Auto Sales Pick Up Pace Despite Rising Gas Prices

Auto Sales Pick Up Pace Despite Rising Gas Prices
By Nick Bunkley at The New York Times
March 2nd, 2012
This article, even though the title sounds boring, is actually a very interesting piece that is full of good information. The whole point of this article is to inform its audience that automakers have sold more cars in the month of February since the recession started in 2008. Nick wrote this with a very fact claim article in mind. Pretty much the whole article is facts, there is maybe two paragraphs oh his own words. I think this is a very effective way to inform your audience what is really going on.
A interesting statistic that he gives is that, Chrysler had a 40 percent increase in their sales in February. The company was also greatly helped by its widely discussed ad featuring Clint Eastwood during the Feb. 5 Super Bowl, sold 126 percent more passenger cars. I read that and thought that is crazy! One ad during the Super Bowl can do that for a company. He also explains that Ford reported a 14% gain, Toyota and Honda a 12% gain, Nissan's 16% gain, and Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Kia, Suzuki, and Jaguar Land Rover each reported increases of more than 30 percent. Giving statistics like that are very effective in a article. At the very end, he says that "the average age of a vehicle on the road today is 10.8 years, the highest on record, according to the research firm R.L. Polk." This statement that he made as his last sentence made me wonder if he wrote the article to sound like we are climbing out of the recession, but then wait the real reason our automobile sales have improved is because the average age of a car being used today is close to 11 years old, so it is time for people to buy a new car before it dies on them. I think this article is very well written and I thought I had it all figured out until I read that last sentence.

-Anna Srock