Wilbur Ross expects $20 billion loss in automaker revenues

[BeatleBoot]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Renowned turnaround investor Wilbur Ross said he expects the drop in light vehicle demand to cut automaker revenues by more than $20 billion this year and another $5 billion to $7 billion in 2009.

Ross pulled together the unwanted interiors businesses from Lear Corp. and the now defunct Collins & Aikman Corp. to form the $5.5 billion International Automotive Components, after building similar companies in the steel, textile and coal industries.

Ross said a range of macro economic issues are stacked against the U.S. auto industry, driving down vehicle sales, and leading to a bleak forecast for the short term.

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“The American consumer is both tapped out and burned out,” Ross said Thursday, during the Ward’s Auto Interiors Show at Cobo Hall.

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Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/BUSINESS01/80605078

[Dover]

1. Yes...we're "tapped out, burned out" AND completely uninspired by

the lack of environmentally and fiscally sound offerings and lack of innovation. Were they counting on cheap oil from Iraq? I'm tempted to chalk it up to incompetence at the top, but I just find it hard to believe anyone could be so out of touch and unwilling to change with the times. We find ourselves going to WAR for oil reserves and they give us HUMMERS???!!!


What were they thinking? Customers have been ready for a signficant change for sometime now.

[Kolesar]

2. the domestic brands were making efficient automobiles

people just were not buying very many of them. Even the Tercel and Corolla were ~2% of Toyota's sales.

Ford and GM went to where the customers were--SUVs and big ones

[aquart]

3. How much did they pay lobbyists to keep mileage low?

Remember that bizarre legislation giving a huge break for buying a guzzling Hummer?

There was no reason on earth for making such ridiculous choices...and now all Americans are paying for it while they parachute to the ground in gold.

[Psephos]

4. Meanwhile, you still get a tax credit for buying a Prius

Even though there's a two-month waiting line. Yep, they really need that multithousand dollar credit. And to top it off, they're made in Japan. "Untouched by a UAW hand."

Must sit real well with the UAW workers (the ones who still have a job), and have $$ deducted from every paycheck for the US govt. while the US govt. is handing vouchers out to encourage people to help destroy those union jobs.

My Saturn gets 39 mpg on the freeway and looks and drives like new after 209,000 miles. "Progressives" who hide behind the lie that there are no UAW-supporting choices could take a lesson from the red-staters who still actually buy US-assembled cars. The mind wobbles at the hypocrisy.