Grade The Analysts: Caldwell Carries Month And Year

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt
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grade the analysts caldwell carries month and year

Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds again is the clear winner of the December round of Grade The Analysts. She won by hitting the official SAAR (13.65) close enough. She really won by making the highest precision forecast for the Detroit Three. Caldwell also is the undisputed winner of four months of Grade The Analyst, winning her the coveted “TTAC 11” (a.k.a. “The Top Analyst Crown 2011”).

RankAnalyst GMFord Chrys SAARSAAR DiffOEM DiffOverall1Jessica Caldwell (Edmunds.com)5.1%7.8%37.0%13.401.83%2.30%4.13%2Peter Nesvold (Jefferies)5.5%8.3%35.0%13.401.83%4.20%6.03%3Jesse Toprak (TrueCar.com)4.2%6.8%34.0%13.501.10%7.00%8.10%4Rod Lache (Deutsche Bank)4.5%7.0%33.0%13.302.56%7.50%10.06%5Brian Johnson (Barclays Capital)2.4%6.4%34.0%13.501.10%9.20%10.30%6Chris Ceraso (Credit Suisse)6.2%7.9%33.0%13.203.30%7.30%10.60%7Patrick Archambault (Goldman Sachs)1.0%9.0%31.0%13.401.83%11.00%12.83%8Joseph Spak (RBC)6.0%8.0%30.0%13.203.30%10.00%13.30%9Himanshu Patel (JPMorgan)NANA NA13.501.10%300.00%301.10%10Itay Michaeli (Citigroup)NANA NA13.501.10%300.00%301.10%11Adam Jonas (Morgan Stanley) NANA NA13.501.10%300.00%301.10%12Alan Baum (Baum & Associates) NANA NA13.501.10%300.00%301.10%13Jeff Schuster (LMC Automotive)NANA NA13.401.83%300.00%301.83%14George Magliano (IHS Automotive) NANA NA13.302.56%300.00%302.56%Average4.4%7.7%33.0%13.40Actual5.0%10.0%37.0%13.65

Looking back over four months of Grade The Analysts, Caldwell took fist place three out of four times. Having access to real-time data apparently is not everything. Jesse Toprak of Truecar, who also has access to real time data, came in third three out of four times, and once took 5th. Second place was occupied by a changing cast of bankers & brokers.

We had already given up on Bloomberg’s panel, which usually peers in its crystal ball BEFORE the year comes to an end. Finally, in the wee hours of Jan 4, the day the official results were scheduled to come in, Bloomberg caught up with its panel. Without it, there would have been nothing to grade.

The grading of the analysts was not degraded by both Daimler and BMW withholding December numbers. Autodata, which calculates the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, chose to ignore the dilly-dallying Deutsche and came out with a 13.65 million SAAR yesterday afternoon.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Niky Niky on Jan 06, 2012

    This simply further cements my opinion that Edmunds is still the best major online automotive magazine (read: non-blog) out there... at least from a consumer point of view. Thankfully, they even cater to gearheads, via Inside Line.

  • BklynPete BklynPete on Jan 10, 2012

    Even if the fetching Ms. Caldwell weren't married, I'm sure her Ivy-educated reaction to Baruth is that he's a bit of a showoff, probably living off daddy's money, undoubtedly the type who boasts and brags to the boys, and is perhaps compensating for feelings of inade.....well, you get the idea. I'm really not trying to troll here; I think Jack's an awesome writer. Maybe it's 5 years of being married to a feminist, but I just hate it when he objectifies women. If Jack's girlfriend hasn't done it already, he deserves to be put in his place.

  • Analoggrotto Buyers are skipping these in droves and heading down to sign the golden paperwork for a new Telluride. ATPs speak volumes and we have 'em. Our customers are telling us that we offer Mercedes quality for a better deal, and our suite of luxury features rivals any luxury automaker. Insult me all you want, but AVMs, DSDs and BSODs tell the truth.
  • Ted Lulis The Exodus from California is mind-boggling. No surprise from the rectum of the country
  • Mr Imperial Seeing the adjusted-for-inflation amount always makes me sick, I can't believe how much it has gone up in my 40-some-odd trips around the sun. Still fondly remember seeing these and Ford Explorers everywhere.
  • Kyl65759578 👋
  • ToolGuy I appreciate the thoughtful comments from the little people here, and I would like to remind everyone that Ford Motor Company offers a full range of vehicles which are ideal for any driving environment including New York City. The size and weight our of product portfolio has been fully and completely optimized to be friendly to the planet and friendly to pedestrians while consuming the bare minimum of resources from our precious planet (I am of course a lifelong environmentalist). Plus, our performance models will help you move forward and upward by conquering obstacles and limits such as congestion and your fellow humans more quickly at a higher rate of speed. I invite you to learn more at our website.Signed, William Clay Ford Jr.
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