Paul Ballew
Paul Ballew
april caution decent
April is off to a decent start. I caution everyone that it is early, very early, but we like the start.
bottom category largest line maintain market remains share stable utility
The bottom line for us is the utility market remains the largest category in the industry. We are anticipating we will maintain our share of a stable market that is still very profitable.
knew pace pickup sales start
This is not where we want to be, but we knew it would be a very challenging start to the year. We need to pickup our sales pace going forward.
market plan share vehicle
This is the first and most important market for any vehicle manufacturer. It's not our plan to cede market share in the U.S. market.
area fuel issue mean notoriety remains strategy top
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.
consumers driven march reading
I wouldn't say it was driven by the March results, but our reading about where consumers are at.
against appears caution energy general higher industry prices running slight slowing start step strong year
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.
good gotten january prudent remain start
I think it's still prudent to remain cautious, ... January has gotten us off to a pretty good start for the industry.
certainly demand forecasts four months remains underlying year
Underlying demand remains very strong. The first four months of the year certainly exceeds our forecasts and the forecasts of everyone else in the industry.
behavior cannot change consumer evidence
We look at this every which way and we really cannot find evidence of some seismic change in consumer behavior,
overall share tough
Overall share is going to be tough for us this year.
ahead beating month number objective production response sales
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.
dominate market reduced remains
remains well positioned to dominate the market even at reduced volumes.
category committed economy fuel gm improvement leads terms
GM leads the segment, leads the category in terms of fuel economy and is committed to improvement in fuel economy going forward,