Chrysler’s Press doesn’t see auto market improving next year

Chrysler President and Vice Chairman Jim Press isn’t expecting conditions in the automotive market to improve next year.

Speaking to reporters at the Paris auto show, Press said, “I don’t see any ‘whys’ why it’s going to be any better. We’re already adjusting to this level pretty well. We’re learning how to fight through it. It’s hand-to-hand combat. It’s tough.”

Press added that under Cerberus, “We were given free rein to face reality.”

Since early in 2008, Chrysler’s top executives have had a more pessimistic view of market prospects than their peers at Ford and General Motors who thought sales would begin to recover in the second half of the year. Instead, the steepest sales declines began in the second quarter and the slide has continued ever since. Sales were down 8.05 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2008; for the three months in the second quarter, the deficit was 12.01 percent. In the quarter that ended last month, the shortfall was a whopping 18.30 percent. From January to September, the seasonal adjusted annual rate of sales (SAAR) has dropped from 15.37 million light vehicles to 12.5 million. Analysts now don’t see a recovery until the second half of 2009 at the earliest.