COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Has the wind or just a breeze returned to the sails for Detroit's big three automakers?
On the national scale, two of Detroit's big three have reported financial gains for October: GM is up 4.7 percent and Ford is up 3.3 percent.
"We're not popping champagne bottles yet. I think we're out of the swamp. We're on dry land. We have a long way to go, but it does feel a lot better, Chris Haydocy, president of Haydocy Automotive, said.
"It's something we haven't seen since the end of the cash for clunkers program -- people actively looking to purchase a brand-new car."
Haydocy credited a couple reasons for the slow shift into second gear.
"Well, consumer confidence and the fact that people stayed away from new car showrooms for about 20 months. There's a little bit of pent up demand," Haydocy said.
Ricart Ford has seen a 5 percent gain locally from this time last year, nearly a 2 percent increase above last month's national average.
"In fact, we're up 8 percent over the projection to where we were supposed to be," Ricart's Jim Moshier said.
Both GM and Ford dealerships also affirmed that 2010 products have sparked people's interest.
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