All They Do Is Win [At Least in February]

The Wall Street Journal
"GM February Sales Surge" by John Kell

Finally, there is something to bring happiness to the car industry again. General Motors saw an increase of 46 percent in auto sales last month. This increase is a result of retail sales that were fueled by incentives as well as an upswing in the nation's economy. Also, the other five major auto makers also listed major sales increases from the previous month and the previous year. At the beginning of the month, online car-shopping websites predicted that February would be a great month of the auto industry; these percentages validate that prediction. The remainder of the article gives a very detailed break down of the brands and their cars and their performances during the month. It was quoted that having the right cars in stock, aggressive advertising strategies and a targeted consumer market was the key combination to the industry's success. It also goes on to announce that GM's achievements this month mark its strongest performance within the industry in more than a decade: it was its first annual profit since 2004 and its best yearly performance since 1999.

Finally, there are some negatives in the article. The final quarter showed the slimmest profits for GM. Nevertheless, it is still a profit, and they knew this would be the case as a result increased spending on new vehicles, decreased production of high-margin trucks and increased costs. Also, there was one auto company that saw a decrease in profits: Ford's Lincoln decreased eleven percent from last February.


This is a great article for boasting the morale of the auto industry. It shows consumers that citizens are buying cars more frequently and that General Motors is starting to turn around again. On the other hand, this article is too cluster by numbers and percentages. There is a better way to relay this information in such a way that is more relatable and understandable for readers. I know The Wall Street Journal has more of a following from business-minded people, but I still think some of the numbers lose their significance within this article. Also, if the article is titled to be about General Motors, then the writer should have given more attention to this auto company. Too much of the content revolves around the increased performance of the industry as a whole. If this were the real focus, then the writer should have titled his article something more fitting for this content. All in all, I am glad to see that the auto industry is starting to turn around and had a great month this February and am glad that someone is reporting this information to the country, but I still think that the information gathered was not presented in the best way. The writer's angle would have been better suited and probably better received if the information had been placed in a graph with a caption at the bottom. Looking at it this way, most readers would have absorbed more of the information that way because attention spans are not long enough anymore to read a bunch of numbers in paragraph formats.