David Healy Sales Quotations

GM is losing market share overall, but mostly because of its fleet sales. GM's sales to actual retail customers were up a bit in February, so its total market share is down, but in the units that really count, the results weren't that bad.

Hertz has become less and less important as an outlet for Ford cars as Ford has pared back sales to Hertz and other daily rental companies. It's really a noncore business right now.

We're off to a booming start and everybody's going to be raising their sales forecasts for the year.

I think that the sales drop is temporary, ... Explorer buyers, or some of the buyers, may be buying Ford's new small Escape SUVs or waiting until the new Explorer itself comes out after the first of the year.

I think that the sales drop is temporary. Explorer buyers, or some of the buyers, may be buying Ford's new small Escape SUVs or waiting until the new Explorer itself comes out after the first of the year.

With GM, I think overall you'll be looking at a 9 percent increase in October this year versus October last year in GM's light truck sales, and I think that their SUV sales will show an increase at least that big year over year. That's the good news.

Detroit was an island surrounded by prosperity this year. The big SUV sales collapsed and did a number on their profitability. Both GM and Ford will lose a little market share in 2006, but not at the rate of 2005.

Sales of gas-inefficient large SUVs are in a state of near-collapse this month, ... It seems likely that the shift in the sales mix away from large SUVs will persist and continue to damage Detroit's profit margins in the process.

Sales of gas-inefficient large SUVs are in a state of near-collapse this month. It seems likely that the shift in the sales mix away from large SUVs will persist and continue to damage Detroit's profit margins in the process.

Sales were running down in the early part of the month. In the middle of the month, they launched heavy incentives, and had a very strong close.

Despite concerns that the current sales weakness represents a new recession in vehicle sales, we believe that the explanation continues to be payback for last summer's excesses,

but it ain't going to affect car sales soon.

The fleet sales that inflated the January results will probably diminish for GM, Ford and Chrysler. There's three reasons why their market-share has declined: product, product and product.

A Jan. 4 reporting date for 'December' sales provides both the temptation and the opportunity for some creative finagling of the sales numbers.