I think it's still prudent to remain cautious, ... January has gotten us off to a pretty good start for the industry. |
I would describe it as a pretty solid year for the industry and one that is above our expectations that we had at the beginning part of the year. |
I would describe the month as pretty good, solid ... and where we expected it to be. |
I wouldn't say it was driven by the March results, but our reading about where consumers are at. |
It appears the industry is running at a very strong rate, ... It's a very slight step down from the very blistering start we started the year with, but it's still a strong pace. There are legitimately headwinds, like higher energy prices and a general slowing of the economy. But we caution against overreacting to the headwinds. |
It is a very, very important issue and, as we try to communicate all the time, it has been and remains at the top of our concerns, ... Just because we don't get the notoriety of having a Prius doesn't mean we don't have a comprehensive strategy in the area of fuel economy. |
It is the appropriate time to execute this strategy. |
It sure is going to be a struggle as we back off on rental sales, You take your medicine and you go on. |
It varies by category, but it's a significant offset in many cases. |
It will wash itself out. |
It's a program that has been crafted for a period of time -- it was not created due to weak sales in May. We are on the offensive and we plan to continue to be on the offensive. We believe simple and compelling works, and we believe leadership brings its own benefits. |
It's something to monitor. Let's just take a deep breath and get our arms around it. |
Monetary policy can take a year, year and a half to rifle through the economy. Vehicle sales have held up somewhat better than what people have anticipated. You try to find balance ... When all is said and done, we don't anticipate the back end of this year to be a poor back end. We just continue to try to put forth what we think is the right balance. We're cautiously optimistic. |
Not all consumers want an interest rate or a contract. We'll get a little more diversity going forward. But I wouldn't conclude that compelling offers on the interest rate side have run their course and lost effectiveness in the marketplace. |
On the (Tahoe), we're beating expectations on a number of fronts. We're beating the production schedule, we're ahead of our sales objective for the month and the response we're getting from dealers is positive. |