Right now I wish I had more cars in inventory. I think we'll have a big April. |
sales declines, this year at least, in the traditional S.U.V. segment are becoming the norm, and we expect that to continue to be the case in the near future. |
Sales in the short term are going to be more governed by the general economic landscape than currency exchange rates or consumer confidence measures. I'm not even sure 'moderate growth' describes the current economic expansion. Tepid is more like it. |
Some of the feedback we got was there was less traffic, but people who were there were people there buying cars and trucks. |
That's not to say Mercury will not get new product. But in terms of the number of new products that the Lincoln-Mercury franchises are going to see coming to showroom, more investment and more product news will be on the Lincoln side of franchise. |
The Lariat series looks like a Lincoln inside and probably won't be carrying much gravel. |
The level of offers out there today are very similar to the offers out there in October of last year, post 9/11. Last year it generated the best month in industry history. That same level of program will not come close to generating the same volumes this October. |
The Nissan and Toyota products will carve out a niche in the full-size segment, but the Big Three and F-series will continue to dominate for years to come, ... The products and brand names offered by domestics are very strong and getting stronger. The Nissan product is great, but it still has a way to go. So does Toyota. |
The person who buys a Focus is more likely to stay with us to move into a mid-size car or SUV or pickup trucks, |
The person who buys a Focus is more likely to stay with us to move into a mid-size car or SUV or pickup trucks. |
The real story is the improvement in revenue and product mix. |
The segment is always going to be important. But come on. Baby boomers won't want to be driving the same vehicle when they're 70 that they did when they were 55. |
The shift towards light trucks is marching on. |
There is a lag factor. A year ago, even six months ago, we were sitting here wondering when consumers would sense that interest rates were going up. I don't think this significantly affects the first quarter. |
There will be some attention and buzz on '04 F-150, ... But they won't be talking about '04 model line for other vehicles. |