Here's a guy whose banks are tapping their fingers--and he's desperate.
“In case anyone missed his point, Michael Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, the largest auto dealer in the U.S., was more explicit: ‘Mr. Mulally said it very elegantly last night and I will say it more straightforward. We need more expensive gasoline.’
“While last year's energy spike briefly encouraged small-car sales, Mr. Jackson complained that those sales have plummeted with gas prices. ‘I have fuel-efficient vehicles parked at my dealerships as far as the eye can see. I can't give them away.’ He figures a tax that guarantees a gas-price floor of $4 a gallon is a ‘good start.’ Mr. Mulally, for his part, talked about how good Ford's sales of small cars were in Europe, and that ‘one of the reasons is that gasoline and diesel is somewhere between seven and nine dollars a gallon.’"
In other words, he's on the brink of BK and needs a bailout. Not all that different from FoMoCo chairman (and personal-G5-commuter) Mulally's comment, referenced in the link.
Quoted in the WSJournal, caught by P-Mac.
I don't think he's considered the ramifications of his idea. At $4/gal, who is going to be able to purchase a new car? Mine is paid for and even at 80 miles per day commuting, I can't make the new-car numbers work.
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