Considering the dire situation that both General Motors and Ford are currently, as well as the recent bankruptcy filing of Delphi Automotive Group one has to wonder if there is any good news for United States Auto Makers as we move into a New Year. Indeed there is and the great news for US Auto Makers is that over 16.9 Million Cars were sold in 2005. This is of interest because if so many cars were sold and sales so robust, why is the Industry in such horrific shape? Both Ford and GM announced lay offs in the neighborhood of 60,000 jobs at a time when car sales are actually up on the year by 0.4%.

US auto sales had beaten projections of 16.8 million auto sales with total sold in 2005 of 16,912,553 which beats the 2004 four numbers by just under a half a percent from December of last year. Considering all the bad news in the sector and manufacturing in general, well that is some pretty good news. The bad news is that Ford was down by 5 percent and GMs over all sales down by 4.3 and most of this was due to foreign competitors.

Toyota is up 9 percent and Honda is up almost five percent over last year. Daimler Chrysler and its divisions were up 4.2 in 2005. Currently there are few predictions yet for what the US Auto Makers can do in 2006, but one thing is for sure; there will be heavy discounting, lay offs, incentives on new cars and fewer models to chose from due to factory closings and a few new hybrid models to wet the consumer appetite for the future of automotive technology. More on this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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