Auto industry executives buckling down as summer fades will be under pressure to make hay while the sun shines because there’s no telling how much longer the recovery from the industry’s 2009 collapse has to run.
The climate now is as favorable for auto makers as it has been in years. Interest rates remain unusually low, oil prices are remarkably stable and consumers in the world’s two largest car markets—the U.S. and China—are snapping up sport-utility vehicles, luxury cars and, in the U.S., big pickup trucks, the most profitable vehicles most car makers sell.