February, so its total market share is down, but in the units that really count, the results weren't that bad.

GM has to solve its problems (in the United States) before it can be profitable again. China is not going to bail out the company.

GM had an unusually weak November a year ago. It made a big push in December last year, a big push in the summer, and November was kind of a lull.

If it wasn't GM in crisis mode and the whole feeding frenzy going on in the media, a small restatement like this wouldn't get any attention.

We're off to a booming start and everybody's going to be raising their sales forecasts for the year.

Hertz is no longer an outlet for the tens of thousands of Ford vehicles that it used to be, and it doesn't relate to Ford's core business. I don't think the absence of Hertz will hurt Ford overall.

Hertz has become less and less important as an outlet for Ford cars as Ford has pared back sales to Hertz and other daily rental companies. It's really a noncore business right now.

Hertz has become kind of a noncore operation for them, a much less important outlet.

Half of his pay is dependent on the performance of the company, so that looks pretty reasonable relative to the pay of other CEOs at big companies. It probably doesn't look reasonable to the guy who just got laid off.

I would say that's the best-ever result we've had,

I suspect that Wagoner is under a lot of pressure from the board to turn things around. To me it seems the company is in crisis mode.

I think it's a little tougher for the Chrysler Group than they're admitting.

I think the losses at Ford and GM are at their maximum right now. If I'm right, and it becomes clear the losses are shrinking, the stocks may act a little better. But I'm not convinced enough right now to buy them myself.

I think the effect has already been felt on Ford's earnings because Ford and the other automakers book themselves in profits when they produce and ship the cars to the dealers,

I think the companies are coming out of it with a contract they can live with, but not with any major reductions in their employment costs.

I think it's reasonable to give the new management time to look over the details, though I don't know how Ford's plans are going to change.

It goes to the 'equality of sacrifice' principle embraced by the union. It may make it easier for GM to get concessions from the rank and file.

I think they will cut the dividend today. They should say something about the dividend one way or the other. Financially, GM shouldn't be paying any dividends at all.

I think that's highly unlikely, ... I think they will probably negotiate an agreement with the union to reduce health care costs this year.

I think that the sales drop is temporary. Explorer buyers, or some of the buyers, may be buying Ford's new small Escape SUVs or waiting until the new Explorer itself comes out after the first of the year.

I think that the sales drop is temporary, ... Explorer buyers, or some of the buyers, may be buying Ford's new small Escape SUVs or waiting until the new Explorer itself comes out after the first of the year.

I think they're pretty smart to take the earnings hit now,

I think there will be a strike, but a short one. But any Delphi strike would shut down GM totally in a matter of days.

Padilla is a very able (executive), but he is also the old guard. Padilla is out because Ford wants his own people. That's my view.

Rockport has a tremendous fishery for reds and we are hoping to attract the most serious redfish anglers to show them off and put on a great event. Our immediate inclination tells us we are expecting a big angler turnout from the area and plenty of heavy limits at the weigh-in stage.

My thought is that this will not be a major stock market or earnings event. As recalls go, it's a lot of vehicles, but companies always make a provision for this sort of thing.

My opinion is there's still a lot of upside for Toyota, ... They're expanding capacity, still introducing models (in market segments) where they haven't been. They've got a technological lead in (fuel efficient) hybrids. They're aggressively expanding here still.

I was expecting an extremely ugly quarter but this was a great deal uglier than I'd thought.

I was expecting an announcement on the dividend today, so I was surprised that we didn't hear anything about it. They ought to cut it for tactical reasons, even though they can continue to pay it since they have enough liquidity. The addition of York on the board may still result in that.

I think Chrysler lost a lot of market share, which has not been the case for Mercedes.

I think GM's numbers will be close to 9.1 million to 9.2 million vehicles in 2006 thanks to its strength in the Asia-Pacific market. It's likely that Toyota will pass GM in volume worldwide, but I don't think it's going to happen in 2006.

I still think it's unlikely, ... I think GM has the liquidity it needs. In addition to the cash, it has $50 billion in untapped borrowing.

I think Mark Fields will eventually be COO, but it's possible they might still bring in someone from outside the company.

I think they're doing half of the job extremely well; that half is capacity and costs. That half of the job that's hard to tell is the new models.

Maybe some of their money managers think, like I do, that the stock is cheap because they aren't going bankrupt. Morgan Stanley has a huge asset-management business, so it's not like they're betting the ranch on GM.

The accounting charges seem to be mostly timing -- instead of earning in one period they have to state them in another period.

The 1982 team is legendary in Northern Ireland but this match against England is our chance to record a victory of that magnitude,

I would not imagine there is any danger of any of our players freezing. They play at play at a good level and are solid players.

You buy these stocks when the world hates them.

We can wait to see what happens, but perhaps he's bitten off more than he can chew, ... They've used the value of Hughes effectively to benefit other shareholders. I don't think there's any consensus among analysts that GM is forgetting about shareholders and should be taken over by raiders.

Truck-based models cost less for U.S. car markers to produce because they already have all the parts developed for their truck business. These truck-based SUVs have been the most profitable segment for Detroit in recent years, so developing new car-based models will eat into margins.

You have to admire them. Even with $4,000 in incentives, they're still making money...You compare that with how GM and Ford are doing in North America, and you have to give them a medal.

The question is, does it make sense to pour more money into a new Chevy Cavalier to reduce losses from $3,000 per vehicle to $1,000. It's probably a necessary competitive move.

The deal is definitely a positive effect on GM,

We can take some confidence from the result against Azerbaijan.

We did not play great but the main thing is that we won,

The passenger cars are not inherently as profitable as big SUVs or big pickups, but they have to refurbish their car line, even if it doesn't get them back to historical profit margins,

While the (health-care) deal is a positive, they have several other challenges. They are losing too much market share. They have too many plants, too many people and too many models.

You have to praise their sense of realism, that they'll never get to a 25 percent share again. They have got to do this to survive.

You have an earnings penalty and a cash benefit, neither of which is overwhelming.

With GM, I think overall you'll be looking at a 9 percent increase in October this year versus October last year in GM's light truck sales, and I think that their SUV sales will show an increase at least that big year over year. That's the good news.

What GM is talking about in my book are not hybrids. These are trucks with humongous starter motors.

To me it was a foregone conclusion because the union and the company had already agreed to it.

Both Ford and G.M. are saddled with these legacy costs that they're negotiating with the union. Beyond that, there isn't much they can do but continue to attack their single largest cost: purchased materials.

Everything was great in North America. But they were struggling elsewhere. I think that they're running into a lot of competition in pricing and product.

isn't going to make or break the company.

These are vehicles on the market mainly because of the insanity of regulators in states like California that are worried about emissions standards,

These are things they've got to do, but there's a lot more. They've got too many models, too many people and too many plants for the amount of business they're doing now.

These are small, insignificant adjustments relative to the size of the company.

It would be a dream come true to score and incredible to score the winner.

It was the sweetest moment in my career,

The specialist will then have another look at the ankle to see if the injection has been of any help,

Sales were running down in the early part of the month. In the middle of the month, they launched heavy incentives, and had a very strong close.

Sales of gas-inefficient large SUVs are in a state of near-collapse this month. It seems likely that the shift in the sales mix away from large SUVs will persist and continue to damage Detroit's profit margins in the process.

Sales of gas-inefficient large SUVs are in a state of near-collapse this month, ... It seems likely that the shift in the sales mix away from large SUVs will persist and continue to damage Detroit's profit margins in the process.

Probably half the job is cost-cutting. The new model lineup is the other part of it.

People think highly of Henderson, but I'm sorry that Devine is leaving. He tells it like it is, and he's a known quantity.

A decline is not a surprise here, but the size of the decline is a surprise,

(Delphi) is one of the chief things that was holding GM up and causing fears of bankruptcy. On Broad and Wall there's a collective sigh of relief.

Detroit will slap on big incentives, and we'll be back to normal.

Detroit was an island surrounded by prosperity this year. The big SUV sales collapsed and did a number on their profitability. Both GM and Ford will lose a little market share in 2006, but not at the rate of 2005.

Anyone who was surprised by Toyota's forecast has been living on another planet.

Anybody who was surprised by GM cutting its dividend hasn't been on this planet.

Asian makers particularly are exploiting Detroit's 2,000 dollar per-vehicle cost-of-production disadvantage (which largely stems from the US manufacturers' enormous legacy costs) to offer stylistically and technologically more advanced vehicles.

The business does not deserve a huge premium. It's a cyclical business, earnings are erratic.

You take a billion here and a billion there, and it adds up. No question, it's major.

This is a young, up-and-coming team and there is hope for the future. Of course the last two results have been disappointing but there is plenty to build on.

This is really more a matter of Mark Fields wanting to get his own people in place.

They're starting to act like a company that burned through $7 billion in cash last year.

They say they are not increasing their incentive spending, but I have a hard time believing that, especially with the zero-percent financing. Chrysler probably has a lot of problems with inventories, and it's trying to solve them by price-cutting.

They may be a little slow for new models, ... (Chrysler) may still be pipeline filling, building up dealer inventories for Concorde. They have a lot of hopes pinned on those cars.

They made history for themselves. We had strength in depth in the Eighties, top-flight players on the bench. Now, we only have four Premiership players in the squad, and two are goalkeepers.

They must have recognized the difficulty of growing internationally without a partner, and that having an international presence outside of North America was a lot more than they had acknowledged

They have liquidity and borrowing power, ... I don't think it's necessary or even wise to solve their problems by going Chapter 11, and they don't have to.

A strike would be moot unless they waited until GM was back in production after the Flint strikes. If they went down now, who would care? It wouldn't mean anything.