Motoryzacja

It's brutal out there. So says the nation's largest seller of Detroit's cars and trucks, Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, which owns 317 dealerships for virtually every foreign and domestic brand in 15 states.

Mike Jackson, the CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation — the nation's largest seller of domestic cars and trucks — on Thursday praised General Motors Corp.'s decision to shut down its factories for up to 9 weeks to reduce inventory, calling it "the best news of the week."

Citing the ongoing credit crisis, a sour economy and swelling inventories, the nation's largest seller of Detroit's new cars and trucks, AutoNation Inc., said Monday that it has ordered 60% fewer vehicles during the next three months than a year ago.

The nation needs to put new tax on gasoline in place to encourage consumers to buy hybrid and electric vehicles, Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc. said today at an automotive industry conference in Detroit.

The six big publicly traded U.S. auto retailers -- which own more than 1,000 auto dealerships and sold about 6% of the nation's 2.5 million new cars and trucks during the first quarter -- have been enjoying big gains in profits.