Car sales are climbing, and most estimates predict total sales of more than 14 million vehicles in 2012, an increase of nearly 9 percent over 2011. Car manufacturers and suppliers are increasingly profitable, and many automotive industry executives are more bullish about their own prospects, and those of the industry at large, than they have been for years.
More than 200 executives from 75 automakers, suppliers, and dealer groups responded to Booz & Company's annual U.S. Automotive Industry Survey and Confidence Index, conducted in February and March. Ninety-three percent of the survey respondents view the industry as stronger than a year ago. This is in stark contrast to the results from the 2011 survey, when more than half of all respondents said the industry was about the same as or worse than in 2009. Unlike housing, which is still searching for a bottom, the automotive industry has emerged from the lows of the 2008-09 recession with a much stronger and more stable foundation for profitable growth.
