Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select Market: GNTX) is the world's largest manufacturer of auto-dimming, glare-reducing rear-view mirrors, with over 14 million mirrors sold in 2007 and a total capacity 25 million mirrors. In 2007, 96% of the company's sales ($156M) were made to auto manufactures, indicating the company's performance is tightly correlated to the overall health of the automotive industry. ^[1] For the first quarter of 2008, automotive sales declined 8.0 percent overall, and 11.0 percent for General Motors, Gentex’s largest buyer. ^[2] The effect of this will become clearer as Gentex reports its quarterly earnings on April 22, 2008.

Only 18% of the nearly 60 million vehicles sold worldwide in 2007, had an interior self-dimming mirror. ^[3] The company estimates that the potential market for automatic dimming mirrors is 50% of the light vehicles produced each year (approximately 30 million) which represents a $3 billion potential market. ^[4] As of April 2007, both houses of Congress had passed an automotive safety bill that sets higher rearview mirror visibility standards. Given that Gentex controls 83% of the market for auto dimming rear view mirrors, a large increase in demand due to the proposed legislation will disproportionately affect the company.

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