Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Procurement, Penske
Search every verified James Albertine interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. James Albertine, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Procurement at Penske, commented on the auto industry in September 2019. Discussing General Motors, Albertine said he found it "hard to see how" then-President Trump could "legally" remove GM's subsidies, noting that any such action "would take probably sometime" and would face appeals. He described GM's decision to pull out of car production as "many years in the making" and "a when decision," adding that Ford had already made a similar choice. Albertine stated that the move was "in the best interest of GM" and that a lot of autonomous vehicle development "remains in the United States." In a separate appearance, Albertine said that while auto stocks and valuations suggested a recession, from "the front lines" he did not feel that way, citing "very strong activities" and new SUV and truck products selling "extraordinarily well at record transaction prices." He noted that credit was "widely available" and that the industry did not feel "anywhere near a recession." Albertine also observed that people unable to rationalize a monthly payment for a new vehicle were transitioning to late-model used vehicles, which he said was not a suggestion of a "precipice of a major decline."
“I think we're in a recession when you look at auto stocks and valuations I don't feel that way you know from sitting on the front lines if you will a leadership level you know we're seeing a lot of very strong activities.”
“New products on the SUV and the truck side are selling extraordinarily well at record transaction prices credit is widely available it just doesn't feel as though we're anywhere near a recession again from the front lines.”
“We're looking very closely at tariff discussions and trade and the potential you know to have to pass through you know those price implications in the form of higher transaction prices at the dealer level.”
“Broadly you know we're seeing rationale for reasonably rational inventory levels I would even go so far as to say that you know we don't have enough inventory for the higher demand products on the SUV in the truck side.”
“On the car side you know there has been this lower maybe that sometimes a little faster but it's sort of a steady decline and transition from cars to crossover utility vehicles.”
“If you take a step back right the two things that we have to balance right are sort of what I said mentioned I mentioned earlier record high transaction price and we are in a rising rate environment right so we got away with having higher and higher transaction prices when rates were close to zero now they're going up.”
“You're naturally saying I think some delinquencies there but broadly you know where people aren't able to sort of rationalize a monthly payment for a new vehicle or a new lease you know we're seeing them transition to a late model used vehicle so I don't think that's a suggestion that we're on the precipice of a major...”
“People are making sort of rational decisions around monthly payments and transitioning between a two or three-year old used vehicle versus a brand new record expensive record high price new vehicle.”
“I would think on the order of magnitude of maybe five to ten thousand dollars equivalent the unit in terms of production for electric vehicles specifically, and again it would be hard to estimate what the negative impact would be if there was ever a removal of truck tariffs.”
“It would put a cost burden on the companies already facing cost burdens from fuel efficiency investments and safety and connectivity and so forth.”
“In their key segments and key margin drivers it would be the domestics, you know Ford and Chrysler Fiat Chrysler, but hard to see how this could be undertaken legally as well.”
“This would not be something that I don't think happens overnight but would take probably some time, probably be drawn out, there would be appeals and so forth.”
“Effectively the president is saying GM you're in my crosshairs, that's what this move is.”
“GM announced yesterday was many years in the making and in the coming side I don't think it was sort of a if it was a when decision they had to at some point make a decision to pull out of cars.”
“Ford already made this decision and Ford doesn't seem to be in the same crosshairs.”
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