Meet the Street: The Auto Industry Gears Up for 2002

Sure, last year was the second-best year ever for U.S. auto sales, with about 17.2 million cars and trucks being sold in the U.S.

But much of those sales came from excess inventories and were driven by costly incentive programs, neither of which was good for auto companies' earnings, says Wendy Beale Needham, managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston.

According to Needham, despite the strong sales numbers, auto production was actually down between 10% and 12% in 2001. But for 2002, she's looking for production to be down just slightly to perhaps up a little, which would be good news for the stocks of the Big Three automakers and their suppliers. ...