I think it’s reasonable to give the new management time to look over the details, though I don’t know how Ford’s plans are going to change.

They may be a little slow for new models, … (Chrysler) may still be pipeline filling, building up dealer inventories for Concorde. They have a lot of hopes pinned on those cars.

I would be surprised if they show a third quarter that’s better than my numbers, and I’d be interested in finding out why.

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 non-core business right now.

They’ve got some interesting new stuff coming out. They’re going to continue to do better than GM and Ford in North America, but I think there’ll be a squeeze on their earnings.

You have an earnings penalty and a cash benefit, neither of which is overwhelming.

It will be ugly. It will be expensive.

I hate to disappoint the people who want to panic, but this is strictly housekeeping. I would think with all these things cleared up, it may clear out some small hurdles that otherwise might have...

isn’t going to make or break the company.

This is a young, up-and-coming team and there is hope for the future. Of course the last two results have been disappointing but there is plenty to build on.

No matter how you slice it, … it’s one of the best months ever.

These are small, insignificant adjustments relative to the size of the company.

Barring something we don’t see coming, like $2 gasoline or 10 percent interest rates, I don’t see the slowdown coming anytime soon.

It’s a list of housekeeping items. I hate to disappoint the people who want to panic over all this.

It looks like they bought a good part of York’s program, though I’m not sure they didn’t plan these changes anyway. York’s arrival on the board simply accelerated the changes.

Obviously the market likes the Chrysler deal, … But this doesn’t have to cause a cascade of other mergers.

You have to praise their sense of realism, that they’ll never get to a 25 percent share again. They have got to do this to survive.

If I wanted to sleep at night I’d own GM, but I think Ford has a higher percentage chance of bouncing back.

Everything was great in North America. But they were struggling elsewhere. I think that they’re running into a lot of competition in pricing and product.

A decline is not a surprise here, but the size of the decline is a surprise,

I think all of us on Wall Street were misled not only by the company’s first quarter guidance, but also by fact back in the fourth quarter, their North American margins were disappointing and terrible....

Considering all the headwinds you had to deal with in the early part of the year, I think it turned out rather well.

October was even better than I expected. Cars are cheaper, GM is back from the strike, and despite what’s happening in the stock market, consumer confidence levels are high.

I would say that’s the best-ever result we’ve had,

These are things they’ve got to do, but there’s a lot more. They’ve got too many models, too many people and too many plants for the amount of business they’re doing now.

It makes the transaction simpler.

It’s more trouble for the suppliers. Partly, it’s a reflection of the fact that Ford and GM are shrinking to reckon with lower market share. And so there’s less business to go around for the...

I think GM’s numbers will be close to 9.1 million to 9.2 million vehicles in 2006 thanks to its strength in the Asia-Pacific market. It’s likely that Toyota will pass GM in volume worldwide, but...

It’s a major step forward but it’s certainly no where near all what they have to accomplish to turn North America around.

Ford is in the intolerable position of having too many plants and too many people, … Cost cutting needs to come before the end of the year — layoffs, plant closings, that sort of ugly...

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...

They made history for themselves. We had strength in depth in the Eighties, top-flight players on the bench. Now, we only have four Premiership players in the squad, and two are goalkeepers.

The bearishness is overdone. This is probably the part of the cycle where you’d do well owning auto stocks if you have some patience.

My thought is that this will not be a major stock market or earnings event. As recalls go, it’s a lot of vehicles, but companies always make a provision for this sort of thing.

They’ve decided it’s a non-core business.

I think the companies are coming out of it with a contract they can live with, but not with any major reductions in their employment costs.

That’s the 900-pound gorilla. That could cause enormous swings.

On paper, it could make GM more efficient, but what may work in terms of an engine may not work in terms of styling.

It’s not necessary for a wave of consolidation in the worldwide auto industry,

The question is, does it make sense to pour more money into a new Chevy Cavalier to reduce losses from $3,000 per vehicle to $1,000. It’s probably a necessary competitive move.

Asian makers particularly are exploiting Detroit’s 2,000 dollar per-vehicle cost-of-production disadvantage (which largely stems from the US manufacturers’ enormous legacy costs) to offer stylistically and technologically more advanced vehicles.

The business does not deserve a huge premium. It’s a cyclical business, earnings are erratic.

GM has to solve its problems (in the United States) before it can be profitable again. China is not going to bail out the company.

I don’t think they could have been locked in a room 24/7 over the past week and come up with this retirement agreement without coming closer to an understanding on the Delphi wage situation.

The impression so far is that GM’s portfolio is a little more impressive than the others,

The MHRA is funded 100% by the industry,

I suspect that Wagoner is under a lot of pressure from the board to turn things around. To me it seems the company is in crisis mode.

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...

It’s still a very profitable segment. That’s why everyone is getting into it. But you will definitely see more incentives.

GM had an unusually weak November a year ago. It made a big push in December last year, a big push in the summer, and November was kind of a lull.