“Autos have been a bright spot for the economy all year long and we see that trend continuing.”
~Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations for GM

We didn’t get here by accident.

On November 19th, 2008 – Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in the NY Times called “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” – he wrote HERE:

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Obama decided to have the government give a loan to the car companies instead which was a ballsy move.  Had that deal gone bad … you know conservatives would have blamed President Obama for wasting billions in taxpayer funds.  But the decision he made saved millions of jobs from the manufacturing plants to the parts factories to the retailers all the way around.  The auto industry is a HUGE part of the American economy.  So – after that worked …. Romney had to backtrack.  In fact he actually TOOK CREDIT for the auto industry coming back.  That takes some real cajones.  We wrote about that HERE:

“I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy.  And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet.  So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.”
~Mitt Romney

Mark Perry – a professor of economics at the University of Michigan – gives us the numbers HERE:

As predicted several weeks ago by J.D. Power based on the first 16 selling days of August, U.S. new car sales did reach a four and-a-half year high last month.  Slightly more than 14.5 million units were sold in August (at an annual rate, seasonally adjusted), which was an increase of 20% from a year earlier (exactly as predicted by J.D Power), and the highest sales month since March 2008.  By individual auto company, Honda had the largest annual increase of 59.5% in August, followed by Volkswagen at 48.2%, and Toyota at 45.6%.  Chrysler led the Big Three with a 14.1% increase, followed by Ford’s 12.6% gain and GM’s 10.1% increase.  On a year-to-date basis, U.S. auto sales are 14.7% above last year.

The Wall Street Journal says U.S. car sales are “surging” HERE:

Meanwhile – Mitt Romney’s campaign just came out with the famously debunked Janesville, Wisconsin lie.  The Romney campaign REALLY wishes the auto industry wasn’t doing well … they’re trying to will it to be so, but a wishing for something doesn’t make it so.

Politifact has rated the claims in this video FALSE HERE.

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