Paul Ballew Quotations

We're still planning on growing on the commercial business. Commercial business can be very profitable.

We're seeing a good, solid performance so far this year.

We've seen quite a bit of that 'richening,' even with low (priced) cars. If you look at vehicles now, it's not unusual for small cars to have stackable CD changers or satellite. It's quite a change from old beer-can-on-wheels day when the least expensive cars had no options -- no air, not even an automatic transmission.

We've seen quite a bit of that 'richening,' even with low (priced) cars, ... If you look at vehicles now, it's not unusual for small cars to have stackable CD changers or satellite. It's quite a change from old beer-can-on-wheels day when the least expensive cars had no options -- no air, not even an automatic transmission.

We had a very challenging month. We had some pockets of strength, but once again with the number of head winds for the month, we were down.

When we said value pricing, we said we'd still be competitive in terms of pricing and still run tactical programs.

Monetary policy can take a year, year and a half to rifle through the economy. Vehicle sales have held up somewhat better than what people have anticipated. You try to find balance ... When all is said and done, we don't anticipate the back end of this year to be a poor back end. We just continue to try to put forth what we think is the right balance. We're cautiously optimistic.

I would describe the month as pretty good, solid ... and where we expected it to be.

I would describe it as a pretty solid year for the industry and one that is above our expectations that we had at the beginning part of the year.

I can't say I'd be surprised if industry ran 17 million units in April. Would I be surprised if it ran at 18? Yes I would.

From a competitive standpoint, we're better than anybody else ? you can look at it from any performance metric. We're king of the hill.

I expect October to be a bit rocky.

GM leads the segment, leads the category in terms of fuel economy and is committed to improvement in fuel economy going forward,

We've exceeded the sales estimate for the month. We turned the production at a very healthy pace.

Underlying demand remains very strong. The first four months of the year certainly exceeds our forecasts and the forecasts of everyone else in the industry.

We look at this every which way and we really cannot find evidence of some seismic change in consumer behavior,

I wouldn't say it was driven by the March results, but our reading about where consumers are at.

It appears the industry is running at a very strong rate, ... It's a very slight step down from the very blistering start we started the year with, but it's still a strong pace. There are legitimately headwinds, like higher energy prices and a general slowing of the economy. But we caution against overreacting to the headwinds.

I think it's still prudent to remain cautious, ... January has gotten us off to a pretty good start for the industry.

It is a very, very important issue and, as we try to communicate all the time, it has been and remains at the top of our concerns, ... Just because we don't get the notoriety of having a Prius doesn't mean we don't have a comprehensive strategy in the area of fuel economy.

Overall share is going to be tough for us this year.

On the (Tahoe), we're beating expectations on a number of fronts. We're beating the production schedule, we're ahead of our sales objective for the month and the response we're getting from dealers is positive.

remains well positioned to dominate the market even at reduced volumes.

While we still have a lot to do, I would describe February and our position coming out of February as pretty good.

We realize that gas prices are important to consumers and we're certainly not denying that there's an impact. We are seeing more interest in consumers understanding fuel economy of vehicles. But there's not the shift we saw in the 70's and 80's.

We do need to see sales and we expect to see sales strengthen as we get into May and June.

We do have some payback out there staring us in the face.

We're certainly not pleased with current share levels and we're not satisfied with it, but we have to run this play.

We're still trying to rebuild inventory. We're not anticipating a great September. September will be a challenge and we will have to make do with very lean inventories.

We have thought it through, but we don't want to tip our hand. We need to see how all of this plays itself out. It's hard to execute a strategy until we know that. But we're still going to lead and still set the terms as much as we can.

Truck sales were just phenomenal. They just exploded like nothing I've ever seen before.

Those who criticized us a few years ago have crossed into areas we never even thought of going into.

We didn't see this so-called 'CNN effect,' ... We looked long and hard for it, but it was tough to quantify. It's probably only affecting sales on the margin. For the year it'll probably end up taking a little wind out of our sails.

We're not going to announce any production changes in this call,

We're coming off the three strongest months in the history of the industry.

There are a series of factors affecting categories of the business. We have to take all those factors into account.

There is legitimate pressure on some utility categories.

We do anticipate that November and December will be a bit better. And then into '06, we anticipate we'll hold our own.

We do anticipate that November and December will be a bit better, ... And then into '06, we anticipate we'll hold our own.

We knew we had a pretty tough challenge in terms of the month performance.

We have been anticipating the competitive response from Ford would be forthcoming, ... They do surface every now again. I wouldn't say it's revolutionary.

We're not pleased with our sales decline, but it's important for us to improve the quality of our sales.

We believe it's time to be simple and compelling. It is important to break through the clutter.

What's important for us is to focus on stabilizing the retail part of our business, take advantage of new products, continue to build our brands and be competitive.

What's important for us is this is a category that is essential to GM. Volume-wise, we expect some lift from the new product. Time will tell how much that lift is.

We were down a little bit from where we expected to be, and the industry was a little softer than we expected it to be.

We'll keep our options open, ... The good news for us is we've been anticipating the fed would move for a long time. We knew these were abnormally low rates.

The operative word is we remain cautiously optimistic. There are risks. Head winds are clearly present. We are seeing slower growth and seeing some erosion in consumer confidence. But we want to stress, as we look at November and December, we should not overreact to those factors.

The operative word is we remain cautiously optimistic, ... There are risks. Head winds are clearly present. We are seeing slower growth and seeing some erosion in consumer confidence. But we want to stress, as we look at November and December, we should not overreact to those factors.

We have to continue to deliver our message to inform people just how good we are.

What's going to be coming to G.M. hopefully through this process, will be a leaner and more competitive manufacturer.

We are breaking all new ground, certainly with regard to fuel economy and safety.

We expect the revenue increase to continue though the rest of this decade and beyond.

We expect pressures to remain for the present. We're not kidding ourselves. As we look at the current near-term outlook there's sluggishness out there. However, the long-term picture is not entirely negative. The fundamentals for economy remain very positive for the industry as a whole.

We expect pressures to remain for the present. We're not kidding ourselves, ... As we look at the current near-term outlook there's sluggishness out there. However, the long-term picture is not entirely negative. The fundamentals for economy remain very positive for the industry as a whole.

We're going to be down in the second quarter and the back end of the year.

Our thought process is that this is truly the pause that refreshes. We expect to see improvement in the spring, ... Inventories are a bit higher than we'd like, but that doesn't mean we're treating it as a crisis.

April is off to a decent start. I caution everyone that it is early, very early, but we like the start.

The bottom line for us is the utility market remains the largest category in the industry. We are anticipating we will maintain our share of a stable market that is still very profitable.

As part of our restructuring plan, we need to build strong brands.

You need a favorable cost structure to make these profitable, ... The transaction price will be the in low teens. This is a price sensitive area.

This is not where we want to be, but we knew it would be a very challenging start to the year. We need to pickup our sales pace going forward.

This is the first and most important market for any vehicle manufacturer. It's not our plan to cede market share in the U.S. market.

It is the appropriate time to execute this strategy.

It's a program that has been crafted for a period of time -- it was not created due to weak sales in May. We are on the offensive and we plan to continue to be on the offensive. We believe simple and compelling works, and we believe leadership brings its own benefits.

It sure is going to be a struggle as we back off on rental sales, You take your medicine and you go on.

It's something to monitor. Let's just take a deep breath and get our arms around it.

Everyone is going to remain aggressive in the marketplace, ... ...I think the industry as a whole is just grappling with pressure on pricing.

Everybody is entitled to play this game. We accept it for what it is, but it does complicate some of the things we're doing.

That is somewhat below what we were anticipating.

Not all consumers want an interest rate or a contract. We'll get a little more diversity going forward. But I wouldn't conclude that compelling offers on the interest rate side have run their course and lost effectiveness in the marketplace.

It varies by category, but it's a significant offset in many cases.

Anytime you're looking at the prospect for a soft landing, there's going to be uncertainty and risks. If what we're talking about is a prelude to an economic downturn, the industry will suffer over a two-to-three-year time. But the economy has shown a high degree of resiliency.

Certainly we did not see the surge we saw ...back in October of '01 or ...last July, ... But despite the ebbs and flows, we're going to wrap up this month pretty much as we thought it would play. And we're seeing mix continue to richen.

I don't want to throw out concerns that all of us have, ... We're looking at it every single day, and so far facts to date do not support contention that gas prices have had a material impact on truck sales.

The marketing program is not breaking the bank, contrary to other reports today,

The market below $12,500 is almost a million units. It's too big to ignore. We think long term that market will shrink a little further. It may be only a half-million units at some point. But with our global position and product, it's a half-million-unit market we can go after.

All in all, I would describe the month as pretty solid.

The industry had a very good month in May and we believe GM will actually outperform the industry, ... We expect to maintain that momentum as we head into the back half of the year.

The (light truck) market is still important, the market is vital for us,