The other morning, over coffee, I was talking with several folks about the predicament that the big US automotive manufacturers General Motors and Ford now find themselves in. Simply put, GM and Ford are in trouble because sales of their SUVs, pickups, and other large vehicles have declined considerably. Some defined it as a forecasting problem. Others said it was faulty data analysis, and asked me why Ford and GM's BI folks failed to predict the shift in consumer sentiment to smaller, more gas economical cars.