Ford May Auto Sales Conference Call: Full Transcript

Operator:

Good morning. My name is Stephanie and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ford Motor Company F Monthly Sales Call.

All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and- answer session. If you would like to

ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question press the pound key. 

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Erich Merkle, US Sales Analyst. Please go ahead.

Erich Merkle:US Sales Analyst:

Thank you, Stephanie. Good morning everyone and welcome the Ford's May 2016 sales call. Today we're joined by Mark LaNeve, Ford Vice President, US

Marketing, Sales and Service; and Bryan Bezold, Ford's Senior Economist.

Diving in and taking a look at the numbers, looking at early morning data, we estimate industry sales including medium and heavy trucks totaled about 1.54 million

vehicles for the month of May. This number would translate into a decline of about 8% producing an industry SAAR in the mid-17 million vehicle range for the

month.

At retail, we estimate that the overall industry came in at about 1.21 million vehicles, which would translate to a May retail SAAR in the high-13 million vehicle

range. This is likely about 8% lower than last year due to a four weekend month in May of this year versus a five weekend month for May of 2015.

Taking a look at some of the segment trends, small SUVs, I mean what can you say, they just continue to grow and May wasn't any exception to that. They

represented more than 20% of the industry, retail industry for the first time ever. This is about a point and half higher than the segment's strong performance at this

time last year.

The other standout segment continues to be full size pickup, which represented more than 12% of the industry in May and this was about a point higher than a

year ago. This time of the year is no generally so favorable to SUVs and pickups as they tend to be more second half performers, but certainly we're seeing a lot of

strength early on for both segments. The spring months historically though are more conducive to car sales, but the mid-size sedan segment came in at just under

11% of the industry in May, and that's about two points lower than year ago. So, we're still continuing to see a lot of rotation out of cars into SUVs. 

Finishing things up, small cars are operating at just a little over 18% of the industry and were down about a point from this time a year ago. 

So, with that, I'm going to turn things over to Mark. And Mark is going to give you some more color on what happened at Ford in the month of May.

Mark LaNeve:VP, US Marketing, Sales and Service:

Great. Thank you, Erich, and good morning everyone. Hard to believe it's June already, and we all appreciate you being with us on the call today.

Let's get into some of the numbers, at Ford Motor Company, our sales for the month totaled 235,997 vehicles, representing a 6% decline versus a year ago. We

estimate our performance was better than the overall industry average, while showing a $1,500 improvement in average transaction pricing relative to a year ago,

which shows good pricing performance in the market continuing. Largely, a big chunk of this is due to stronger mix of SUVs and trucks. F-Series in particular

produced another strong increase, up 9% last month. 

Ford Vans had their best May sales results in 38 years, while Lincoln continued its momentum, delivered its sixth straight month of sales gains, thanks to its new

product.

Let's first go a little deeper into pickup trucks and in vans. Ford F-Series totaled 67,412 pickups for the month. This brings our year-to- date increase for F-Series to

over 7% year-on- year with 324,307 pickups sold through the five months, making it our best start in a decade.

Truck segmentation has been favorable this year. As Erich mentioned, we're well-positioned going into the second half. Commercial vans have been a strong story

for us that continued in May and continue to work in conjunction with F-Series to drive our overall Built Ford Tough truck sales even higher. Ford commercial vans

had their best May sales performance since 1978. 

I think graduated high school, I graduated in '77. Okay. So, we had our sales performance in '78 with 22,015 vehicles sold. Trend continues to come from our

Transit van that reported 16% increase over a year ago with 13,640 vans sold. 

Plus with our all new F-650 and F-750 medium duty, which achieved a 72% increase with our overall truck sales, again as I mentioned, up 9%. And with our F-

Series and our vans in addition to the strong retail performance, these products in particular have led the strong year-over- year gain in both our commercial and

government business. We saw that in May and we've seen it steadily all year long. We had strong commercial and government increases, both May and calendar

year-to- date. Getting into Ford SUVs, we've sold so far this year 325,475 Ford brand SUVs through May. 

We're having a record just like F-Series, a record first five months start to the year with Ford brand SUVs up 9%. The new 2017 Ford Escape hit dealers last month

helping to boost the Escape sales 6% with 30,861 Escapes sold last month, and anytime we're over 30,000 Escapes, that's a strong month for us. The stronger 17

Escape sales we're seeing for the Titanium up level model which is turning on dealer launch in just 14 days. Titanium is our top model in the series and represents

about one-third of Escape sales.

Moving on to Lincoln and other really strong story, we saw a 7% increase in May. We're getting excellent sales of our all-new Lincoln MKX, which was up 88% in

May with 2,794 vehicles sold. Through May calendar year-to- date, Lincoln sales have increased 15%, and that's compared to a luxury segment that's been

relatively flat this year. So, strong performance from the Lincoln brand. 

And we're particularly pleased that how well we're doing in the coastal areas of the country, that's the boost in part to the new Lincoln MKX where sales are up

89% in our Southeast market area and showed an 85% gain in the West market area. We are just starting to roll out the new Lincoln MKZ, looks great, and we

look forward to tracking its performance throughout the year along with the all-new Lincoln Continental that will come later this year, which we're all excited about.

So, that's a quick look at May. And I'll turn it over to Bryan for an update on the economic front.

Bryan Bezold:Senior Economist:

Thanks Mark and good morning everyone. US economic conditions, particularly the household sector remained broadly supportive of industry sales at the current

run rate. To date, the labor market continues its gradual recovery, producing both job and income gains for households. Although the price of oil has risen over the

last three months, it still remains at a low level with retail gasoline prices still down on a year-over- year basis. 

And consumer confidence is at a level consistent with continued economic growth. The second estimate of first quarter GDP showed growth at a 0.8% annual rate,

down from 1.4% in the fourth quarter, but up from the initial estimate of 0.5%. Weakness in investment and exports partially offset growth in personal consumption

spending and residential construction. This highlights the contrast between a relatively healthy household sector and a business sector that was negatively

impacted by a strong dollar and low oil prices in much of the quarter.

Of course, first quarter GDP growth is a backward looking indicator at this point in time. Some more recent incoming data includes the University of Michigan

Consumer Sentiment Index, which rose to an 11-month high of 94.7 in May as consumers' view of both present and future economic conditions improved. The

share of respondents supporting that it was a good time to buy a car was up 5 percentage points to 74%, which was the highest since January 2015. The labor

market continues to generate improving job and income growth that is supportive of household spending. 

New claims for unemployment insurance have risen over the last month but to a low level with the four-week moving average of new claims at 278,500. Average

hourly earnings rose 2.5% year-on- year in April, continuing a gradual upward trend we've observed over the past year and a half.

During April, on an inflation adjusted basis, disposable personal income rose 0.2% and personal consumption expenditures rose 0.6% for March. Every major

indicator of housing performance including permits, starts, and in home sales, new home sales and existing home sales improved in April as compared with March.

The May manufacturing PMI rose 0.5 points to 51.3, staying above the expansion threshold of 50 for the third straight month. As Erich, mentioned earlier, we see

the May SAAR in the mid-17 million unit range, in line with our 2016 industry guidance of 17.5 million to 18.5 million units including medium and heavy trucks.

With that summary, let me turn it back to Erich.

Erich Merkle:

Thank you, Bryan. So, taking care of some housekeeping items, taking a look at the gross stock for the month of May. May 2016 cars, we had 178,000 cars in

gross stock, trucks 354,000, utilities 191,000 giving us a total for the month of 723,000 vehicles. This translates into 77-day supply. 

Comparing that to April of 2016, we had 189,000 cars, 358,000 trucks, 195,000 SUVs giving us a total of 742,000 vehicles, translating into 83-day supply.

Comparing the number to May of 2015 a year ago, gross stock for cars was 189,000, trucks were 254,000 and SUVs were 154,000 and that translated into a total

of 597,000 vehicles, this gave us at a time 60 days' supply.

Taking a look at our fleet for the month, if we take a look at our fleet as a percentage of our total sales for the month of May, fleet was 32% of our total sales,

commercial represented 13%, government represented 6%, and daily rental represented 13% of our total sales for the month of May 2016. Comparing this to May

a year ago, fleet as a percentage of our total sales was 32%, commercial was 12%, government was 5%, and daily rental as a percentage of our total sales was

15% last year.

Turning to calendar year-to- date, if we look at fleet as a percentage of our total sales calendar year-to- date through May of 2016 was 34%, commercial was 13%,

government was 6% and daily rental was 15%. Comparing this to May 2015 a year ago, calendar year-to- date, fleet as a percentage of our total sales was 30%,

commercial was 13%, government was 5%, and daily rental was 12%.

So with the housekeeping items now out of the way, Stephanie, we're going to turn things over to start answering some questions. And we will take first block of

calls from the analysts please.

Question & Answer

Operator:

Once again if you would like to ask a question please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from the line of Pat

Archambault with Goldman Sachs. 

Pat Archambault:Goldman Sachs:

Yes hey good morning guys. 

Mark LaNeve:

Good morning. 

Pat Archambault:

So, look I just this tends a little bit the production question, if indeed you are kind of tracking, I guess you said like, I think you said mid-17s on a total, so call it like

low 17s. So, you are kind of flat to slightly down I think year-to- date. But, inventories on the other hand are up and I know that you still have like a weird comp

issue potentially from the F-Series from last year, so may be some of that. But, does that position you to have to adjust production at all, either this quarter or how

does that calculation or consideration work is that may be something you only decide to do once we are through the summer selling season or are we in a position

where we might have to kind of taper off production, just given, it seems we're coming at a little bit slower than may be people thought.

Mark LaNeve:

Thank you, Pat. Without getting all the details that we've covered on numerous calls about the difference in our inventory position on F-Series in particular versus a

year ago when we were ramping up and of course, this year we also have the Super Duty that we're converting over through later in the year, so we're carrying a

little bit of additional inventory there. We are always going to adjust supply to demand; we're on record saying that that's the way we're going to run the business.

But, if you really look at the macro numbers, the industry is up actually SAAR wise if it comes in at 17.5 at couple hundred thousand units over a year ago, so it is

up marginally. 

And the year the way played out last year was SAAR strengthened throughout the gear, actually ran at 17.2 in the first quarter and ended up with 17.7 for the

year. 

So, we think we're in good inventory position, certainly would rather have available inventory across our 3,100 dealers in the various configurations, especially with

F-Series and our vans, which are complicated products than to be short as we were much last year. And so, we like where we sit right now, but we will always

adjust the demand based on market conditions.

Pat Archambault:

Okay, thank guys. 

Mark LaNeve:

Thanks, Pat.

Operator:

Your next question comes from the line of Colin Langan with UBS.

Colin Langan:UBS:

Great, thanks for taking my question. Any color on the SAARs this month, was there any unusual factors to have come in a bit weaker than last month and bit

weaker than expectations, and may be any color in particular on the Memorial Day weekend that's lower, is that potentially a factor on the weekend?

Erich Merkle:

Colin, Memorial Day weekend was pretty strong. I mean we closed the month up pretty strong, had a good last weekend, call it four, five days, Friday through to

the close yesterday across really cars, trucks and SUVs. You have the calenderizatin, which had affect between April and May. April was a five weekend month

and May was a four weekend month. 

I don't want to over talk that or over think that. But, May a year ago you have was five weekend you had Memorial Day on the fourth weekend, which as we know

is a strong selling weekend and a week later you close the month, which you always have a big weekend when you close the month. I am not reading too much

into the April, May; the April ran a little stronger and May from a SAAR position versus a year ago little weaker, but some things happen when you are into a very

strong industry and we closed really well.

Colin Langan:

And do you expect the SAAR to improve in the second half of the year. You mentioned that happened last year is that part of your expectation?

Mark LaNeve:

I'm not the economist in the room, but I'm the sales guys, so I'm an optimist. So obviously we're hoping for improvement in the SAARs. We work our way through

the year. That is exactly what happened last year. 

The economic backdrop, I talk with the dealers about this all the time. When needs would be low, it's still low; unemployment, interest rates gas prices, when

needs would be high, it's still high, consumer confidence, the housing market is nowhere near to historic highs, average age of the vehicles on the road is still over

11 years, average age of pickups half of them on the road are over 11 years. So, lots of reason to believe that we've got a very strong industry to run at.

Erich Merkle:

I think it's important to that our guidance industry sales remain unchanged.

Colin Langan:

Okay. And lastly, any color on your performance in the car segment do you think you lost share there, and any rationale, maybe it was pricing in that segment

more aggressive than normal, any color there broadly?

Mark LaNeve:

Our market share on Fusion has held very steady going back really time I've been in job, which is '15 and '16, has been incredibly steady. Segmentation of moving

passenger cars into SUVs and into some extended pickup trucks is now very strong five-year trend with no indication of slowing down anytime soon. So, the

passenger car side of market is getting hit by segmentation trends, which are really consumer preference trends and to some extent that really plays into Ford's

wheelhouse, because we're incredibly strong in SUV and truck and van part of the market.

Colin Langan:

Got it okay. Thank you very much. 

Operator:

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Johnson with Barclays.

Unidentified Analyst:

Hi this is Dan on for Brian good morning. 

Mark LaNeve:

Hey, Dan. 

Unidentified Analyst:

Hey thanks for taking the question. Just first one on crossovers I know we've seen a tremendous mix shift from cars to crossovers. So I'm just wondering if you

could comment on the competitive dynamics within the space. It seems like a very saturated and fragmented market and we have more capacity coming on line

we've already seen some pricing pressure emerge I mean, I think 1Q pricing was down 1%. 

So, do you see anything which could keep prices steady in the segment near or mid-term and I mean does mix get any richer what helps that segment?

Mark LaNeve:

I think Dan that consumer preference right now is what's really driving the segment. If you think about in a very simplistic level with crossovers, SUVs, you get the

higher eating position, you gave great visibility, you get great utility, generally speaking very good all weather performance, which is important to many customers,

great safety features. And now, not that long ago customers had to make trade-offs in terms of fuel economy, ride and handling characteristics, technology, some

safety features. And now, in our Ford SUV lineup, they don't have to make any of those trade-offs. 

You get excellent fuel climb, we have all the technology. And so, we see this as a continuing trend. Our research indicates that baby boomers' age prefer these

vehicles. 

At the same time, the millennials starting to eventually get married and have families, they prefer these vehicles. So, we think that there is great buoyancy currently

in the market, that's obviously showing up in the numbers and that continues for a number of years. And splintering and leading into new segments is always

happens in the car business and we think that we're going to continue to see new segments emerge with more SUV type characteristics versus more crossover

characteristics and we're on record at Ford that we're going to be entering with overall new nameplates in the SUV category over the next four years. So, we plan

to fully participate in that growth.

Unidentified Analyst:

So, you think within that segment consumer preference will override sort of increasing competitive dynamics in the area?

Mark LaNeve:

Absolutely. 

Unidentified Analyst:

Okay, thank you. And then one follow-up, just on the pickup side obviously very strong pickups for large very strong ATPs for large pickups and I think your ATPs

are not far off your historical highs, as best as I can tell. Just wondering in terms of F-150, would you say that your mix is normalized where you'd expected. I mean

any sense of today what your mix looks like versus three F-150 changeover high level trim vehicles or richer mix variants such as crew cabs?

Mark LaNeve:

Great question. Last year, we ran an incredibly rich mix with the start up of the all-new F-150. So, we are to a large extent, at a much more normalized level. But in

general, over matter of several years, not just the previous F-150 to the current, we've seen increasing consumer preference for higher content load, feature load

in the vehicles and higher trim series. 

So, it's slightly higher than I would say over historical five, six-year pattern. But last year was just abnormally high mix just based on the cadence of the plants

coming up on which configuration they could build, which were early on, largely our King Ranch and up level variant and up level vehicles.

Unidentified Analyst:

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Mark LaNeve:

Thank you.

Operator:

Our next question comes from the line of John Murphy with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

John Murphy:Bank of America Merrill Lynch:

Good morning, guys. 

Mark LaNeve:

Good morning, John.

John Murphy:

Just two questions. First, I was just curious, I mean I don't think it's impacting you that much but it might be to some extent, these stop sale orders that are going

across the industry for the kind of airbag and potentially some of the recalls. Just curious what kind of an impact you think that's having on your sales or really

more importantly overall sales and if you maybe benefiting from that it sounds like it's almost 2% to 3% hickey on total sales from what we're hearing. And then the

second question is as we look at the BEA adjustment factors for calculating the SAAR, it seems a little bit wacky because if you look at the seasonally adjusted

year-over- year change in sales, it sounds like it's going to be about flat and last year the SAAR in May was 17.6 and now we're talking about on a light vehicle

basis. 

Now, we're talking about light vehicle SAAR that's going to be close to 17 or just above 17 million units. So, it's kind of really deflating the month in a sort of an

unfair way it seems. So just curious if you could comment on the stop sale and what you think is going on with BEA seasonal factors?

Mark LaNeve:

On the second part, I'll let Erich comment on the overall SAAR, but I can tell you that it'd be impossible for me to quantify Ford certainly for the industry and even

before the impact of all the activity that's related to the Takata airbags. I could tell you that we discussed with our dealers frequently because our desire is to make

sure that we answer customers' questions that we take care of our customers, that we have really strong notification policies in place and do everything possible to

remedy those situations out there. So, our dealers do a heck of a job on what's been an uncomfortable situation for the industry where we continue to try to take

care of these issues as quickly as we can. I don't know Erich if you want to comment on the SAAR.

Erich Merkle:

Sure. In terms of the SAAR, we see somewhat of the similar thing that you're seeing, John. I mean SAAR is not perfect as you well know. So, if we just take a look

at the industry and where it is running, before we got on the call, we were chatting a little bit and we look at year-to- date, the industry is up about 1% is what we

believe, it's up about 1% year-to- date over a record year of last year. 

So, we still think the industry is quite healthy.

John Murphy:

Okay, great. Thank you very much. 

Erich Merkle:

Okay, thank you. Stephanie, we're going to take one more call from the analysts, then we're going to change over to the folks in the media please.

Operator:

Certainly, sir. Your next question comes from the line of Itay Michaeli with Citi. City.

Justin Barell:Citi:

Great, thanks guys. This is actually Justin on for Itay. How's everyone doing?

Mark LaNeve:

Hey Justin, how are you? 

Justin Barell:

Good. So, I just had a quick housekeeping question. I apologize if I missed it before, but just kind of wondering, can you give some color with regards to the large

pickup ATPs for both Ford and the industry, and maybe some incentive trends that have been progressing for that segment as well?

Mark LaNeve:

Sure, we can do that. So, if you take a look at the overall industry, Justin, the industry in terms of incentive spend on a year-over- year basis is up about $170 to

$180 and if we take a look at it sequentially compared to April, this is up about $50, so not really material. If we look at the ATPs, it tells a bit of a different story.

The ATPs seem to be doing quite well. 

So for the industry, it's up about $1,300 overall for the industry. And sequentially, of course the data isn't seasonally adjusted but sequentially it's down just a skosh

about $70 or so. When you take a look at got to get my F-Series here in front of me, if you give me just a moment.

Justin Barell:

Sure.

Erich Merkle:

So, if we take a look at F-Series, incentives were up about $1,200 last month versus May of 2015 and approximately it's about $4,200 per truck compared with

April 2016 F-Series incentives were up about $200. If you take a look at our average transaction prices, they ran at about 42,200 per truck last month and that was

down just slightly compared to April by about $200. So what you're seeing in some of that on year-over- year basis is that last year at this time we had virtually we

were are running on fumes on F-Series stocks. So, we had really pulled back on our incentive spend. 

And that's what you're seeing in the year-over- year change.

Justin Barell:

Prefect, great. Thank you guys so much for the color appreciate that. 

Erich Merkle:

You bet Justin anytime.

Operator:

That concludes the analyst portion of the call. We will now be moving into the media portion. As a reminder to ask a question please press than the number one

your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Christina Rogers with The Wall Street Journal.

Christina Rogers:Wall Street Journal:

Hi guys. Thanks for taking our questions. I was wondering, Mark, can you talk a little bit about the cadence to the month I mean did you see kind of showroom

traffic start also in pickup or vice versa. I mean how did that play out and also are you hearing from your dealers that they are having to do a little more to kind of

attract shoppers into dealership are you hearing any kind of step up effort from that front from your dealers?

Mark LaNeve:

Great question, Christina. The month was a lot like every month they are all competitive. One of the things about this business you miss it when you leave it which

I did for a couple of years is it's a hyper-competitive business. So, there hasn't ever been a month that's felt like easy street to me and some years, I could tell you

that. 

But the month played out fairly normally, was steady through the first part with a strong Memorial Day close. I think typically for the industry do a pretty big chunk of

the business in the last seven, eight days of May, depending where Memorial Day falls, last year being exception because it felt in the fourth week and our dealers

are continuing to compete. We talk to them extensively about what we need to do get better, particularly on our overall customer experience and simplifying our

configurations and our offers in the marketplace, making it easier to shop online. But, I'll get to the answer to your question; I am not trying to avoid it. 

I's always been competitive, and we're always striving to do better on behalf of the dealers and our customers.

Christina Rogers:

Are you feeling any pricing pressure from competitors, in particular the Asian car makers?

Mark LaNeve:

Not anymore so than I would have seen in the 15 months of that business job. It's been really competitive. And you'll see may be a little more where there will be

some regional incentives that will pop up where little bit more regional activity where competitors might be attacking certain geographic area; we do the same thing

frankly on a selective basis, but nothing abnormal to what I've seen for the past a year and a half.

Christina Rogers:

Okay. Thank you very much.

Mark LaNeve:

Thank you. 

Operator:

Your next question comes from the line of Nick Bunkley with the Automotive News.

Nick Bunkley:Automotive News:

Hi, good morning. I saw in your car inventory numbers that you've given, gone from 217,000 in February down each month since than three months in a row down

to 178,000, meanwhile your car sales have gone down quite a bit as well. How are you doing that I guess is that just how much you've cut production in some of

those models or are you spending more from Hermosillo and Flat Rock to other markets or how are you doing both at the same time?

Mark LaNeve:

Nick, its more a matter of the segmentation that we're seeing so far this year is pretty much what we plan. So, it's not a matter, so much matter of cutting

production is where we are running our production facilities more or less to the plan, which was we've increased shift of our overall production, increased in utilities

and trucks and planned lower levels on cars. 

And you might have to make some tweaks here and there based on near term sales but there hasn't been anything and you haven't seen from us any kind of

dramatic adjustments. This has been planned for through a very extensive process and segmentation is played out pretty much as we predicted, may be little

weaker in CD cars and little stronger in some of the SUV and truck categories, but pretty much as we saw the as we saw the market and we've put a business plan

together, say, six months ago.

Nick Bunkley:

Okay. And when you look at those car segments and incentives in there, I know they've gotten high in the industry in some of those segments. How do you

approach that when you don't want to be - people away from your SUVs into those cars necessarily but you still want to keep those cars moving?

Mark LaNeve:

We have a very purposeful process driven by a high degree of analytics in terms of our overall incentive spend, which is part of our whole pricing or market

equation and we try to be competitive for each of our car lines on transaction price MSRP, our APR offers to Ford Credit, our leasing programs to Ford Credit with

a market basket of key competitors and we strive to be competitive and be very efficient in the marketplace but provide great value for the customers, and that's

the way we do our business and plan our incentive spend and we're going to continue to do it.

Nick Bunkley:

Alright, thank you.

Operator:

Your next question comes from the line of Keith Naughton with Bloomberg.

Keith Naughton:Bloomberg:

Good morning.

Mark LaNeve:

Good morning, Keith.

Keith Naughton:

I just want to ask sort of a little bit of a step back question. During the recession, Alan Mulally added cars to the lineup and now you have difficult times selling

them. I am just wondering if your lineup is in balance with the market or if you have too many cars in the lineup?

Mark LaNeve:

Well, Keith, primarily from a volume standpoint, we're focused on Fusion. So, I think if you look across the industry that's I wouldn't call it too many cars in lineups.

We have Fiesta and we have Taurus that are important vehicles for us, but operate more in what's become niche part of the markets. And we have very

competitive car lineup. 

But however, many years ago when they were filling out the portfolio, I mean things changed. So, we really like where we stand with cars but we are very happy

with where we are positioned from both the portfolio and favorable opinion and just what I call power market presence with our SUV truck and van lineup. And right

now that's what consumers want. So, that's where we're leaning in, in terms of future additional products, at least in the near-term, because as we said, we're

going to be adding four SUVs in the next four years.

Keith Naughton:

Thank you.

Erich Merkle:

Thank you. Stephanie, we're going to take one more caller, then we're going to wrap things up.

Operator:

Your final question comes from the line of Megan Lampinen with Automotive World.

Megan Lampinen:Automotive World:

Hi guys, thanks sorry one last question. 

Mark LaNeve:

Hi, Megan.

Megan Lampinen:

Sorry it's another question on segmentation. I'm just interested, and whether you think that the volumes we're seeing in the car segment, we just had a 25% fall. Is

this suggesting a new normal in the years ahead, the level that we're starting to see?

Mark LaNeve:

The best way I can equate that Megan is roughly five years ago, six years ago, passenger cars were about 53% of the overall industry. Last year, I believe they

were 42%; this year, it's looking like close to 40%. Do we see that rate of decline slowing a little bit? Yes. But, we don't see it stopping, I can tell you that. 

So however that ends up equating into the monthly numbers is how it's going to equating into monthly numbers, we're going to continue to try to compete and gain

share in passenger cars. But certainly, in the end, the consumers are boss and they're deciding where they want to put their hard earned dollars. And we're

certainly going to put our investment and lineup our portfolio that way.

Megan Lampinen:

Okay I understand. Thank you.

Mark LaNeve:

Thank you.

Erich Merkle:

Thank you very much, Stephanie and it's pleasure working with you today and thank you everyone for joining the call. We'll look forward to talking to you again

next month when we report June sales and until then, everyone have a great month. Thank you very much.

Operator:

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.