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Detroit's on a roll. But can it last?...   >>>

Detroit's on a roll. But can it last?



American auto brands Chevrolet and Ford are outselling Toyotas in the United States for the first time in years, thanks to a new stable of better designed and more reliable cars. General Motors Co., meanwhile, has become the top foreign automaker in the fast-growing Chinese market.



At the same time, painful cost cuts — including trimming employment and health expenses, and rewriting union contracts — have fattened the bottom line for domestic automakers, with General Motors and Ford Motor Co. earning nearly $4 billion combined in their most recent quarterly reports.

That's a figure that was once "unimaginable" considering that total U.S. auto sales were only 11.6 million last year, still near historic lows, said David Cole, a longtime industry analyst and chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.



And that's why the mood is decidedly upbeat among the executives who are gathering this week in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show.



[read more about car industry projections for the upcoming year in the LA Times article linked below]