John Devine Quotations

very challenging, but we plan to get it done.

We have product and distribution plans to fit each of those brands, ... I know there's a lot of speculation about what we're doing and that's fine. But I want to be clear we do not have plans to drop any brands.

There are things we can do. We did one of those today. Is that enough long term? Absolutely not,

If they want it so badly, let them do a little work for it,

Certainly the first quarter was better than anybody expected, but we're still looking for a very good year, ... The consumer is king right now and we're going to take advantage of that.

GM has a high degree of confidence in the business despite the volatility in the marketplace and the intense competitive environment, ... GM's inventory levels came down significantly during the first half and are now at appropriate levels.  This should allow us to maintain reasonably stable production rates for the balance of the year.

It is just above breakeven, but we think it's an important signal inside the company and outside the company that we were able to maintain automotive profitability,

Overall, 2002 will be a very challenging year for the industry,

Robbie is a first class candidate and we are looking forward to him getting his sleeves rolled up and taking on the other candidates on the issues.

That's been going up in particular in the last couple of years. It's put a real drain on profitability, cash and a big dent in our balance sheet as a result of that. We think there is a potential for that to continue with health-care inflation the way it is.

We continue to believe stock options are an appropriate and valuable part of compensation that encourages employees to focus on shareholder return,

We realize you don't think we can do it, ... That spurs us further to get things done.

We will achieve our 2004 earnings objectives despite a tough competitive environment,

We'll probably continue to lose money, primarily because the industry is going to be weaker this year than last year, ... We don't think the economy has bottomed out yet.

While we have made good progress in reducing costs over the last several years, the projected loss in North America reinforces our need to do much more, particularly in the area of healthcare, ... Healthcare has been an increasing drag on North American profits and it's made us vulnerable to profit shortfalls.

We still believe in growth of the market. We still believe we're going to need our capacity, ... This is still a very important opportunity for the company and we don't want to be slow.

Without the pension drag, we'd expect to make about $7.50 a share this year, ... We're not excusing the pension expense. But we'll be working through it, we'll get this behind us. Making the $10 (a share target) with the pension drag will be difficult but we're still committed to it.

We need to go far beyond just teacher interaction with students on a cognitive level. We need to know what the kids are fantasizing, what they're thinking about, what they're worried about.

The private entrepreneur who is the heart of our system today will continue in the future. I don't think that's going to change. But there is obviously going to be a major change in a number of the parts of distribution.

We expect some slowdown in the mortgage business as the refinance boom fades,

Probably by the end of the year, you'll see a charge. We are working on the program. It will happen.

Delphi is very important to us, and we obviously want to be as constructive as we can. That said, we obviously are going to do what's best for General Motors.

This is Delphi's business and it's their call. We respect that. Delphi is very important to us. We obviously want to be as constructive as we can. That said, we're obviously going to do what's right for GM,

As we stand today, we don't know what the outcome is for Delphi, that's their call,

It's a good start on the $10 number, but we have a lot of work to do to reach it and then sustain it,

It's a good quarter. Good progress. We're not at a level yet in the automotive business that we're pleased with, so we have a lot of work to do. But we had another record quarter in financial services and a record year.

It's nice to be above expectations, but we're certainly not pleased with the overall results. They're not acceptable results in our view. We have a lot more to do.

It's clear from the data we're getting the disadvantage of some stronger headwinds,

It's not a great quarter from an earnings standpoint, but relative to the volume adjustment, we think not a bad one.

The cost reductions we've looked at are very tough to achieve. We're not doing it by cutting and slashing the business. We're growing it, doing the right things strategically and we're still getting the cost out.

In South America we're going in the wrong direction,

Clearly we are going to have to put more of our operational cash flow into pensions than we'd like or we had planned earlier,

This is our 11th quarter of year-to-year improvement in our earnings. For the auto business, that's a pretty good track record.

The inability to raise prices requires us to take even tougher measures to reduce costs,

The four-wheelers should come up with 45 signatures and put it on the ballot,