Analysts' Comments

Subaru Forester tops Honda CR-V in small SUV review

9:38 am U.S. ET | May 21, 2013
The Subaru Forester small SUV beat the Honda CR-V and other rivals in testing by Consumer Reports, which ranked the model as its top pick in that segment.... Read More »

 

APRIL U.S. AUTO SALES

U.S. sales projected to rise 7% as annual rate stays above 15M

10:03 am U.S. ET | April 19, 2013
Drivers replacing aging vehicles will keep auto sales for the United States “in a healthy holding pattern” in April, industry analysts said today while raising the forecast for the full year.... Read More »

 

Tesla steps up defense of Model S after New York Times review

9:46 am U.S. ET | Feb. 14, 2013
Tesla Motors released data gathered during a New York Times test drive of the Model S, stepping up its defense of the vehicle to counter a critical review.... Read More »

 

LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE

Gassed at work: Was there a question in there somewhere?

10:36 am U.S. ET | Feb. 2, 2013
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: The quarterly analyst calls that automakers conduct are like gold mines -- filled with valuable nuggets, but with dangerous pockets of trapped gas threatening at every turn. For the most part, the problem is not the automakers or their executives. Oh no, the dangerous gasbags are the analysts.... Read More »

 

Penske, Group 1, Lithia shares rise to records after analyst report

4:55 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 23, 2013
Penske Automotive Group, Group 1 Automotive, and Lithia Motors reached record prices after a KeyBanc Capital Markets report about the auto retailers cited a "confident" outlook on vehicle sales in the United States. Penske gained 4.2 percent to $32.32 at the close in New York, the highest since its 1996 initial public offering.... Read More »

 

2013 AUTOMOTIVE NEWS WORLD CONGRESS

Analyst sees housing, credit improvements releasing pent-up demand

8:32 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 15, 2013
Light-vehicle sales will rise to 17 million units in the United States by 2015, from 2012's 14.9 million, Morgan Stanley Managing Director Adam Jonas told the Automotive News World Congress. Pent-up demand will fuel that rise, he said.... Read More »

 

Analysts: U.S. auto sales outlook hinges on end to political strife

9:27 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 13, 2013
Nothing is more likely to stall auto sales this year in the United States than continued political wrangling. That was the conclusion of a panel of economists and forecasters at a Society of Automotive Analysts conference here Sunday evening before the Detroit auto show.... Read More »

 

JESSE SNYDER

The stuff that trumps more mega-hyper-data

12:01 am U.S. ET | Dec. 8, 2012
You don't have to be in the auto biz for long to notice the steady creep of … more. More facts, more data, more choices, more comparables … more information at hand to make decisions. Oh yeah, are there ever moredecisions. We all keep adding more responsibilities, without shedding old ones. We just wear morehats.... Read More »

 

Akerson: GM wants investment-grade interest rate for expanded credit line

10:21 am U.S. ET | Oct. 22, 2012
GM, which has junk credit ratings, aims to double its revolving credit line to $10 billion at the same interest rates as if it were an investment-grade company, CEO Dan Akerson said.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

GM's slow pace of change frustrates Wall Street

1:11 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 18, 2012
GM is frustrating the hell out of Wall Street. Many securities analysts have "buy" ratings on the stock and are hopeful that a raft of new cars and trucks hitting showrooms over the next year could ignite growth at the automaker, which was bailed out by the federal government in 2009. Yet they have nagging doubts.... Read More »

 

EDWARD LAPHAM

Why Morgan Stanley's GM analysis matters

1:15 pm U.S. ET | Sept. 7, 2012
Adam Jonas, the highly respected lead auto analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a research note this week that General Motors needs to get rid of its Opel subsidiary. Here’s the irony: The guy who was assigned to fix GM’s European operations is GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, who himself was once the highly respected lead auto analyst at Morgan Stanley.... Read More »

 

JOE CAHILL

New strategy for a 100-year-old supplier: 'This is a big deal'

2:27 pm U.S. ET | Aug. 16, 2012
As Illinois Tool Works marks its 100th birthday, the auto supplier and manufacturing conglomerate is changing the habits of a lifetime.... Read More »

 

2012 MANAGEMENT BRIEFING SEMINARS

Forecasts drop for 2012, 2013 U.S. auto sales

11:09 am U.S. ET | Aug. 7, 2012
For much of this year, gains in United States auto sales have been a bright spot in an economy that remains weighed down by joblessness, a still-sluggish housing market and global uncertainty. Now, those outside factors have started to drag on the auto industry, likely slowing the rate that sales will grow through 2013, analysts said today.... Read More »

 

GUEST BLOG

What GM and Akerson should do now in marketing

11:22 am U.S. ET | July 31, 2012
After two years that were marked by a tremendous amount of upheaval, including coast-to-coast agency shuffling and a long game of musical chairs in the marketing department, it's time for GM to focus and get back to business.... Read More »

 

MARK RECHTIN

When journalism becomes shilling

3:44 pm U.S. ET | June 25, 2012
George Orwell said, “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” So what does it mean when a car company carefully orchestrates the media launch of a new vehicle and limits media test drives of that vehicle to just 10 minutes on a controlled circuit?... Read More »

 

Buick, Chrysler, Kia improve most in Total Car Score 2012 composite rating

4:15 pm U.S. ET | June 11, 2012
Buick, Chrysler and Kia improved the most this year while Infiniti took the top spot from Lexus on Total Car Score's list of Best Scoring Car Brands of 2012. The list is a composite of ratings from nine automotive review and ratings sites, including MSN Autos, U.S. News & World Report and Consumer Guide.... Read More »