phil lebeau is in new york. we'll get to him in just a second. first to diana olick in chicago where we're getting an exclusive look at the home of the future. can't wait, diana. >> reporter: well, it's true, sue. look, it uses the most unique form of market research i've ever seen. it's literally built the frames of 11 full houses, upstairs and downstairs. they've decked them out with the cardboard kitchens. they've got the paper-made fireplaces. they've even mapped out in tape on the floor where your furniture might go. so it's like a housing crime scene. what they're doing is they're running focus groups through these models, finding out what their buyers want and of course what they don't want. >> it makes me want to buy a new home, that's for sure. i saw nice floor plans in here today. the idea that they're not decorated already can give you a sense of how you would decorate the homes rather than looking at a house and seeing it already decorated, that's something that's not your style. >> i like the work station for the kids and then having

as phil lebeau shows us how well ford is doing of late.nterest rates, pretty much looking at everything through glasses that just see better activity. it's going to be for the marketplace to decide is it better activity genuine and sustainable. look at a chart going back to july 1st of 2011 because the five-year yesterday served pushed back bon a new high yield close. tens and 30s are not quite there yet. as you look at two-day chart of tens you can see that we're hovering popping through the 290 area. but if you open the chart up to july, what you can see is currently we have a 285. the record going back to july in a ten-year close is 289 from the third week in august. for a 30, 392. currently at 377. you can see some curve gyration, especially between tens and 30s. let's look overseas. two-day boon. knocking at the door into the 190s. what's very interesting, open this chart up to march of last year. that was the last time we were at 2%. so we continue to see a comp back on the boon to march of last year. foreign exchange, well, the doll

phil lebeau has more. >> reporter: this is the future of flying, paying for drinks, food or on-board entertainment like a movie. >> if you're on the plane for that long, you like to have some extra comfort. >> whether it movie or making the time go by, we're all so used to something. we don't just sit and wait our flight to arrive at its destination. >> reporter: what are people buying in the sky? guestlogix says 58% of the revenue north american airlines collected in the first half of this year was for drinks, primarily alcohol. 38% was for food, and 4% was for things like in-flight movies, headsets or seat upgrades. >> in terms of liquor sales, you see certain destinations that definitely have higher sales per flight in those segments, like flights to vegas, on the way to vegas for sure there's higher average sales by almost double. >> reporter: in fact, the number one money making route in the continental u.s. is between detroit and las vegas, ringing up an average of $179 in drink sales every flight. >> i was on a flight to vegas just recently, last week. a lot of people, you kno

phil lebeau has more on the cautious tones found on shop floors. >> reporter: just west of chicago, it looks like business as usual. but the company is seeing a slowdown in orders, and that's raising concerns. >> it's like running in mud these days, if you ask me. we're doing a lot of work, we're just not really making the progress we'd like to see. we had a good week last week, but i need to see at least six to eight more weeks of that before i get my own confidence back up. >> reporter: the uncertainty has prompted united display to delay buying new equipment and filling open job. >> just yesterday, my ceo said we have four open spots in the second shift. i said we've really got to see business pick up before we hire those guys back full time. >> reporter: the concern they have about the economy slowing down is a feeling being echoed at other small manufacturers around the country. which is one primary reason why many are holding back on spending and hiring right now. pay net, which tracks the investment of $17 million small businesses, says some manufacturers, like those in texti te

phil lebeau, "nightly business report," charlottesville, virginia. >>> and we begin market focus tonight with a warning from the world's largest air carrier. continental projecting third quarter revenue to come in below expectations. the company says lower fares on some overseas flights are responsible in the drop in price per seat mile. the stock fell 9% to $30.91. and shares of lumber liquidators were briefly halted this morning after the company said that federal agencies had raided its headquarters. a court-ordered search was related to certain wood flooring products that have been imported. lumber liquidators sells hardwood, bamboo, cork, and laminated flooring. the company says it is cooperating with authorities. shares dropped 5% to $107.30. >>> finish line reporting a jump in earnings and stronger sales and cost cutting. it also lifted its guidance for full-year sales. this athletic retailer says things are progressing well with its macy's business and trends are improving in its running business after the chain's largest product category. the stock rose 9% to $24.41. >>> and a s

coupons's phil lebeau is behind the wheel for us in charlottesville, virginia, with the results. hey, sue. i get this question a lot, do the collision avoidance systems work do they prevent accidents? the answer is yes, they do. they have proof to back it up. they have done the first crash test ever of collision avoidance systems. they're measuring two things, how long does it take for the system to warn drivers they're about to hit another car and also if there's auto brakes how quickly do the brakes kick in to slow the car down and prevent it from rear ending another vehicle. seven vehicles got superior ratings. the sue but ru legacy and outback, followed by the cadillac ats, cadillac srx and mercedes c class, volvo s 60 and volvo xc 60. there are 1.7 million crashes considered rear ender, that's the most recent statistics from the department of transportation looking at 2011. 31% of the injury crashes are rear-enders which is why the auto industry is spending more time developing these systems and people are realizing i'll pay to have that system put in my car. >> safety sells

there it is, taxiing and phil lebeau joins us now to narrate. phil?ler, what you're watching right now is the 787-9 getting in position to turn around here. there's a number of media here which you're probably seeing are some of the photographers who are here. they're going to turn the dreamliner around and then it is going to be coming towards us before it lifts off on its first flight. let me give you perspective on where the first flight will be. it's going to last approximately five hours. they are going to be going out over the coast and then sirc cling back and going east of seattle over moses lake, which is a traditional first flight test flight route for boeing planes, and then it will come back and it will land about five hours from now down in seattle and when it lands, then they will have a briefing and they'll talk about what the new dreamliner is like in its first flight. >> as i'm looking at the video, i don't know whether you can see it, it appears there is some sort of device suspended from the vertical stabilizer, the tail. am i seein

phil lebeau, what's been selling and what's not? >> everything has been sell, mandy, and i know that sounds clic cliche, but it's hard to find any dogs in the august sales numbers. take a look at all the major brands and what they did. you will see these increases in sales, anywhere between 12 and 22%, 23%. the important thing is to know that these are all anywhere between 5% and 7%, better than what wall street was expecting and bmw brand sales in the month of august, listen to this, up 45%. transaction price for the entire industry topping $31,000, close to an all-time high so what's driving what brought people into the showroom in the month of august? three things. stronger consumer confidence, heard this from all the auto executives on the sales conference call today, the best correlation to auto sales. a big labor day weekend because those are part of the numbers we're seeing today. saw huge traffic into the showrooms and lo interest loans and leases. put all of that together and more people, even those who might be struggling

phil lebeau. >> the uaw retirees are most interested in what happens with the ipo. the vee. -- veeba trust is where the funds will come from. we don't know the size or price, but the funds will come from the veeba trust. if funds are raised for ipo, they will go to uaw trust. keep in mind, there's a difference in valuation of chrysler. fiat says the stake we want to buy from veba, it's worth $1.75 billion. veba says, are you kidding us? it's worth at least $4.27 billion. they have to come together on the difference of opinion if this ipo is going to continue. take a look at shares of fiat and i want to chair them to general motors. the issue for fiat, it continues to lag other automakers because of issues it has as far as expanding production around the world. finally, this is going to be very interesting for a lot of people, guys. take a look at this. the alpha romeo 4-c coming to united states. a lot of people will be saying, wait, wasn't it supposed to be here already? now we're told by sources that, yes, the 4-c will be sold in the united states second quarter next year.

phil lebeau following the streams and the numbers, live for us in chicago. phil?ler, this is new data from jssi which basically services and maintains about 1600 corporate jets around the country. they have a pretty good sense of who's using their jet and where they're going around the world. they've broken it down by industry. this is q2 data, what stands out, corporate jet use in the second quarter up about 1% year over year. not a huge increase. up 3% quarter over quarter and an increase among industrial companies and in those sectors in the industrial complex, power and energy leading the way. increase of 35% in terms of use of the corporate jet. followed by consumer goods. reals estate no surprise given what we've seen with that sector if the first half and automotive up 10%. who's not using the corporate jet as much? well, tech firms. they saw a noticeable depreciation in the amount of time spent in the air on the corporate jet and financial firms slowing down their use of the jet in terms of where they're going around the world. and where are businesses fly

cnbc's phil lebeau is here with some of that detail for us. hi, phil. >> hi, sue. is all about sergio trying to get the best price possible to buy the remaining 41% of chrysler that fiat does not currently own. with that in mind, our kate kelly has been talking to some of the people on wall street who might be behind the chrysler ipo. j pchpmorgan is close to filing s-1. there will be others likely to join in. the approximate value, at least $1 billion. we say approximately, because the float is only going to be 17% of the company. now, ceo sergio has kept his ipo plan so quiet that earlier this week, there were some investment bankers who were saying i even doubt that they're going to file an ipo. he wants to buy the 41% of chrysler that is owned by the voluntary employee benefits association trust. that's the trust that the uaw owns which supply health care benefits for retirees. there is a disagreement between mr. marchionne and chrysler as a whole. had you look at shares of fiat which are down more than 20% if you go back to the time when they actually bought c

phil lebeau, what's hot right now? >> clearly the suvs and cuvs, and the thing to keep in mind we've got some numbers we gathered from the folks at truecars.com. the thing to keep in mind is 60 to 70-day supply. that's the target for automakers, but if you look at the hot cars right now in terms of those with the lowest day supply, well, you have to look first off at the subaru impreza wagon, just 15-day supply. next up, the mercedes g-class, talking about a lot of suvs. again, 15-day supply. the buick encore, just 16-day supply, and then you have the lincoln navigator, and, yes, lincoln's navigator in demand, 16-day supply and then the nissan xtera, 17-day supply, those are the hottest sellers in the market right now and a number of dealers around the country reporting spot shortages on certain models. it really depends on what you're looking for and how many that dealer has in stock. the tight supply means the dealers are offering few discounts so if you're going in and looking for a deal, forget about it, probably w

will get that from phil lebeau tomorrow.b meeting to see the rhetoric from draghi and jobless claims in the 330 range right there, kicking down from the 350 range where we've been stuck. ism manufacturing, that's the service sector looking pretty strong and the big one, non-farm payrolls with an unchanged unemployment. the way i look at it, those who think the data is strong enough to move, they are good and are ready to go and others agree it could be better, but they are not confident the enough in the outlook to take down the amount of qe right now, sue. >> steve liesman, master fisherman. what was the biggest fish you ever could the? ? >> an atlantic bluefin tuna on a fly rod. fishing fortuna is one where your wife says you can go however long you want because she wants sushi. >> back to simon. bertha coombs is tracking all the action today at the nymex. >> gold moving higher on the back of comments from president barack obama and house speaker john boehner saying he would support the president's call to act on syria, cl

cnbc's phil lebeau covers the auto industry. >> consumers are looking for the lowest monthly payment, and because of low interest rates and because of the deals being structured by automakers, many times you can get into a lease with a monthly payment of $200 or $215. >> reporter: one of the hottest selling cars, the ford fusion. to keep up with demand, ford has opened a new assembly line. tammy darvish runs one of the country's biggest dealership chains, 31 franchise selling ten different brands and says americans are no longer skittish about the price at the pump. >> well, i think consumers are used to it, and as long as we stay under the 4.50 level, they are used to the cyclical process. >> reporter: dick palmisano wasn't worried and drove off in his new suv. demand has been so strong, some dealerships have struggled to keep enough inventory on hand. it's a nice problem to have, but automakers want to make sure that the demand is there permanently before they start ramping up production. brian. >> tom costello on the sales floor for us tonight. tom, thanks. by the way, the big car

our own phil lebeau with an exclusive interview. phil? >> thank you, kelly.. this is really entering the sweet spot on the market you believe, flight. >> yes. we have 328 orders and the airplane is really phenomenal. >> when you look at the greater range, greater capacity for carrying passengers and 40% of your future back log is going to be this plane, what new markets is this likely to open up for airlines? >> it's the real ultra long range markets for the airlines. the 787-8 is kind of the path finder that opens up the markets and this airplane with the more capacity will start to pick up as the airlines increase the loads and the traffic. >> three of the last faour year did you not see the substantial increase in dreamliners. you have 88 this years. >> a lot of that was driven because we didn't have a lot of capacity. we were plugged up in terms of our deliveries. now we're seeing a little more. with the 786-10, we did an awful lot of orders there at the paris air show, about 110. we're excited about that one as well. >> you have going up to ten per month

. >> i'm phil lebeau.est to prevent you from a rear end accident? the answer may surprise you. that's coming up on "squawk on the street." with fidelity's options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies... to get a list of equity options... evaluate them with our p&l calculator... and execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. i'm greg stevens, and i helped create fidelity's options platform. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open ccount. >>> welcome back. a payout to executive, $80 million bid. let's bring in jim morman, equity analyst and mark, an analyst. jim, i want to start with you. your price target is at $9, which is right where they had the offer from fairfax potentially. is that because that's how much the company is worth or because that's the best option on the table for them at this point? >> a little both. that's where i valued the sum of th

phil lebeau is on the road in virginia.rter: hey, joe, we're at the insurance institute for highway safety on the crash test lab where they're going to be showing us in a little bit how you prevent rear end crashes and which systems do the best. you do not want to miss the results coming up when "squawk box" returns. [ music transitions to rock ] make it happen with the all-new fidelity active trader pro. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades when you open an account. >>> welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. the futures this morning have been under a little bit of pressure and continue there. right now, the dow futures down by about 40 points, s&p down by about 6 1/2. in our headlines, carlisle agreeing to make a minority investment. the terms of the transactions weren't disclosed. also announcing it has entered into an agreement to reacquire the minority stake held by htc. htc will no longer have any ownership stake. >>> and the share of lumber liquidators, the head

phil lebeau is here. nd michelle, we have data that was compiled by guest logics, a canadian firm that process in-flight purchases, more than $1 billion worth of transaction. here's what they found in the first half of the year in north america. overwhelmingly had people are buying on board, they're boying beverages, predominantly alcohol-related. 38% spend their money on food and 4% is for what they call comfort items. things like headphones or if you want to change your seat or in-flight movie or live tv. now, the fastest growth of all of these areas while beverage has the biggest chunk, the fastest growth does come from those passenger comfort items, up 19%. purchase overall on north american flights, what people are buying in flight, it hit a record high during the first half in part because people are buying more on those longer flights. >> the other thing is, what we're seeing is that on flights, again, back to that magic duration number of around 2 1/2 hours, we're seeing more and manager folks actu

phil lebeau joins us live from chicago with huge trends. over to you, phil. >> simon, i've gotten a lot of questions over the last 24 hours. people were saying, why is luxury so hot right now and why was it so strong last month? three reasons really stand out. first of all, when you look at the luxury auto market, keep in mind these guys have increased their marketing. there is a lot more advertising out there, they're trying to win over buyers. especially when you enter the marketing level, there is a battle going on from the ats, the is, and they're offering aggressive leasing programs. bmw jumped 45% last month. they're offering leases between $455, $500. luxury leases up overall 31% in august, and that's at the entry level. look at the number of vehicles sold for these entry-level models. strong across the board. in most case they were up compared to last year. the ats is new to the market, but already 3300 sold last month, and it's that new competition. that's what's also driving more agressive lease offers out there. at the end of the

phil lebeau has more on that story. phil?ple how do the fractional ownership companies attract new customers. one way of doing it, behind me the fuselage of the here 85 delivered in the middle of next year and flex jet in the process of being sold from bombbadia, private equity firm out taking this fuselage to cities around the united states and saying to the very elite customers in those cities you know what, this is what it's like to fly in the lear 85. when it goes to delivery next year, they're going to be attracting customers. sales by the way for flex jet up 96% in the first half of this year. and the president of the company says they're seeing a mix of both suite executives as well as young entrepreneurs. >> we are seeing in our own flight and demand an uptick that's 5% above what we even predicted and forecasted. our original forecast for this year, we hadn't planned on hiring as much as we're doing. >> so how much does it cost if you would like to be a five-year owner of a lear 85? you got to put down $1.1 million a

you heard phil lebeau talking about auto sales running at more than a 16 million annualized sales pace. we don't know if we'll keep it up, but right now very, very good. according to corelogic, home prices up in 49 of 50 states year to year. in case you're wondering, the one state they weren't, delaware, oddly enough. home prices doing well around the country, and finally ism manufacturing data was solid, and a cnbc contributor, mike greenhouse, called it a, quote, blowout. don't forget the nasdaq up 20% this year. so a lot of hat full of hopium on "street signs," but the good times won't roll forever. so it will be fair of us to ask what could help this. anika, we got to say the data habgood. but what do you see out there, whatever it might be, that makes you nervous? >> well, you know, we clearly saw some weaker numbers in housing. we had new home sales that came in weak in july. we also had single-family housing starts and permits that were also weak. but we think these are temporary factors that will be washed away by next month. the other thing to pay particular attention to is re

phil lebeau with more. >> a little help for those who like to have their blackberrys on.s an faa advisory panel is looking at. easing restrictions when it comes to using your electronics, particularly when it comes to landing and taking off. that's where the focus is for this panel that's been looking at this. do expect them to maintain a ban on in-flight calls from cell phone. that's not going to change. what might change, a couple of areas. one, if you're listening on an ipad or an ipod to music, ereaders, watching videos you've already downloaded, they'll likely say you can keep those on in the future. what will likely still be banned, sending and receiving e-mails, texting, using wi-fi. anything that sends out a signal, that will not sit well with airlines. this going to sit well with the airlines. >> i think so, absolutely. before we go, we have been teasing this and talking about this the whole show. sad news. what are you hearing? >> it's in production down in brazil. go to boulder, colorado, they're all over the place. go out to oregon and they're all over the pla

phil lebeau joining us with details. >> reporter: bill, the keyword there, allegedly.is something still in the planning phases for general motors. a lot of people are saying, wait a minute, don't they have the volt? aren't volt sales slowly improving? they are. the volt had the best month ever in the month of august in items of monthly sales. many will point out that sales increase came after the company announced a $5,000 price cut on the volt. now gm is saying it is working on an electric car with a range up to 200 miles. the challenge for gm and for all of the automakers, developing a smaller, more powerful battery for electric cars. the benchmark gm and everybody else is chasing, the tesla. model range of 280 miles fully charged and is developing a mass market electric vehicle that will cost around $35,000. tesla says that will be out within the next five years. as you compare shares of general motors and tesla, keep this in mind. tesla is actually developing that mass market electric vehicle, maria. general motors has said, we want to develop it. we're working on

-- being told to told off your cell phone, ipad, e-reader, new rules nor devices on planes and phil lebeau is in chicago with the details. hey, phil. >> we'll probably get these new rules the proposal at least by the end of this month. the faa has an advisory panel looking at this issue for a number of months and they're close to making some recommendations. essentially what they're doing is reviewing what the rules are in terms of use of electronics on planes, particularly takeoffs and landings. that's the area where there's most of the problems and basically going to call for a relaxation on the restrictions. so what will be allowed most likely and what will still be banned when you're on the airplane in terms of electronics. most likely what's going to be allowed, listening to ipads, e-readers, watching downloaded videos and podcasts. that's probably going to be okay. in the future, if you're thinking about sending an e-mail or a text or using wi-fi, taking off or landing that's likely to still be banned. the faa expects to maintain the ban on in-flight calls from cell phone. there's be

phil lebeau.nvestors focus on ford and general motor stocks, another name is trading at an all-ohio, autotrader. with shares of the company up 30% so far this year, is this the boast way to play the auto recovery. abigail and on the fundamental side is john stevenson with first asset management investment. john, you first. a lot of talk how strong auto sales are. how strong is autonation? >> i think you should sell it, up 30%. it's ridden the boone from 8 million cars to 16.2 million cars sold in the u.s. what's happening now the multiples 18.6 times, forward multiples about 17.3. it's an expensive stock. and margins really come under pressure. inventories on the lot are sitting at 67 days. it's up very substantially. margins in the new car business are down to 6% gross margins, the lowest ever. i think the margin story is working against it, inventory is working against it. this is an expensive story that i really see no room for growth. i don't see it going to 24 million cars sold. >> abigail, w

phil lebeau is live in new york city with general motors' cfo dan ammann for the first on cnbc interview. phil, take it away. >> thank you, scott. i am joined by dan ammann, the cfo of general motors, standing in front of the new chevy tahoe, i'm in front of the new suburban. big rigs as people like to call them. a lot of people might be surprised you're unveiling new, large suvs at a time where gas prices really haven't fallen that much, but you think this is a critical market you cannot ignore, right? >> this is a very important statement for us and for our customers. it's a 250,000 units a year. we have very strong position in the market. we have 75% of the market, so it's a very important segment for chevrolet and for general motors. and we're meeting customer needs with these new trucks. and all of the upgrades and refinement and improvements that are there, they're all things our customers are looking for. >> these are not inexpensive vehicles. the retail price is going to be well over $40,000 for both of the vehicles. when you ultimately announce pricing on it. transaction prices

. >> quickly going back to mulally, phil lebeau put out excellent points, why it wouldn't be that crazy for him to take over. he's a fan of the tech industry and my question is whether or not alan mulally at this stage of the gage would be ready to take on the challenge that would be microsoft. >> that would be dangerous. microsoft is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. you either stand up at the ballpark and you're known for the rest of the century our fail miserably, which may not necessarily be your fault because you couldn't stop the ship from sinking and you're known as taking down microsoft so i do own center point >> what about splitting microsoft up? a little bit self-serving as well because this is one of my 2013 predictions, that, you know, microsoft will not look the same as it was eight, nine months ago at beginning of the year at the end of the year. >> okay. >> is splitting up the answer? >> no, i don't think it's the answer. i think you're right it will not look the same and so far you are right. microsoft is becoming more of a solutions company and less of a software comp

phil lebeau is live in des plaines, illinois, just north of chicago. over to you. >> simep, this is one of the more unusual ipo filings. i've talked with a number of people in the auto industry and almost all of them say the same their. they're skeptical this will end up with chrysler having its stock listing. the ipo filing and details to keep in mind. it's for up to $100 million and that's the initial listing although many believe it could go higher than that. there's no pricing or number of shares slated for the chrysler ipo. but here's the huge issue, it all comes down to the chrysler stake and the value that is being placed on the stake that veba owns that fiat would like to buy. veba puts that 41% at $4.27 billion. for sergio markon, he has a standing offer to pay veba $6 billion. he would like to pay a lot lower than that. chrysler, also says that fiat could end the partnership with chrysler if this ipo is unsuccessful or in the future the company deems it needs to pursue other options. fiat needs chrysler because it needs that cash flow to expa

. >> by the way, folks, this is phil lebeau. >> i jumped the gun. >> it's great.eat. whenever we're talking portia, we're not talking porsche, we're talking gm. you're here. new important lines from gm. >> what we're talking about are the large suvs. you're talking about the suburban. the tahoe. yukon. yukon xl. gm dominates this category. gm unveiled the 2015 versions of the large rigs. they don't go on to sale until the first quarter of next year. pricing and mileage haven't been announced. it's critical for gm. not a huge category but they dominate it. look at the sales this year for the four large suvs that general motors makes. these are four of the five best selling suvs. and they're all up this year. that may surprise. >> what? the yukon xl is like a $70,000 vehicle. >> not surprising that it's up. you know why? in this category if you want a people mover that's going to carry seven, eight people, what are you choices out there? a limited number of choices. everybody else is pulling back. gm saying we'll go in. >> it's it ironic we were talking a moment ago

phil lebeau has the story. >> reporter: you look at august auto sales, the best pace since november 2007. officially the sales pace last month coming in at 16.09 million vehicles. that's not total sales. that's the pace of sales. and again, that's the strongest since the november of '07. who led the way? the japanese big way -- honda, toyota, nissan, all posting sales gains of greater than 22%. you see mercedes with 20.5%, gm 14.7. everybody much better than expected. on the luxury side. look at the sales numbers from bmw. sales last month jumped 45%, overall luxury auto sales up 31.5%. that's practically double what the industry sales growth was last month. the ford f-series, this is one stat that caught my attention today. ford sold an f-series pickup every 42 seconds in the month of august. it's raising production in the fourth quarter not just for the f-series but all vehicles by 7%. take a look at shares of ford and gm. they had a huge day today. maria, it's not often you see ford and gm up 3% or 4% in a single day, but both of those stocks are up today on the backs of the best auto

. >> the good news is we're 110 points higher on the dow on one of the major reasons for that, phil lebeau in chicago, is now what the best automotive sales in a month for almost six years. >> yeah. you're looking going back to 2007, simon. this is one of those infliction points that traders need to pay attention to because there are some who are saying from here on out the auto industry should be above a monthly sales pace of 16 million vehicles. at least that's the estimate of one gm executive and they are on pace, the industry as a whole, on pace for greater than 16 million vehicles for the month of august. that would be the strongest monthly sales pace since mid-2007. take a look at all of these automakers. the key thing to keep in mind here, all of these sales coming in anywhere between 5 boston and 7% above what analysts were expecting. pickup trucks continue to be a big driver for the big three. in fact, in the month of august pickup sales were up anywhere between 15% and 29% depending on the brand you're talking b.ford sold an f-series pickup truck every 42 second in the month of a

president emerry tis of public citizen and former administrator and with us cnbc's auto reporter phil lebeautart with you. i was shocked by the fact that each year, more than 200 individuals are killed and 18,000 people are injured in these backover crashes. >> well, that's true. and it's very sad and it can be remedied. and there is a very obvious system which are backup cameras and they're already in the marketplace. the industry has produced them. they work beautifully. the public loves them. yet the department of traps portion even though it's been told by the congress to issue a rule over two years ago, to require them on all cars, they have not done so and they indicate they're not going to act until 2015 and so we felt we had no choice but to sue because the law has been unreasonably delayed. >> phil, a lot of new cars that you see out there do come with those backup cameras already, but not all of them. >> not all of them. it's prevalent right now. that's what's frustrating not only the groups suing the d.o.t. but the public when you bring this up. everybody is saying the technology

phil lebeau has the latest from chicago. uctant move by a company here to go public. >> they really had their hand forced by the veba trust, that said, let's do an ipo. let's see how the market values this company. that's the huge issue when you look at the chrysler ipo. if it even happens. both chrysler, the owner, fiat, as well as the veba trust, where the shares are coming from, they have to agree on the valuation of 41.5% of chrysler. that's what veba own, which fiat would like to own. $2.5 billion in terms of how they value the stake versus what veba values it. for the ceo, he wants to own all of chrysler and he wants to get it for the lowest price possible, because he needs the cash flow to fund the expansion, not only of chrysler but of fiat as well. when you look at chrysler, look at this company. a lot of people say, well, it's a global automaker. well, it's global in name, but not really in terms of sales. very small in terms of global sales. most of the sales are in the u.s., canada, and mexico. and there you see t

our phil lebeau has more on that this morning. hey, phil. >> reporter: hey, carl.m the bankruptcy court here in new york city. it's been long expected that the bankruptcy court would say, yeah, everything's in place for this merger, for this post-bankruptcy merger to go through. but remember, all of this is contingent upon a federal judge in washington, in a separate case, ruling on the department of justice filing an antitrust suit against amr and u.s. air, trying to block that merger. so essentially what you have is amr coming out of bankruptcy with u.s. air. if that merger is approved or is not blocked in that suit in washington, d.c. so that's the news that just came out. the reason we're here in new york city today, general motors unveiling the 2015 versions of the chevy suburban, the chevy tahoe, and we're going to be talking about gm's cfo, dan hammond, coming up first on cnbc on the "fast money halftime report." don't miss what he has to say about a number of topics, including the possibility of a return of the dividend to general motors shareholders. >> mm

phil lebeau joins us with another first on cnbc interview. phil, go ahead. >> thank you, becky. i want to bring in john leahy in charge of slly sales in boeing. john, i'm looking over what you're expecting within the next 20 years. >> absolutely. we're talking about 29,200 aircraft. we're at $4.4 trillion. in today's dollars. that's an awful lot of growth and the number one market, 29% of all the revenue passengers kilometers are coming out of asia pacific. >> how much of snap, john, is china as well as asia? >> china is a big market. part of it is getting people into the big cities. once you get into the big city, you start becoming middle class. you have reasons to travel. it might be business, it might be vacation, and it might be visiting friends and relatives. you travel back and forth for a lot of holidays during the year. but the number one market today, as you can imagine, is domestic u.s. just take a flight at laguardia and watch the conga line out there trying to wait for takeoff. in 20 years, the number one domestic market by far will be domestic china. it's quite a s

phil lebeau live in chicago with more on what's selling. >> really all of the luxury brands enjoyed af august. what's driving it, a combination of factors. one, you're seeing more marketing. more on the incentive spin by the luxury automakers. not a ton but enough to juice the market and bringing people into the showrooms. luxury auto sales up 31.5% last month. auto -- luxury car sales just the cars segment almost double the industry car sales. lux i did name plates. bmw leading the way. 45% gain. cadillac ats is red hot right now. talk more about that in a bit. this you see lexus, audi. h hmercedes is trailing the pack. the nts is a perfect example of the auto luxury market's targeting those people between $29 and 40th,000. and a lot of people who in the past might have bought a mid-size standard sedan are saying i'm going to go luxury instead. that's why you see the entry level segment up 28% in the month of august. look at this. when you compare gm and ford versus daimler, they traded in tandem earlier a year ago, that changed over the last six months. much better performance for i

phil lebeau has the news. gong, phil. >> good morning.being 25 miles per hour. the chart for august new vehicle average fuel economy has hit an all-time high of 24.9 mpg. now, that is a 19.7% increase since august of 2008. you clearly see that the vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient. what's interesting is when you look at what was selling last month, 31% of the vehicles sold in august were either suvs or cuvs, clearly the vehicles that chew up a lot more gasoline than your small cars. how is that possible? they're becoming more fuel efficient, many are running on smaller engines. the industry has to hit 54.4 miles per hour by 2025. i want to show you guys shares of ford today because this stock is close to hitting a two-year high. if it goes up another 11 cents, it will be at a two-year high. we haven't seen ford trading that high since early 2011. morning in germany, bmw announced a its price of it's plug-in at $135,925. we're seeing more of these super cars going into the hybrid direction. >> that's big news at tesla headquarters.