IHS analyst says auto industry recovery won’t be a quick 1

On the Call: IHS Global Insights analysts

While it appears that the U.S. auto industry may have hit bottom, it won’t recover from its woes quickly, an analyst for IHS Global Insight said Thursday.

“The recovery over the next six months is going to be very, very slow and very, very anemic not only for the auto manufacturers but also the suppliers,” said George Magliano, director of North American Automotive Industry Research for IHS’ Global Automotive Group, during a conference call.

Magliano said the industry’s recovery also will be complicated by the continued problems in the financial industry.

Both the U.S.-based and foreign automakers have seen their sales tumble over the past year as economic woes cut into consumer spending and turmoil in the credit markets made it tough for many people to buy a new vehicle.

But consumer attitudes began to change recently, he said.

“Even before the Cash for Clunkers program people were looking at the automotive market in a much more positive way,” Magliano said. “The consumer was poised and ready to go and then the program fell right in.”

Magliano argued that the program has done more than just pull forward sales that would have been made down the road, noting that many of its participants probably would have bought a used car instead of a new car if not for the cash incentive.