Silver lining behind the may car sales data

How does the weak economic reports strong auto sales? Senior Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds discuss analyst and CNBC's Phil LeBeau.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, msnbc.com of mysteries
May display an another large storm surge is its position the US auto industry as one of the bright spots in the sputtering American economy shoring sale. But also with some decision makers report sales, which almost doubled last month, there are some potentially disturbing questions behind the may figures.

Analysts and industry officials remain unsure whether the auto market can keep its current, rapid pace, especially when others start economic factors, such as for example the strong decline in the growth of jobs and a slide in the stock market, put off to potential buyers.

But for the moment, the may figures let reason to hope, that the car sales exceed also cautious earlier predictions for 2012.

Among the optimists is analyst Jesse Toprak, data tracking company TrueCar.com. "Further recover sales and consumers feel highly satisfied purchase vehicles well, said Toprak, consumers noting that four brands, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Kia, the highest average selling prices achieved - the figure actually after discounts - in its history numbers."

Toyota saw its sales in the meantime increase of more than 87 percent for the month, a significant turning point for a manufacturer, the strong declines in large parts of the 2011 suffered. Naturally, the Japanese giant profits must be relativized. Sell in May last year reflects a low point during the impact of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, who all finished but leave hopelessly short of product to sell the Japanese car industry dealer.

But Toyota officials insist, there were other factors behind the may revival. "Our growth was spearheaded by the success of new products of the Camry sold been and Prius family, part of the most aggressive product launch in our history", said Bob Carter, Toyota division general manager.

Other Japanese manufacturers Honda, which was also hard hit by the Japanese disaster March 2011 written an only slightly less impressive 47.6 percent sales jump, 46 percent of the flagship Honda brand and 62 percent or the brand Acura.

In the meantime, Japan's second-largest producer, Nissan, saw its sales "only" 20.5 percent-including the Nissan and Infiniti brands increase. But not quite so serious production-related revenues in 2011 as the other two members of Japan's suffering Nissan three large.

A number of superlatives generates the may numbers: General Motors, with an increase of 11 percent on the previous year, the best sales since August 2009, while the Government's cash for clunkers program written.

Audi was one of the several decision makers reports its best-ever may, when the German siblings VW recorded the best may since 1973. Nevertheless, Jonathan was Browning, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America - includes also Bentley - surprisingly restrained during a conference call with journalists.

GM recently raised its forecast for 2012 to a possible high of 14.5 million vehicles of all raised, Browning, said VW now will remain while with a more conservative estimate of 13.9 million.

"We are not prepared, change our forecast," said Browning, warns that there are many economic uncertainties, that 2012 could lead to a softening of demand in the second half. In fact Browning found it especially softening and then ends with a big bang over the holiday weekend "ebbing and flowing" in the market opening in May was, strong month.

Analyst art Spinella of CNW marketing, said that his company "Zittern Index" showed itself to a measurement car interested parties are as concerned. And there are many reasons, worried, be from the uncertain U.S. labour market to the decline of the stock market, without regard to the potential crisis in the euro zone.

On the other hand, reported AAA nationwide fuel prices have on average about 27 cents per gallon since their peak in early April fell. And some oil industry observers believe that some parts of the country pump prices as low as $3 instead of $4 to $5-a-gallon pay if by summer 2012 could see expected soon.

Showing sliding demand and low prices for certain vehicles, small, high mileage offers already. In the new car market demand for fuel-saving models maintain a healthy pace, most manufacturers reported - but GM said that that its full-size pickups 27% in may, more than double the manufacturer's total sales revenue.

An alternative explanation is that as one of the basic tools of the American working class, the increase in sale recommend pick up could now faster than Wall Street main street recovers.

CNBCS Phil LeBeau reported sales of General Motors, up 10.9% compared to 11.4% estimate, while Toyota sales 87.3% vs. 89.5% estimates reported.

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Shelby leaves behind smokin' legend of sports cars

Courtesy of Shelby American, Inc

Carroll Shelby behind the wheel of a Cobra, the wickedly fast car that he designed.

So death finally overtook cantankerous ol’ Shel. It was a hell of a contest, begun in the 1950s, when Carroll Shelby, who went on to fame and fortune as a sports-car builder, had to take nitroglycerin tablets while driving race cars to keep his iffy heart pumping.

He drove hard almost until the end. At the media introduction of the Shelby GT500 at the New York Auto Show in 2005, I asked how things were going at home in Texas. Not good, he said. The then-82-year-old had just gotten a speeding ticket. “Them sumbitches down in Texas are gettin’ as bad as the sumbitches in California,” he growled.

Against stiff odds, he made it to 1990 with his weak heart before getting a donor's heart that finally quit nearly a quarter-century later. In 1996, his son donated Shelby a kidney. There was a time when the two threatened to scavenge spare body parts from anyone who had the misfortune to expire on the premises of the Shelby American Inc. shop in Las Vegas.

Shelby was best known for his eponymous sports cars, most particularly the fearsome 427 Cobra, a car that resulted from mating a big-block 427-cubic-inch Ford V8 engine with the chassis and bodywork of a diminutive English sports car, the AC Ace. Over the years Shelby’s car production evolved from the original Cobra line to include the GT350 and GT500, which were modified Ford Mustangs.

For a time in the 1980s he sold hot-rodded, turbocharged Chrysler economy cars – their “GLH” moniker stood for “Goes Like Hell” -- that were the precursors of the sport-compact-car movement epitomized by customized Honda Civics.

Shelby also pioneered the modern notion of intellectual property protection and licensing, spawning simultaneous industries licensing his name and designs on the one hand, and sending lawyers after unlicensed knockoffs on the other.

While this earned him a reputation for seeking credit where it might not have been due, I found just the opposite while researching a book on the Dodge Viper sports car. He didn’t want credit for others’ work, only credit -- and payment -- for his own.

Shelby was frequently credited for contributing to the Viper, which was an overt homage to his original Cobra, down to its serpent-inspired name. But he said he had done nothing to help design or build the car, except intercede on the car’s behalf with his longtime collaborator at Ford and Chrysler, then-Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca.

“I said, ‘I’ll go talk to Iacocca,’ because he had been turning us down for a long time,” Shelby recalled. “So we bulls---ted him that we could do it for about $20 million. He OK’d it, but I had to meet with him and tell him we were on budget – until we got enough money in it he couldn’t back out.”

But you don’t typically plop down on the scene in an industry like the car business and achieve success without some credentials, and Shelby had them. What did Shelby do? What didn’t he do?

He was a pilot during World War II, but spent the war stateside because they made him an instructor. In the '50s he was a three-time U.S. champion sports car racer, drove for the Aston Martin team in Europe and won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race as a driver. Sports Illustrated twice named him “Driver of the Year.”

During this time he earned his reputation as the racing chicken rancher, when he sped from tending his animals directly to a race, and drove still wearing his bib overalls.

He was forced from the cockpit by his heart problems in 1960 and moved on to car building, producing the first Cobra in 1962 after cutting his first deal with Iacocca when he was at Ford.

In addition to building and selling sports cars, Shelby’s company also raced them, developing the Cobra Daytona Coupe derivative of the open-top Cobra roadster and then the dominant Ford GT40. The latter was a weapon specifically devised by Ford and wielded by Shelby for the purpose of defeating Enzo Ferrari’s red sports cars at Le Mans in a cost-is-no-object campaign fueled by Henry Ford II’s ego and money. Shelby’s team won in 1966 and ’67.

Shelby’s cars were so popular in the mid-‘60s that in 1966 you could rent a Shelby GT-350H from Hertz. Bill Cosby was the car-nut Jerry Seinfeld equivalent of that era, driving a custom-built Cobra that he worked into his comedy routine as the “200 miles per hour” bit.

The ‘70s weren’t kind to cars or racing, and Shelby collected a fat check from Ford in exchange for the opportunity for the company to bastardize Shelby’s legacy with atrocities like the 1978 Mustang II King Cobra.

Shelby returned to his Texas roots and in a move that pre-dated Paul Newman’s popular line of celebrity foods, launched his Carroll Shelby’s Original Texas Brand Chili Preparation mix in 1976.

After receiving a transplanted heart in 1990, Shelby founded the Carroll Shelby Heart Fund, a charity to help children get heart transplants. He called the foundation his most important work.

Author A.J. Baime spent significant time with Shelby researching his book on the Shelby Le Mans races, “Go Like Hell.” “He contributed so much to so many — his cars, his charity, his victories against all odds,” Baime remembered. “I feel lucky to have known him. In the cars that bear his name and in the lore of the greatest motorsport victories in the history of the USA, he will live on forever.”

On May 10, 2012, 89 years after his birth in 1923, Shelby’s second heart finally stopped.

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