Industry Sales Likely To Be Down 28% In November GM May Fare Worse

Automakers may again report a U.S. sales decline of at least 25 percent for November as tight credit and concerns about the Detroit 3's survival kept demand at the lowest levels in a quarter century.

The drop will be the industry's 17th in the past 18 months.

The reports are due tomorrow, when cash-strapped General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC also must submit their turnaround plans to Congress to be considered for $25 billion in government loans.

"The domestics are effectively already out of business, particularly GM," said John Casesa, an analyst at Casesa Shapiro Group LLC in New York. "The combination of the economy and all the news on their problems just stopped them dead."

 

woood - 12/1/2008 11:45:14 PM

+1 Boost

Due to the importance of boosting share price in the short term to show shareholders that they're doing a great job, hence to justify their enormous salaries and benefits, etc., the effect is the CEOs lack long term planning. Couple that that with UAW being an iron ball and the foreign auto makers increasing market share due to superior up to date products, IMO the big three died 10 years ago.