The auto industry fueled much of this buying frenzy with its zero-percent financing program, of course. GM rarely discounts the Corvette, so when the company included it in the new financing deals, sales jumped more than 60 percent. Trucks fared even better. Ford sold 102,000 F-series pickups in October, marking the first time that a pickup truck passed the 100,000 per month mark. In fact, Ford pickups were the biggest-selling vehicle of any kind for the month.
It seems incongruous that, at the same, manufacturers say they will spend less on assembly technology next year than they did this year. According to ASSEMBLY magazine¿s sixth annual capital equipment spending survey, U.S. assembly plants will spend a total of $2.13 billion on new equipment during 200220 percent less than the $2.66 billion projected to be spent during 2001.