Honda Exec VP: Market May Never Recover to '07 Levels
Not only does Richard Colliver admit that ’07’s sales were a bubble– a bubble that has permanently popped– but the executive vice president of Honda America says the bailout billions thrown at banks, aspiring banks and automakers hasn’t had any impact on the credit availability underpinning the U.S. new car market. Colliver also told Reuters that HoMoCo’s given up forecasting ’09 sales. “We’re not even forecasting because whatever we forecast, we would be wrong. If you look at the last 120 days, if that trend continues then we’re looking at a significant reduction (from 2008).” So Honda’s battening down the hatches, cutting inventory to 65 to 70 days of supply in the next three months (from the current 100 days). At the same time, Honda’s planning on boosting its leasing penetration from 23 percent to 27 percent of total U.S. sales. As for the impact of Motown’s meltdown on Honda…
John Mendel, executive vice president in charge of Honda’s U.S. sales operations, told Reuters that it’s a small world after all. He pointed-out that a “major disruption” for a U.S.-based supplier would hit all U.S. automakers-based hard.
Even so, Mendel struck a cautionary note re: Uncle Sugar’s multi-billion dollar largess. “To the degree that that aid assists in bridging for a period of time when the liquidity for those manufacturers improves, that’s a good thing. If it’s just about liquidity, it’s fine. If it leads to advantages in financial markets or those kind of things, that’s a little bit different issue.”
GMAC much?
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Old joke: Q: What did people call "The Good Old Days" back when they were experiencing them? A: "These troubled times." Beware of drawing trend lines by extrapolating from two data points. It's even more dangerous when extrapolating from a single data point, like the media tends to do.
I am taking World Geography this winter session, and as luck would have it, (and FWIW) yesterday's PPT lecture by the prof had this data: Source: UN human development report 2000, tables 4 & 5 ratio of richest 20% of population to poorest 20% Bolivia . . . . 9:1 Brazil . . . . 26:1 Chile . . . . . 17:1 Colombia . . 20:1 Guatemala . 30:1 Mexico . . . 16:1 Peru . . . . . 12:1 China . . . . . 8:1 France . . . . 6:1 Jordan . . . . 6:1 Philippines . 10:1 Thailand . . . 8:1 Turkey . . . . 8:1 Canada . . 5.2:1 USA . . . . . 9:1 Brazil is 26:1. Wow, imagine how many more cars would be sold in Brazil if their income distribution was more like the USA, or France.
Well now even Honda has to tell you the truth. Its the financial markets. Hmmmmmmm The whole time you want to blame Unions and the American worker. Like I said before you need to do more research before you blast your mouth. I am sure if you keep on your course everone will soon see that your anti-american stance has become a fly on the cake and then you can go look for a new position in China.