Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Daily Affirmation: Michigan is More Than Cars

Just in from Bloomberg: GM, Ford, and Chrysler's March sales fell, Toyota and Nissan's rose.
"GM said its sales declined 4.2 percent from a year earlier to 349,867 cars and trucks. Ford's dropped 9 percent and DaimlerChrysler's fell 4.1 percent, the automakers said today."
Deep into the text, you'll find explanation that almost looks on the bright side.
"There were 28 selling days in March, one more than a year earlier. The analysts' estimates for GM, Ford and Chrysler are adjusted for sales days. Bloomberg will report unadjusted sales figures, which would be about 4 percentage points higher."
As this was explained to me by someone at Bloomberg, some auto makers and analysts make a "sales days adjustment" by dividing total sales by sales days and comparing those results. Bloomberg does not make that adjustment, in part because many dealers have extended their hours and cars are also sold on the internet. Bloomberg reports and compares straight sales numbers.

Okay, that was an interesting and helpful explanation, but it doesn't really take the edge off.

Just remember, Michigan is more than cars.