Ok,

So when I take my wife to Nashville next week, we'll stay over in a Howard Johnson's (for our non-USA friends, there are a series of commercials about people sleeping at this hotel chain and waking up fresh enough to perform major surgury ... At the risk of turning this into a political instead of a joke comment, any questions about USA healthcare attitudes?)

Bob Wilson

I hope they build some PHEV versions there.

Hope things work out and the plan can go into operational status soon. Would be nice to buy a US built Prius!

"When the recovery hits full stride" is a pretty non-commital, vague term. If we are talking Prius sales, the "recovery" is already in full stride, they have a back log of orders in Japan, and NOT having to export as many to the US would help meet that demand.

If we are talking "full stride" recovery of the automotive industry? That might be a much longer wait. US or Global full stride recovery could be years away.

What's troubling to me is that it's a bit of a catch-22, unless companies start expanding, opening up plants and hiring, we will never get to that full stride recovery.