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"GM, Ford See Profitable Future   General Motors said it expects to improve profitability and increase market share in all global regions this year, and Ford expects that new products and continued cost-cutting will increase its profits in 2004, the Associated Press reported.   GM is coming off a year in which its U.S. market share fell to 28 percent from 28.4 percent after two consecutive years of market share gains. GM&amp;#039;s U.S. sales were off 2.4 percent last year.   and Chrysler also lost share in 2003, while Toyota, Honda and Nissan \u2014 the top three foreign brands in the United States \u2014 all increased their market share.   GM said it expects record global industry sales of about 60 million vehicles in 2004, up more than 3 percent over 2003, led by strength in China and other emerging markets.   GM estimates industry sales will be up roughly 2 percent next year in the United States.   Ford, meanwhile, told Wall Street analysts it hopes to post automotive pretax profits in the range of $900 million to $1.1 billion this year, up from slightly better than break-even for 2003, the AP said.   Ford expects significantly improved results at Ford Europe and the luxury Premier Automotive Group, which includes Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin. The company also expects pretax profits of $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion from financial services.   The Dearborn-based automaker, which marked 100 years in business in 2003, is trying to rebound from $6.4 billion in losses in 2001 and 2002.   Ford said it expects market share to be flat or up in all regions this year. It&amp;#039;s forecasting industry volume of 17 million new vehicles in the United States this year, up from 16.7 million in 2003.   Hits Record North American Production in 2003   Toyota says that it produced 1,278,359 vehicles and 1,112,074 engines at its North America manufacturing facilities in 2003. Both were record levels for Toyota, which began North American production in 1985 and has steadily expanded operations ever since, the company said in a news release.   Toyota, the fourth largest automaker in North America, currently has three vehicle assembly plants in the United States and one in Canada. In addition, two other vehicle plants are under construction \u2014 in Baja California, Mexico and San Antonio, Texas \u2014 and several of Toyota&amp;#039;s North American engine and component plants are expanding.   By 2006, Toyota says it will have the capacity to build 1.66 million cars and trucks a year and 1.29 million engines in North America.   2004 Begins with Higher Fuel Prices   After five straight weeks of declines, the national average price of regular gasoline jumped sharply last week, with most areas of the country registering significant increases, according to the Auto Club.   Nationally, the demand remains flat while supply is only slightly lower than at this time last year. The short-term outlook is for prices to ease downward by a couple of cents. Over the long-term, prices are expected to increase in the latter part of January and continue higher, possibly considerably, through the spring.      Area     Regular     Change from last week     Record Price       National Average     $1.526     +$0.042     $1.737 ( 8/30/03)       New York     $1.752     +$0.008     $1.968 (9/6/03)       Washington, D.C.     $1.596     +$0.012     $1.797 (5/16/01)       Boston     $1.552     +$0.017     $1.812 (9/3/03)       Philadelphia     $1.540     +$0.007     $1.807 (9/3/03)       Atlanta     $1.418     +$0.065     $1.589 (3/18/03)       Miami     $1.565     +$0.055     $1.761 (3/18/03)       Chicago     $1.622     +$0.050     $2.142 (6/19/00)       Detroit     $1.530     +$0.058     $2.137 (6/20/00)       Kansas City, Mo.     $1.437     +$0.054     $1.790 (6/21/00)       St. Louis     $1.493     +$0.121     $1.767 (5/17/01)       Denver     $1.411     -$0.015     $1.780 (6/5/01)       Dallas     $1.455     +$0.033     $1.666 (5/12/01)       Houston     $1.436     +$0.045     $1.639 (5/12/01)       Salt Lake City     $1.493     -$0.008     $1.789 (9/4/03)       Las Vegas     $1.634     +$0.019     $2.063 (3/25/03)       Phoenix     $1.527     +$0.034     $2.146 (8/26/03)       Seattle     $1.553     +$0.038     $1.969 (9/4/03)       San Francisco     $1.790     +$0.040     $2.276 (3/19/03)       Honolulu     $2.006     -$0.007     $2.054 (10/2/03)     "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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