Honda president sees auto purchases improving in 2008

No U.S. recession, he says

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 2/27/2008 11:33:00 AM

Bucking other forecasts that North American motor vehicle sales will slide again this year, Honda’s president, Takeo Fukui, predicts purchases will rise 3% to 1.59 million vehicles this year from 1.55 million last year. An Associated Press report from Tokyo this morning says Fukui brushed off looming worries about a 2.5% U.S. sales cutback by saying sales are strong especially on the East Coast amid growing demand for fuel-efficient cars. “There is no sign that our sales are shrinking,” he tells reporters. "I don't foresee a recession. There are plenty of business opportunities.”

U.S. car and truck sales totaled 16.1 million vehicles in 2007, down from 16.6 million the year before, according to Autodata Corp., the worst performance since 1998, as rising gasoline prices and declining home values sapped consumer confidence.

Fukui says Honda has seen a shift toward smaller models in the U.S. because of rising gas prices and ecological concerns. The most popular offerings from Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, have been smaller passenger cars, rather than light trucks or sport-utility vehicles, Fukui said at a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

Fukui's comments contradict remarks from Nissan Motor Co.’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, who earlier noted that even if the U.S. is not in recession, its auto industry is. "We are very lucid on the situation of the industry that there is a recession in the United States, at least in the car market," he said at a meeting with Nissan and Renault representatives last

Friday in Seoul, South Korea.