Paul Ballew Quotes (43 Quotes)

Our thought process is that this is truly the pause that refreshes. We expect to see improvement in the spring, ... Inventories are a bit higher than we'd like, but that doesn't mean we're treating it as a crisis.

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.

Given all the alternatives that are out there, given the uncertainty on gas prices, given some image factors, we think it's appropriate to plan in a more conservative manner.

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.

We've seen quite a bit of that 'richening,' even with low (priced) cars. If you look at vehicles now, it's not unusual for small cars to have stackable CD changers or satellite. It's quite a change from old beer-can-on-wheels day when the least expensive cars had no options -- no air, not even an automatic transmission.

From a cost standpoint, it certainly does help to build in Korea. We also will leverage that product globally, selling in other markets. It will give it a very broad scope where existing Cavalier does not.

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.

I can't say I'd be surprised if industry ran 17 million units in April. Would I be surprised if it ran at 18 Yes I would.

I think it's still prudent to remain cautious, ... January has gotten us off to a pretty good start for the industry.

What's important for us is to focus on stabilizing the retail part of our business, take advantage of new products, continue to build our brands and be competitive.

We're still planning on growing on the commercial business. Commercial business can be very profitable.

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.

We expect pressures to remain for the present. We're not kidding ourselves, ... As we look at the current near-term outlook there's sluggishness out there. However, the long-term picture is not entirely negative. The fundamentals for economy remain very positive for the industry as a whole.

Certainly we did not see the surge we saw ...back in October of '01 or ...last July, ... But despite the ebbs and flows, we're going to wrap up this month pretty much as we thought it would play. And we're seeing mix continue to richen.

The operative word is we remain cautiously optimistic, ... There are risks. Head winds are clearly present. We are seeing slower growth and seeing some erosion in consumer confidence. But we want to stress, as we look at November and December, we should not overreact to those factors.

We're coming off the three strongest months in the history of the industry.

We're not pleased with our sales decline, but it's important for us to improve the quality of our sales.

The marketing program is not breaking the bank, contrary to other reports today,

It's something to monitor. Let's just take a deep breath and get our arms around it.

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.

We're still trying to rebuild inventory. We're not anticipating a great September. September will be a challenge and we will have to make do with very lean inventories.

It sure is going to be a struggle as we back off on rental sales, You take your medicine and you go on.

I would describe it as a pretty solid year for the industry and one that is above our expectations that we had at the beginning part of the year.

Those who criticized us a few years ago have crossed into areas we never even thought of going into.

We were down a little bit from where we expected to be, and the industry was a little softer than we expected it to be.

The (light truck) market is still important, the market is vital for us,

We'll keep our options open, ... The good news for us is we've been anticipating the fed would move for a long time. We knew these were abnormally low rates.

There are a series of factors affecting categories of the business. We have to take all those factors into account.

We believe it's time to be simple and compelling. It is important to break through the clutter.

It's a program that has been crafted for a period of time -- it was not created due to weak sales in May. We are on the offensive and we plan to continue to be on the offensive. We believe simple and compelling works, and we believe leadership brings its own benefits.

The industry had a very good month in May and we believe GM will actually outperform the industry, ... We expect to maintain that momentum as we head into the back half of the year.

Anytime you're looking at the prospect for a soft landing, there's going to be uncertainty and risks, ... If what we're talking about is a prelude to an economic downturn, the industry will suffer over a two-to-three-year time. But the economy has shown a high degree of resiliency.

Not all consumers want an interest rate or a contract. We'll get a little more diversity going forward. But I wouldn't conclude that compelling offers on the interest rate side have run their course and lost effectiveness in the marketplace.

We look at this every which way and we really cannot find evidence of some seismic change in consumer behavior,

We have thought it through, but we don't want to tip our hand. We need to see how all of this plays itself out. It's hard to execute a strategy until we know that. But we're still going to lead and still set the terms as much as we can.

Monetary policy can take a year, year and a half to rifle through the economy. Vehicle sales have held up somewhat better than what people have anticipated. You try to find balance ... When all is said and done, we don't anticipate the back end of this year to be a poor back end. We just continue to try to put forth what we think is the right balance. We're cautiously optimistic.

We had a very challenging month. We had some pockets of strength, but once again with the number of head winds for the month, we were down.

You need a favorable cost structure to make these profitable, ... The transaction price will be the in low teens. This is a price sensitive area.

Everyone is going to remain aggressive in the marketplace, ... ...I think the industry as a whole is just grappling with pressure on pricing.

We didn't see this so-called 'CNN effect,' ... We looked long and hard for it, but it was tough to quantify. It's probably only affecting sales on the margin. For the year it'll probably end up taking a little wind out of our sails.

What's important for us is this is a category that is essential to GM. Volume-wise, we expect some lift from the new product. Time will tell how much that lift is.

As part of our restructuring plan, we need to build strong brands.

It is the appropriate time to execute this strategy.