More auto sales fireworks coming in 2011?
GM predicts that the total U.S. vehicle market in 2011 will be in the 13-13.5 million range, including medium and heavy duty trucks, up from a projected 11.8 million in 2010. Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales operations provided the estimate on a GM sales call for analysts and media this morning.
This would be good news for U.S. taxpayers who still own about 33% of GM since it will drive up the price of the stock allowing the Treasury Department to sell more.
The longer Treasury holds the stock as the economy recovers, the more likely that taxpayers will make money on the GM bankruptcy and restructuring they financed.
The optimistic prediction is in line with what is a growing consensus among analysts that the U.S. economy in general and vehicle sales in particular are slowly recovering.
Overall, a question remains if the auto industry will ever return to the 16-17 million unit sales that it enjoyed during the most of the last decade as the U.S. economy overheated during a speculative boom.
And even larger questions remain around a jobless economic recovery that is underway with U.S. unemployment stuck at almost 10% according to official numbers, with actual unemployed and under-employed people much higher.
Fuel prices for both gasoline and diesel are also trending higher, and the prospect of a economic recovery in the U.S. as well as Europe has some speculating of gasoline can hit more than $4 gallon once again.
The biggest problem in the U.S. economy remains the housing market, which has not cleared since its collapse during the Great Recession. Millions more of newly foreclosed homes will come on the market this year, further depressing prices, according to economists.
