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About 38 million Americans are expected to go somewhere this holiday season, and AAA says that's up about 1.4 percent fr...
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Current DateTime: 09:09:43 25 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 30830730
Expiration DateTime: 11/25/2009 9:12:30 PM
    • Planes, Trains & Automobiles  25 Nov 2009

        About 38 million Americans are expected to go somewhere this holiday season, and AAA says that's up about 1.4 percent from last year. NBC's Tom Costello has the details.

    • Maria's Market Message  24 Nov 2009

        CNBC's Sue Herera sits in for Maria Bartiromo to discuss the day's top business and financial stories, and look ahead to tomorrow's Closing Bell.

    • GM's Saab Story  24 Nov 2009

        It's back to the drawing board for GM after a Swedish company pulled out at the last minute of a deal to buy the Saab unit. Insight with Erich Merkle, independent automotive consultant and CNBC's Phil LeBeau.

    • GM's Saab Deal Is Off  24 Nov 2009

        General Motors' Saab deal is off, reports CNBC's Phil LeBeau.

    • BMW Signed as Olympic Partner  20 Nov 2009

        BMW has been chosen as the official automotive partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics games. Ian Robertson, board member of BMW Group, spoke to CNBC about the sponsorship.

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Current DateTime: 09:09:46 25 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 30830722
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Behind The Wheel

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GM logo, General Motors logo
If you thought the auto industry and economy might be close to bottoming out and getting some traction, think again.

The world's two largest auto makers are sending fresh signs that things will remain as bad, if not worse in 2009.

Get ready for a rocky first quarter of the year.

GM [GM  Loading...      ()   ] lowered its estimate for U.S. industry sales this year from 12 million to 10.5 million vehicles. Want to put that in perspective? The last time sales were that low was 1982.

Meanwhile, Toyota [TM  Loading...      ()   ]is cutting production at its U.S. plants in the first quarter. The reduction varies by plant. Toyota is doing this to cut its inventory that stands at 80-90 days.

So what does all of this mean?

Taken as a whole, it tells us the economy and consumer confidence remains weak. And don't expect that to change anytime soon. Sure, congress is passing bills to spark the economy, but it will take a while before that trickles down to you and me.

Still, there's a bigger issue weighing on the auto makers: lack of consumer confidence.

To quote a dealer I was talking to last week, "it's a lot tougher to get people to go from looking, to buying.” Frankly, I don't blame people. Every day, there's a steady dose of indications we don't know when the economy will start to come back.

Against that back drop, I completely understand why someone says to themselves, "my car or truck isn't dead, let's just stick with it."

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Click on Ticker to Track Corporate News:

- Ford Motor [F  Loading...      ()   ]

- General Motors [GM  Loading...      ()   ]

- Nissan [NSANY  Loading...      ()   ]

- Honda Motor [HMC  Loading...      ()   ]

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