Feds: No More Dough if GM Bankruptcy Not Final By July 10
By Bill Visnic
It may not come exactly on the Fourth of July, but the Obama Administration is directly threatening some of its own fireworks - the financial kind - if the ever-quickening pace of General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy procedure isn't concluded by July 10.
That's barely six weeks since the automaker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 1.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:17 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Led by Surging Ford, June Sales Ratcheted Reassuringly
By Dale Buss, Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic
Automakers expressed more optimism about the U.S. car market despite the fact that overall sales in June fell by 28 percent compared with a year ago, to 859,420 vehicles. That represents only a slight improvement in year-ago comparisons over results for the first five months of this year.
Jesse Toprak, executive director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com, characterized the month cautiously. "It means, if nothing else, that things are not getting any worse, although things are not getting that much better, either. There was a lot of volatility, but there were signs of life."
Toprak added that June was "probably the best retail-demand month of the year."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:52 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , News , Toyota | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Kicks Off Second Half With 72-Hour Sale
General Motors announced a 72-hour sale offering zero-interest financing for 72 months on some 2009 and 2010 models to get the second half off to a quick start.
In addition, GM is promoting its 74 models eligible for the Cash for Clunkers program to kick in later this month.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:48 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Bankruptcy: "Bad" GM Wind-Down To Cost $1 Billion Plus
NEW YORK -- The cost to wind down the "bad General Motors" after a sale of its good assets to the U.S. Treasury is rising to more than $1 billion, a company representative testified Tuesday.
Albert Koch, appointed GM's restructuring chief who will head the old, bad GM if a sale is completed, testified in bankruptcy court that a wind-down would cost "slightly in excess of $1.25 billion." The funds, more than the $950 million budgeted, will be used to dispose of assets the "new GM" ditches and to pay some creditor claims.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:41 AM under GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
June Is Priciest Ever for Automaker Incentives, Edmunds.com Reports
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Automakers spent more in June on incentives than any June on record, Edmunds.com reports.
The average automaker incentive was $2,930 per vehicle sold in June up $489 -- or 20 percent, from a year ago, Edmunds.com estimates. Incentives were down a scant $22, or 0.8 percent, from May.
"June incentives have never been higher, but we anticipate that the tide is about to turn," said Jesse Toprak, Edmunds.com's executive director of Industry Analysis. "The effects of recent production cuts are starting to be felt, and as supply dwindles, incentives will fall."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:42 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Magna Deal for GM's Euro Operations Souring?
Although it has for some time enjoyed a preferred-bidder status to buy Adam Opel AG and the European operations of General Motors Corp., the grip of Canada's Magna International may be slipping.
The Financial Times reports GM is weighing a restructured offer from Belgian holding company RHJ International after detailed negotiations with Magna and its consortium partners became snarled by new conditions.
The Magna-led consortium includes Russia's second-largest automaker, GAZ, and the FT reports the group's offer to GM includes conditions that allow access to certain GM technologies, some of which GAZ seemingly intends to wield for Opel-based vehicles built in Russia.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 1:01 PM under Business , Companies , GM , News | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Automakers Hopeful for Some Sales Rebound in June
The industry remains cautiously optimistic June vehicle sales in the U.S. will hit a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of 10 million units for the first time in 2009, a milestone analysts think may indicate the deep freeze in auto sales is at least beginning to thaw.
Automakers will report June sales on Wednesday, and Ford Motor Co. chief sales analyst George Pipas told reporters the company believes total industry sales will see less than a 30 percent decline (compared with the same period last year) for the first time since early last fall.
Ford is confident enough in an improving outlook that it will slightly increase its production for the third quarter -- the first time it's hiked scheduled production since 2007.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 7:24 AM under Business , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Out in Joint-Venture Plant With Toyota
By Bill Visnic
The status of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. General Motors Corp.-Toyota Motor Corp. manufacturing joint-venture assembly plant in Fremont, California, is decided:
GM is out.
Speculation about GM's involvement in the NUMMI facility -- opened in 1984 -- began immediately after GM's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on June 1. The two companies currently make individually badged versions of the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe at the NUMMI site; Toyota also makes versions of the Tacoma pickup.
GM announced today its ownership in NUMMI will go along with the company's discarded liabilities in the "old" GM it seeks to form as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:28 AM under Business , Companies , GM , Toyota | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
"New" GM Will Back Bad-Product Claims
Hoping to mitigate legal speed bumps that might slow its sprint through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the "new" General Motors Corp. will take responsibility for product-liability claims, even for vehicles produced and sold by the company prior to bankruptcy.
The Washington Post reported the new GM will assume responsibility for all future product-liability claims, a point that raised the ire of some consumer groups and state Attorney's General when it became known part of the company's restructuring blueprint included a plan to shield the new company from any exposure to any liability claims on vehicles the company produced up to the point of its bankruptcy. The objectors said the legal maneuver to shield the restructured GM from such liens was improper.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 6:38 AM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
"Good" GM: Maybe Not All That Good
By Bill Visnic
General Motors's Chapter 11 bankruptcy is winding its way toward completion -- perhaps even quicker than the lickety-split Chrysler bankruptcy restructuring. And everybody knows the plan, as it was with Chrysler, is to leverage the now-famous section 363 of the bankruptcy code to create a "good" GM that sallies forth with all of the company's best assets.
In addition to the numerous hard parts -- assembly plants, stamping facilities, powertrain- and other major component-making operations -- the "good" GM will comprise four major marketing divisions: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
Chevy need make no excuses: it is the domestic counterpart of Toyota, a sales channel for unapologetically mainstream cars and trucks that remains one of the most effective brands on the planet. 
But Buick, Cadillac and GMC? Be careful, "new" GM and Obama Administration Auto Industry Task Force: recent sales and market-share data compiled by Edmunds.com shows these brands may not be the rock-solid foundation for the leaner, meaner GM they've led the company's new taxpayer-owners to believe is coming.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:00 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM | Comments (9) | digg this | del.icio.us
Maybe Corker Should Have Corked It
DETROIT -- Ah sweet revenge.
General Motors execs obviously won't admit it, but clearly politics played a part in their decision to build future small cars in Michigan instead of Tennessee.
After all, it was Republican Sen. Bob Corker from Tennessee who was among the harshest critics of GM, Chrysler and Ford when they came to testify before Congress last fall about their financial woes.
Corker insisted they should be allowed to go into bankruptcy. He scolded the automakers for doing a poor job of running their business and howled about union benefits. Their business models were unsustainable, he said.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:28 PM under GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Nada for NUMMI, So Far
DETROIT -- General Motors North America President Troy Clarke said the automaker has yet to find a model that is suitable to build at the GM-Toyota joint venture plant in California, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.
GM will stop making the Pontiac Vibe at NUMMI in August as it winds down the entire Pontiac brand. The Vibe is based on the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Matrix.
"We've just not found a product that suitable for NUMMI," Clarke told reporters Friday in a conference call on GM's small car plans. "They've been great partners...and the dialogue continues."
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:02 PM under GM , News , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Selects Michigan Plant To Build New Small Cars
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors selected the Orion Township, Michigan, assembly plant to build its all-important future small cars that represent "the fastest-growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," Troy Clarke, GM North America president, said in a media conference call Friday.
Clarke wouldn't flat-out confirm what models will be built at the plant, but it appears the plant's primary product will be derived from the next-generation Chevrolet Aveo (also sold now as the Pontiac G3 and currently built in Korea by GM-Daewoo) with some production of the Chevrolet Cruze also possible at the facility.
Clarke insisted the widely speculated Chevrolet Spark, an A-class size that is smaller than the Aveo and Cruze, will not be made at the plant.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:40 AM under Featured , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Volkswagen May Partner With Suzuki
German automaker Volkswagen reportedly is seeking a partnership with or stake in Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp., various global media outlets are reporting.
The buzz is Volkswagen would take a 10 pecent stake in Suzuki, which has seen its stock rise dramatically in recent days on the news.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:35 AM under Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM To Announce Michigan Gets Its Small Car Plant
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors will announce later Friday that its future small car, likely the Chevrolet Spark, will be built at a Michigan plant and not plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, or Janesville, Wisconsin.
GM President North America Troy Clarke will host a media conference call Friday afternoon to make the official announcement, although word already had leaked out by Thursday's evening news.
The Orion Township, Michigan, plant, located in the Detroit suburbs, assembles the Pontiac G6 sedan, which will be discontinued when the entire Pontiac division is eliminated at year-end. The plant then added production of the popular Chevrolet Malibu, which is also made at a Kansas plant.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:22 AM under Featured , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM: Opel Fallback Being Negotiated
General Motors has a tentative deal for Canadian-Austrian auto parts supplier Magna International for GM's German subsidiary, Opel. But, just in case, GM apparently is negotiating backup plans.
GM may sign non-binding agreements with RHJ International, a Belgian industrial company that originally bid for Opel, and Chinese automaker, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., which assembles Jeep and Hyundai vehicles in China, to take on Opel, Bloomberg News reported.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:00 AM under Companies , GM , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Supplier Lear Preparing To File Bankruptcy, Report Says
DETROIT - One of the world's largest auto-parts suppliers, Lear Corp., is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as next week, sources have told the Wall Street Journal.
Industry experts have predicted that as automakers bring assembly plants back onstream after summer shutdowns and inventory-adjustment shutdowns, cash-strapped suppliers will not be able to come back onstream.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:55 PM under Companies , GM , Rumors | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
June Sales To Hit 10 Million SAAR; Detroit Share Improves, Edmunds.com Forecasts
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - June vehicle sales will hit their highest level of 2009 with a 
Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate of 10.1 million when manufacturers report them Wednesday, Edmunds.com forecasts.
"The SAAR is finally back in double-digits," observed Jesse Toprak, Edmunds.com's executive director of Industry Analysis. "We're still a long way from 16 million unit sales, but things are moving in the right direction.
General Motors and Chrysler, which both were in Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the month, are expected to post market share gains in June compared with May, proving yet-again -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- that consumers will, indeed, buy cars from a bankrupt manufacturer, at least in these current tumultuous times.
Honda and Hyundai also are forecasted to show May-to-June market share gains. The gains come at the expense of share declines for Ford, Nissan and Toyota. Despite Ford's dip, the share for Detroit automakers is estimated to come in at 47.0 percent in June, up from 46.6 percent in June 2008 and from 46.5 percent in May.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:45 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Chrysler Models Top List of Slowest Sellers, Edmunds.com Reports
Vehicles sold by General Motors and Chrysler, both of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 
in recent months, dominated a list of the 15 slowest sellers in May, according to an analysis by Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com.
Of the 15 slowest-selling vehicles, 12 were made by American automakers. GM and Chrysler dominated the list. Ford had one vehicle on the list - the Mustang.
"It's really a reflection of a misstep of the American automakers," Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell.
Models from Korean brands, Kia and Hyundai, rounded out the list of 15 slow sellers.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 2:36 PM under Analysis , Chrysler , Ford , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM CEO Henderson "No Fan" of Rebadging, but...
By Bill Visnic
During a recent Webcast with reporters, General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson said that when the Pontiac division turns out the lights at year-end, its critically acclaimed G8 sedan won't be picked up by any of GM's four remaining brands.
The CEO added: "I'm not a fan of rebadging."
If that's one of the reasons the G8 won't be seen wearing another division's crest, then Henderson has long suffered his distaste for rebadging: almost from its origin, GM's modus operandi has been rebadging, probably the most callous examples coming in the 1980s, when precious little in the way of genuine engineering differentiated one brand's vehicle from another.
And rebadging looks to be at least part of the modus operandi of the "new" GM to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:59 AM under Commentary , Featured , GM , In the Media | Comments (14) | digg this | del.icio.us
Vehicle Quality Improves Despite Bumpy Financial Ride
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- The financial turbulence of the global auto industry has not hurt vehicle quality. Quite the opposite, according to new data released Monday by J.D. Power and Associates.
"Vehicle quality is better than it has ever been," Dave Sargent, J.D. Power's vice president of automotive research, told the Automotive Press Association here as he announced the results of the 2009 Initial Quality Study. The study measures defects reported by buyers in the first 90 days of ownership.
"There's a positive disconnect. There's no correlation between the financial side of the business and the production side," said Sargent. "Despite the turbulence on the business side and concern for the future of their own jobs, the people who design and build vehicles are getting on with their jobs and keeping their eye on the ball. That's remarkable."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:49 PM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , News , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Pontiac Vibe Done in August
DETROIT -- General Motors declared the end of the Pontiac Vibe in August.
GM, as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, will eliminate the Pontiac division entirely by the end of the year.
However, GM will end the production of the Vibe, which is built at a GM-Toyota joint venture plant known as New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) in Fremont, California. The Vibe shares its underpinnings with the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Matrix.
GM says it is in "active discussions regarding potential future production at NUMMI." Toyota reportedly has been considering building the Prius hybrid there.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:38 PM under GM , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
New Incoming Rounds in Hybrid War
By Bill Visnic
When gasoline prices plunged early this year, sales of hybrid-electric vehicles went South, too.
Quickly.
The timing may be unfortunate, but major hybrid players Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. launched new hybrids this spring -- and both seem determined to grub out a larger portion of the yo-yoing hybrid market. That battle, the latest summertime jump for gasoline prices and the U.S. auto market's continuing gyrations are once again cranking up the attention on hybrids.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 8:51 AM under Analysis , Business , Companies , GM , Technology , Toyota | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Miata Designer Matano, T. Boone Pickens Part of Start-Up Car Company
MONROE, La. -- Mystery solved. Or at least the players behind it.
Mazda Miata designer Tom Matano and Texas billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens are key figures behind a car plant being established in Louisiana to build environmentally friendly vehicles by a start-up company that has never before built cars.
V-Vehicle Co., of San Diego, is a start-up company being financed by California venture capitalists. Its CEO is Frank Varasano, a former executive vice president of Oracle Corp. who is described as the project's visionary.
Company chairman is Ray Lane of the California venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which has been extensively involved in environmentally friendly projects and companies, including Fisker Automotive. John Doerr, a managing partner with the California venture capital company, is a V-Vehicle board member. Former Vice President Al Gore recently joined the firm. Matano will direct design.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:23 PM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Washington to Auto Suppliers: No More Money
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Treasury turned down a request by auto suppliers for additional financial aid, saying it believes the supply chain is stable enough without immediate assistance -- and besides it isn't the government's role to interfere in the contraction of the supplier market.
Two trade associations representing suppliers had asked for the government to guarantee between $8 billion to $10 billion in loans so banks will lend to the suppliers. That's in addition to the $5 billion the government provided to suppliers earlier this year. Those funds are administered through automakers.
President Obama's auto task force, however, did say it would step in if the supply chain unravels and vehicle assembly plants are forced to close due to parts shortages.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:23 AM under Business , Chrysler , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Americans Want Government Out of GM, Chrysler Quickly, Poll Says
Eight of 10 U.S. voters want the federal government to sell its stake in General Motors and Chrysler as soon as possible, according to a telephone survey done by Rasmussen Reports.
The federal government owns 60 percent of GM and 8 percent of Chrysler.
In fact, 64 percent of the 1,000 likely voters surveyed over last weekend said they favor a proposal that would force the government to sell their stake in the auto companies within a year. Only about 11 percent of the 1,000 likely voters surveyed over the weekend said they wanted the government to retain ownership.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:42 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM CEO Henderson on Dealers, Clunkers, Exec Compensation and More
By Bill Visnic
In a wide-ranging and comparatively wide-open web chat with the automotive media on Tuesday, General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson confirmed GM has rescinded the decision to close at least a few dealers, is committed to further cutting its executive ranks and believes it will benefit - to a degree - from the still-debated "cash-for-clunkers" legislation.
Henderson took on several questions about the contentious decision to deny franchise renewal to some 1,100 dealers by the end of next year. He said that of the reported excess of 800 dealer requests for review of their franchise termination, GM has relented on 49 and will be done with the review process this week.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:05 PM under Featured , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Niche Automaker Koenigsegg Takes Saab Off GM's Hands
By Bill Visnic
After months of shopping it and years of unsuccessfully operating it, General Motors Corp. is selling its Saab Automobiles AB division to a tiny maker of exotic cars that will return Saab to its homeland of Sweden.
GM announced Tuesday it has a memorandum of understanding with Koenigsegg Group AB for the company to purchase Saab with the boost of a $600-million funding commitment from the European Investment Bank that is guaranteed by the Swedish government.
In a statement, GM also said it and Koenigsegg will provide "additional support" to fund Saab operations and program investments.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:49 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , News | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Bill Ford Calls for National Industrial Policy, Gas Price Stabilization
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr., kicking off a National Summit in Detroit this week, called for the U.S. government to establish a national industrial policy aimed at bolstering the nation's competitiveness and to institute a policy that would stabilize "gyrating" gasoline prices.
"The industrial base is eroding and prosperous nations don't let their industries erode," Ford said. "Government, industry and academia all have to be on the same page. Too many times they throw bombs at each other rather than working together."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:30 AM under Business , Chrysler , Ford , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Mystery Company To Assemble Cars in Louisiana
Baton Rouge, La. -- A company described as a well-financed start-up reportedly is close to 
choosing a shuttered north Louisiana site to start a new automobile manufacturing facility -- its first, creating up to 1,500 jobs, two elected officials from the region told the Associated Press.
A formal announcement on the mystery company could come Wednesday from Gov. Bobby Jindal, Rep. Jim Fannin told the wire service.
Fannin said the vehicles would be the company's first, they would be fuel-efficient ones and they will be built at a former Guide Corp. plant.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:08 AM under Business , Companies , GM , Rumors , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fat Paydays for GM Law Firms
You knew the lawyers would make out on the General Motors' bankruptcy, and they are.
GM's primary law firm, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, earned $54 million in fees and expenses in the six months leading up to GM's June 1 bankruptcy filing, according to a recent court filing by the law firm and reported on by the Wall Street Journal. The firm's lawyers are billing GM at a rate of $355 to $950 per hour, the Journal reported.
And there's more. The paper said much of the $54 million didn't relate strictly to GM's Chapter 11 so more big paydays could be in store for the firm.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:05 AM under Business , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
In Trucks, Bare-Knuckles Marketing Continues
By Dale Buss
In a throwback to a simpler era, the new Ford F-150's drop-down tailgate step has become an entertaining flashpoint in the marketing war between heavyweights in the pickup-truck segment.
In a current TV ad for the Silverado, Chevrolet's celebrity pitchster, Howie Long, tweaks the addition of the "man step" to the F-150 as an embarrassment -- because it only helps make up for the unreasonably long reach required to get over the tailgate to the bed of the F-150.
But Ford executives assert that Chevy's gambit actually highlights an appealing innovation for potential truck buyers -- and makes them more likely to choose an F-150.
"Our steps have done very well, because they're selling at about 30 percent of the mix of our F-150s," said Doug Scott, Ford's truck marketing manager. "So I hope GM keeps running the ad [in which] they're panning it."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:02 PM under Analysis , Chrysler , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Purchasing Czar Headed for Russia
Bo Andersson, who resigned last week as General Motors Corp.'s group vice president-global purchasing and supply chain, is taking a position with Russia's second-largest automaker, GAZ.
The company said Andersson, who served as GM's top procurement executive since 2001, will be the chief consultant to the Russain automaker's board of directors. GAZ is one partner in a group led by Canada's Magna International Inc. to take over GM's Adam Opel AG and most of the company's European operations, including the United Kingdom's Vauxhall.
The announcement of Andersson's departure came abruptly last week and it was speculated he could be leaving GM to be part of a new management team for GM's Saab unit, which GM also is in the process of selling and currently is under bankruptcy protection in Sweden. Andersson began his GM career as a Saab executive.
The Detroit News reported GAZ as saying there is the likelihood Andersson also will be elected to the GAZ board of directors when the company meets to elect a new board on June 29.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:32 AM under Business , Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Playing Own Plants Against One Another?
By Bill Visnic
The political and financial jockeying has started among three General Motors Corp. assembly plants in competition to win the job of building a new generation of compact cars sometime around 2011.
And there is criticism GM -- currently in bankruptcy and earmarked to be more than 60 percent owned by the U.S. government -- is using the promise of the new work to coerce additional tax dollars from the three states hoping to prevail.
The company reportedly has been offered $44 million in long-term tax abatements from the township of Orion, Michigan, site of one of the three competing plants. Countering that are reports GM suggested to Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen the company might choose to build the small cars in the GM plant in Spring Hill -- if the state coughs up $200 million.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 10:49 AM under Business , Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler, GM Losing and Moving Execs
By Bill Visnic
The Chrysler Group's bankruptcy is over, General Motors Corp.'s is accelerating like a Corvette and both companies are moving and losing significant personnel in sync.
None of this is unexpected, particularly as Chrysler is sure to be entertaining a certain amount of Fiat S.p.A executive injections now that Fiat is Chrysler's operational owner. And most insiders and industry analysts say GM still has plenty of management dead wood to burn and will see more voluntary separations, too.
GM still dealt a serious surprise when announcing Friday that purchasing chief Bo Andersson is leaving the company. Andersson was generally well-regarded in the supplier community, despite its usually tumultuous relationship with Detroit automakers for the past decade or more. Andersson had a reputation for being demanding and calculating but eminently fair in one of the toughest jobs in Detroit, if not the entire auto industry.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:48 PM under Chrysler , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Joke's on the Auto Sector - As Usual
The auto industry is an easy target for comics and this week's acquisition of the Chrysler Group by Fiat and the announcement of General Motors Corp.'s new chairman added new fuel to the comedic pyre.
Two of this week's best:
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:02 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chevrolet Ready To Be Lead Horse in GM Revival
By Bill Visnic
PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- Through the months of the unfolding General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy story, one plotline has been clear and unwavering: the Chevrolet brand will be the backbone -- and linchpin -- of GM's attempt to restructure and revitalize with a lot fewer brands and a lot smaller operational footprint.
At an event this week to launch the new 2010 Equinox compact crossover, Chevrolet North America Vice President Ed Peper reiterated GM isn't planning to wear the bankruptcy label for long, and added that Chevrolet is ready to drive GM's recovery. He said Chevrolet is loaded with coming products that should resonate in the new patterns of the U.S. auto market.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:47 AM under Business , Featured , GM , Technology | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Picks Koenigsegg as Front-Runner for Saab
General Motors has chosen Swedish luxury sports-carmaker Koenigsegg Automotive AB as the 
front-runner to buy its Swedish auto company, Saab, sources have told Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg's source said Koenigsegg was chosen because it committed to invest in restructuring Saab and because it's a carmaker.
Other bidders included U.S. billionaire Ira Rennert's Renco Group Inc. and Merbanco Inc., a group of investors from Wyoming.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:17 AM under Business , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Pulls Plug on 2010 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid
DETROIT - General Motors has pulled the plug on the 2010 version of the Chevrolet Malibu hybrid due to slow sales and high inventory levels, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A GM spokesman told the paper the automaker has a "sufficient stock of 2009s" and starting up production in the near future is "possible, but not likely."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:40 AM under Business , GM , News , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Extends Plant Closures
DETROIT -- General Motors, which last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is extending summer shutdowns at seven plants.
The automaker is adding up to four weeks to temporary shutdowns at plants in: Detroit, Lansing and Orion Township, Mich.; Spring Hill, Tenn.; Shreveport, La.; and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
GM said the extended closures are to lower inventories of unsold vehicles.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:08 PM under GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Right-Wingers Push Obama Protest Through GM Boycott
WASHINGTON -- Right-wing radio hosts says there's only one choice for conservatives angry 
about government involvement in the auto industry: Boycott GM.
"Nobody wants to support an Obama company," Rush Limbaugh told his audience, citing a poll showing that 17 percent of Americans backed a boycott of GM, the Detroit News reported.
Limbaugh didn't outright call for a boycott, but said he understood why people would want to avoid GM vehicles. "They don't want to patronize Obama. They don't want to do anything to make Obama's policies work."
Added conservative host Hugh Hewitt online: "Every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise."
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:46 AM under Business , GM , Personalities | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Names New Chairman: Former AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre, Jr.
DETROIT -- Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., former chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc., will become chairman of the new General Motors that emerges from bankruptcy later this summer, the automaker announced Tuesday morning.
GM's interim chairman Kent Kresa will continue in his post until the launch of the new GM.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:50 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Dropped From Dow Average
Monday marked another historic day in the General Motors saga.
The automaker, which last Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, has been removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after more than 80 years as an index component.
GM will be replaced by technology firm Cisco Systems. Banking giant Citigroup also is being dropped, replaced by Insurer Travelers.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:02 AM under GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM To End Medium-Duty Truck Production
DETROIT -- General Motors announced Monday it will stop making the medium-duty 
Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick trucks July 31 as it has found no buyer for the operations.
The trucks are built at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan, which also builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.
The factory employs about 2,100 people, with most of its production in pickups. Last year it made more than 22,000 medium-duty trucks for GM and Isuzu.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:33 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Penske: Envisioning Saturn as a Global Motors
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Roger Penske's dealership group doesn't hold a single Saturn franchise, but now he's offered to buy from General Motors the whole kit and caboodle.
Penske's vision, as he laid it out in an exclusive interview with Edmunds' AutoObserver.com Friday shortly after GM and the Penske Group announced they had made a deal for Saturn, is twofold: to sell GM-made models in Saturn showrooms while shopping the globe for other vehicles to sell, eventually convincing the offshore manufacturers of those vehicles to make them in the United States.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:49 AM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Penske Make a Deal for Saturn; Hummer, Opel Deals Floundering
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors confirmed Friday morning that it has a deal to sell its Saturn brand to the Penske Automotive Group. If completed, the deal would save more than 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs at Saturn and its retailers in the United States, and would preserve the customer-focused Saturn brand, GM said in a statement.
At the same time, GM's agreement to sell Hummer to a Chinese company is hitting a roadblock with China's government, and Magna's proposed partnership with Opel looks to be floundering.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:15 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Chrysler Defend Dealer Cuts in U.S. Senate
By Michelle Krebs
WASHINGTON -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson and Chrysler President Jim Press found themselves on the hot seat yet again in Congress Wednesday as they testified that it is essential to cut thousands of dealers in order to survive.
And once again, much as Detroit Three executives were at last fall's hearings for federal loans, the executives were grilled and skewered by members of Congress. Dealers being put out of business and dealer association executives chimed in as well.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:41 AM under Chrysler , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Scrambles To Clarify Financial-Disclosure 'Tude
By Bill Visnic
Barely 48 hours into its new era as a bankrupt company, General Motors executives hustled to backtrack on a provocative statement from its chief financial officer that also was tinged with an arrogance that could damage the company's need to appear contrite before customers and politicians.
GM CFO Ray Young told the media that thanks to its now-bankrupt status, GM technically is a private company -- and as such is not obligated to make available the same depth of corporate financial information as are public corporations.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:41 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM To Deal Hummer to Chinese Machinery Manufacturer
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp. confirmed yesterday it has a memorandum of understanding to sell its Hummer brand and assets to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd a privately held company that makes heavy-duty industrial equipment.
In a statement, GM said Tengzhong intends to retain Hummer's current production capabilities (a GM assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, that also builds GM's midsize pickup trucks -- the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon) and management team. GM said the deal could save 3,000 U.S. jobs.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:00 AM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Delphi Maneuvers To Finally Leave Bankruptcy Behind
By Bill Visnic
Following nearly four years of wallowing in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, automotive super-supplier Delphi Corp. now has a substantive plan to emerge - curiously enough, just as its "inventor" and largest and closest customer, General Motors Corp., begins its own bankruptcy proceedings.
Delphi says it will sell most of its assets to private-equity firm Platinum Equity LLC, with a GM "affiliate" purchasing some of Delphi's parts-making operations, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:28 PM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
May Car Sales: Flirting with 10-Million SAAR
By Bill Visnic, Mary Connelly, Michelle Krebs
DETROIT - It's far too premature to break out the champagne and even too early to finally call the absolute bottom of one of the worst auto sales slumps in decades. But May sales reports from auto manufacturers in the U.S. hinted the worst just may be over.
"We saw glimmers of hope in May sales reports," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:58 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , News , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Future of GM-Toyota NUMMI Plant Uncertain with GM Bankruptcy
General Motors may stop building cars at a factory it owns with Toyota in California, known as NUMMI, following the Detroit-based carmaker's bankruptcy filing Monday, Bloomberg News reports.
The only GM product the plant builds is the Toyota Corolla/Matrix-based Pontiac Vibe, which will be eliminated as the automaker closes down the Pontiac brand.
The plant also builds the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Tacoma.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:21 AM under GM , News , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Has Buyer for Hummer
DETROIT -- General Motors announced it has signed an agreement to sell Hummer, though it hasn't yet revealed who the buyer is or how much GM will receive for the SUV company.
GM said it expects to close the deal by the end of September, pending various approvals. The sale of Hummer will save 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at Hummer dealerships, GM said.
The arrangement includes the new buyer contracting vehicle manufacturing and business services during the transition. GM's Shreveport, Louisiana, plant continues to contract assemble the H3 and H3T through at least 2010.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:56 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Obama, CEO Henderson: Paving the Way for a New GM
By Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- President Obama, in a White House press conference Monday, said General Motors' filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy "marks the end of an old GM and the beginning of a new GM."
The president, recalling the famous quote of former GM CEO and U.S. Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson in the 1950s, that "we'll be able to say again what's good for General Motors is good for America."
And in a statement less than an hour later, GM president and CEO Fritz Henderson called the action a "defining moment in the history of GM."
GM, which only last year celebrated its centennial, made history Monday by filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Henderson said the company expects the bankruptcy to be complete in 60 to 90 days.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:12 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saturn Files Separate Bankruptcy; Loses Lawsuit to NJ Dealer
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- While General Motors filed bankruptcy on Monday, so, too, did its Saturn Corp., in a move that seems to set up Saturn for a buyer and, perhaps, to first cull its dealership network.
Meantime, Saturn lost a case brought by one of its once most supportive dealers in New Jersey courts last week.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:44 AM under Companies , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Closes 14 Manufacturing Plants; Three Service Parts Operations
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors will close or idle 14 manufacturing plants and three service and parts operations as part of its bankruptcy filing.
That brings GM's U.S. assembly, powertrain and stamping facilities from 47 in 2008 to 34 by year-end 2010 and 33 by 2012. GM will reopen an unnamed, now-idled, now-closed plant to build future small cars.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:32 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Bankruptcy: History in the Making
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Once the largest and one of the mightiest corporations on the planet, General Motors, which only last year celebrated its centennial, makes history Monday, June 1, as it files for bankruptcy.
The automaker is asking the Southern District of New York court to grant it protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy court early, to approve the transfer of most of its global assets to a new GM entity and to allow GM's operations to continue operating uninterrupted during the process.
"Today marks a defining moment in the reinvention of GM as a leaner, more customer-focused, and more cost-competitive company that, above all, can quickly generate winning bottom line results," GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson, who will hold a press briefing later Monday, said in a statement.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:42 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Commits to More U.S. Small-Car Production
By Bill Visnic
The timing of the announcement is curious, but General Motors Corp. said Friday it will build unnamed, next-generation small cars in the U.S. using a currently idled assembly plant and stamping facility and United Auto Workers union labor.
The small car GM plans to build on U.S. soil likely will be based on the Chevrolet Beat concept introduced at the 2007 New York Auto Show and paraded around other shows as well as Washington, D.C., events as GM's small, fuel-efficient car of the future.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:05 AM under Featured , GM , News | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Germany Edge Toward Magna as Opel Buyer
By Bill Visnic
Various press reports on Friday indicate Canada's Magna International had reached a tentative agreement for ownership of General Motors Corp.'s Adam Opel AG automaking unit and most of GM's European operations, including Britain's Vauxhall.
The move would fulfill a long-held ambition for Magna, known mostly as an auto-industry supplier, to evolve into an automaker, although the company's European unit, Magna Steyr, has a strong background of low-volume and niche-volume vehicle production for a variety of automakers, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Chrysler.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 1:03 PM under Business , Companies , GM , In the Media , News | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
May Car Sales: Ever-So-Small Hint of Hope
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- May car sales, due to be reported by auto manufacturer Tuesday, remain off by double-digits from last year, but the sales increase from April to May is in line with typical April-May seasonal bumps and the drop from a year ago is largely due to lower fleet sales, according to Edmunds.com's forecast.
For May, manufacturers are expected to report new vehicle sales -- retail and fleet -- of 890,000 units, a 36.1 percent decrease from the 1.4 million sold in May 2008 but an 8.9 percent increase from the 817,000 sold in April. A typical seasonal increase between April and May is a 9 percent rise. When adjusted for this difference in the number of selling days in May versus a year ago, sales decreased 33.6 percent.
That would put the Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate at about 9.5 million vehicles, up from 9.3 million in April.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:24 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Lutz: "New" GM Will Be Smaller, Leaner "Powerhouse"
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors' Bob Lutz predicts the "new" GM will be "smaller and leaner but a powerhouse" that is very profitable after the "cleansing fire" of the radical restructuring the automaker is undergoing.
Lutz would not confirm to reporters at an Automotive Press Association luncheon in Detroit Thursday if, indeed, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is inevitable. Speculation is that GM will file for bankruptcy Monday and transfer its good assets to a newly created company.
Lutz did say if GM files for bankruptcy, it would be a quick one. "We intend to get in and out very soon," he said. "The U.S. government wants its money back, and our plan is to pay it back as quickly as possible. The U.S. government doesn't want to own auto companies."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:10 PM under Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Bondholders Committee Accepts Sweetened Deal; Chrysler-Style Bankruptcy Next
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- A committee of General Motors' bondholders, after soundly rejecting an earlier debt-for-equity swap by the automaker, has accepted a sweetened deal backed by the U.S. government that paves the way for a quick pre-packaged bankruptcy a la Chrysler's, CNBC reported.
GM, in a statement issued Thursday morning, said the U.S. Treasury had proposed incentives for GM's unsecured bondholders that would allow GM to pursue a pre-packaged bankruptcy under section 363 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.
"Implementation of this proposal would result in a new GM with a healthy balance sheet, putting the new company on a clear path toward long-term viability and success," the automaker said.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:37 AM under Featured , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Ford Set To Pass GM in North American Production
Ford is on pace to overtake General Motors this year as the top North American producer of 
vehicles, according to a forecast by IHS Global Insight.
Ford, which has been No. 2 for decades, gets a boost from GM idling its plants in the next couple of months to produce an estimated 1.7 million vehicles in North America this year.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:08 AM under Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Maserati Names McNabb Its North American Top Exec
Mark McNabb, who has done stints with Nissan and General Motors, will take over as president and CEO of Maserati North America on June 1.
McNabb announced he was leaving GM only weeks ago. During his short stint at the Detroit automaker, McNabb was vice president for GM's premium brands, which include Cadillac, Hummer and Saab. Before joining GM, he held senior positions with Nissan.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:00 AM under Companies , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
German Government: Sweeten Your Offers, Opel Suitors
BERLIN -- The German government is pressing the bidders for Opel to add last-minute sweeteners to their offers before officials select the preferred partner for General Motors' German subsidiary.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration has been considering offers from Italy's Fiat, Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International and Belgium-based industrial holding RHJ International.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:18 AM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler Bankruptcy End Near; Trial Run for GM's
Chrysler is close to emerging from bankruptcy, well ahead of the 30 to 60 days the U.S. 
government had promised when it entered April 30.
Chrysler was widely seen as the trial run for the even bigger and more complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by General Motors, likely to come within days, if not hours.
A major step forward toward the end of Chrysler's bankruptcy comes Wednesday when federal bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in New York considers a motion to sell most of Chrysler's assets to a new Chrysler under the control of Italy's Fiat.
The judge's expected approval would result in one of the biggest and fastest bankruptcy proceedings of its kind. Of course, Chrysler's bankruptcy -- as would be GM's -- would be unprecedented because of the intense involvement of the U.S. government, which has been criticized by business and some bankruptcy experts.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:04 AM under Chrysler , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
The Only Question: What Day Will GM File for Chapter 11?
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- About the only question regarding a General Motors Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that remains is what day it'll be filed.
GM announced Wednesday morning that bondholders, who had until midnight, to trade $27.2 billion in debt for a 10 percent stake in the restructured GM, had rejected the automaker's offer. GM confirmed that the number of bondholders who agreed to the deal "was substantially less" than the amount required by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:42 AM under Commentary , Featured , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Beijing Auto Bids on Opel; Other Chinese Auto Companies Make News
Beijing Automotive Industry Corp. has submitted an offer to buy Germany's Opel, on the eve of the German government announcing which bid it prefers for the General Motors subsidiary, Reuters reported.
Meantime, German officials are pressing the three other Opel suitors to improve their current offers. The three are Italy's Fiat, Canadian auto supplier Magna International with its backing of Russian investors, and Belgium-based RHJ International.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 2:02 PM under Business , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
U.S. Taxpayers: GM's Accidental Majority Shareholder
The U.S. government -- or rather U.S. taxpayers -- will hold a majority share in the new General Motors after it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which it is expected to file at any moment.
The U.S. Treasury Department will receive about 70 percent of the new GM in exchange for $50 billion in financing for its restructuring, unnamed sources told The New York Times.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:25 PM under Business , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Bondholders Reject Offer; Bankruptcy Filing Imminent
General Motors has failed to persuade enough bondholders to accept a debt-for-equity swap, setting the stage for the largest-ever U.S. industrial bankruptcy by the end of this month, Reuters reports.
GM failed to gain anywhere near the 90 percent of bondholder support needed, sources told the newswire Tuesday. Bondholders have until midnight to make their final decision on the tender. As of midday Tuesday, the company had only "low-single-digit" interest from bondholders, one source said.
Reuters' sources said GM will likely file for bankruptcy some time after midnight Tuesday, but before June 1.
GM's bondholders are balking at the automaker's offer to reduce its $27 billion debt in exchange for a 10-percent stake in the restructured company, a stake smaller than that being given to the United Auto Workers union.
Indeed, the UAW told its representatives gathering in Detroit Tuesday that the union, through its retired employee health-care fund, would own 17.5 percent of GM. The union would receive the company stake in lieu of the full $20 billion GM owes the fund, though GM would still make some cash payments.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:36 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Faces Decisions This Week as Bankruptcy Deadline Looms
General Motors could file for bankruptcy as early as this week even while it faces significant decisions by its unions, its bondholders and the German government involving its restructuring.
GM has until June 1 to reach concessions with its stakeholders and rid itself of some assets, under its agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department as part of its loan package.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:04 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Working Toward $100 Billion in the Red; Bankruptcy Filing Imminent
By Bill Visnic
With a barely noticed new "draw" of $4 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department late last week, General Motors Corp. is sputtering its way to a long-expected bankruptcy announcement that some insiders speculate could come as early as Wednesday.
Last week's cash infusion to GM brought the total government investment in the company to $21.6 billion by June 1, The New York Times reported. In addition, GM has said in Security and Exchange Commission filings that it will need more than $7.5 billion after June 1 to continue operations.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:01 AM under Featured , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat Dangles Opel Carrot: Fewer German Job Losses
By Bill Visnic
Evidently seeking to up the ante in its gambit to take over General Motors Corp.'s Adam Opel AG, Fiat S.p.A. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said over the weekend that job losses from the takeover would be far fewer than press accounts have speculated, reported the Associated Press.
Marchionne told the AP that Fiat's plan for restructuring Opel and integrating it and most of GM's European operations into a mega-automaker consisting of Fiat, Opel and Chrysler (the assets of which Fiat expects to acquire through Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy) would mean less than 10,000 job losses in Europe - not the 18,000 some reports have suggested.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:57 AM under Business , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
UAW to GM: Will Deal on VEBA, More Wage Givebacks
By Bill Visnic
The United Auto Workers Union (UAW), under pressure to make concessions to General Motors Corp. as the company approaches a June 1 restructuring deadline, said today it will propose to its rank-and-file members key givebacks to help GM's long-term future, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The union reportedly has agreed to allow GM to fund its remaining $20 billion obligation to a retiree health care plan with about $10 billion in cash and a 39 percent stake in the company -- whatever "company" may mean after June 1, when many industry experts and financial-community analysts expect GM still will declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, despite the proposed concessions from the UAW.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:44 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Europe Receives at Least Three Bids
General Motors confirmed that three bidders made the Wednesday deadline for formal offers for a stake in the automaker's European operations, which include Germany's Opel and the U.K.'s Vauxhall.
The bidders are Canadian parts supplier Magna International, Italy's Fiat and the Brussels-based RHJ International, a car parts holding company formed by the founder of private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings. A fourth bidder is possible though no details have been released. Bidders have been asked to come up with about $890 million.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:48 AM under Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saab Requests More Time To Reorganize; Says Three Bidders Interested
Saab Automobile confirmed it is in talks with three potential buyers, but did not identify them. The automaker has asked the Swedish court overseeing its restructuring for more time to conclude a deal with a buyer. The original reconstruction process was scheduled to end Wednesday.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:01 PM under Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Huffington Post Compiling List of Guillotined GM Dealers
Although General Motors Corp. has not made public the names and locations of the more than 1,100 dealers with whom the company plans to part ways by 2010, the Huffington Post is running an ongoing list of dealers known to have received the dreaded FedEX package notifying of GM's intent to not renew the dealer's franchise.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:32 AM under GM , In the Media | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Looking for Orderly Wind Down of 1,100 Dealers
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors notified 1,100 dealers Friday that their franchise agreements would not be renewed when they expire in October 2010, and GM will help them wind down in an orderly way.
GM, which has not filed bankruptcy but likely will, is taking a different route than Chrysler, which is now in bankruptcy. Chrysler immediately terminated 789 dealers on Thursday. Unless they pursue legal action, those Chrysler dealers will go out of business quickly and with no financial support from the automaker.
GM has chosen to wind down the 1,100 dealers over the next 18 months with its financial support. In addition to the 1,110 dealers, who were not revealed, the future of 500 Hummer, Saturn and Saab dealers has yet to be determined as well.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:18 AM under Companies , Featured , GM | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM: Underperforming Dealers Won't Be Renewed
Some General Motors dealers, believed to be more than 1,000, are receiving letters from the automaker Friday that tell them they are underperforming and their franchise agreements will not be renewed when they expire in October 2010.
GM will not release a list of those dealers, as Chrysler had to Thursday in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.
Mark LaNeve, GM North America vice president of Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing, will provide more details in a noon conference call with the media.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:55 AM under Chrysler , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Stock at Value-Menu Price; Ford Offering Lukewarm
By Bill Visnic
With investors nervously interpreting the General Motors Corp. tea leaves, GM's stock price plunged to $1 on Wednesday - leaving for Americans the choice between a value-menu order of French fries or a share of GM stock.
After the dip, GM's share price bounced back some 25 percent or better by midday, but the price range nonetheless reflected levels GM common shares hadn't visited since the 1930s.
GM's stock price has been steadily declining in the past months - and since the bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC on May 1 - as media reports and industry-analyst talk underscore an increasing certainty that GM, too, will have to make a trip to bankruptcy court when the company's June 1 restructuring deadline given by the Obama Administration arrives.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:59 AM under Business , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM To Burn Rubber on Detroit?
By Bill Visnic
The rumors started not long after General Motors Corp. accepted its first loan under the U.S. Treasury Dept.'s Troubled Asset Relief Program late last year: GM was looking to leave its global headquarters in what is downtown Detroit's most prestigious and recognizable building, the Renaissance Center.
This week, the Detroit News reports the nearby suburb of Warren, Michigan -- longtime home to GM's rambling Technical Center -- is actively encouraging GM to cut loose of the expensive "RenCen" HQ and relocate to Warren. One major carrot: Warren has no city income tax; workers currently located at GM's RenCen headquarters pay a 1 percent tax to the city of Detroit.
And Warren Mayor Jim Fouts reportedly is dangling tax abatements if GM relocates its HQ to his city. The paper said Warren already has delivered $100 million in tax cuts to GM in recent years.
Fouts was quoted as saying the city's offer could "save" GM.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 1:32 PM under Business , Companies , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Corvette Safe in GM Restructuring
By Bill Visnic
Anything and everything in General Motors Corp.'s multinational manufacturing empire is under scrutiny as the company approaches a June 1 deadline to present the U.S. Treasury Dept. with a new restructuring plan, but GM CEO Fritz Henderson today issued reassurance the high-performance (but not entirely politically correct) Corvette is going to be a part of the "new" GM's future.
Rumors and speculation about the Corvette's future in a drastically downsized -- and presumably more environmentally progressive -- GM have circulated for some time, but in a public webchat at GM's FastLane blog Monday, Henderson said the Corvette is "one of our strongest (if not our strongest) nameplates in the entire GM lineup. We intend to keep this car fresh and in a segment-leading position."
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 10:46 AM under Business , Companies , GM | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Henderson: Bankruptcy More Probable
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- With a June 1 government-imposed deadline for a new viability plan looming, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said, as he has before, that bankruptcy is more probable than it was.
"Given the objectives set out, it's more probable that we would need to accomplish this in bankruptcy," Henderson said in a conference call to update media on GM's restructuring progress. "The task we have in front of us is large. But there's still an opportunity to do this outside of court."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:29 AM under GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GMAC May Be Next for Taxpayer Ownership
By Bill Visnic
As if the auto industry needs more to worry about, this week's "stress test" for banks' compliance with new government liquidity regulations puts auto-sector mega-lender GMAC Financial Services in a difficult light.
The Wall Street Journal reports that GMAC needs $11.5 billion in capital and "makes outright government control of the auto-finance company look increasingly likely," as it is presumed few private investors would step up to take that kind of position in GMAC, which also will assume the in-house financing role for Chrysler vehicles sometime near the middle of this month.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:46 AM under Chrysler , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM: Still Trying To Avoid Bankruptcy, but Preparing Anyway
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors still hopes to accomplish its restructuring outside of bankruptcy court, but is preparing for bankruptcy nonetheless, most notably by monitoring Chrysler's Chapter 11.
GM's chief financial officer, Ray Young, normally cool, calm and collected, expressed in passionate terms, during his conference call with media and analysts on financial results Thursday, that GM wants to avoid bankruptcy.
"If we go into bankruptcy, it is imperative that we get in and out quickly," Young said, adding the automaker is watching and learning from Chrysler's current Chapter 11 proceedings.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:16 AM under Business , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Loses $6 Billion in First Quarter
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- With a June 1 deadline for a finalized restructuring plan or bankruptcy filing looming, General Motors posted a $6-billion loss in the first quarter of 2009, about double what it lost in the same quarter a year ago but smaller than what analysts had forecasted.
Revenues this year were about half of last year's, reflecting the global economic downturn. GM spent $10.2 billion more than it earned.
"Our first-quarter results underscore the importance of executing GM's revised viability plan, which goes further and faster to lower our breakeven point," GM CEO and President Fritz Henderson said in the company's press statement issued Thursday morning.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:08 AM under Business , Featured , GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Not So Fast, Fiat: Russians Interested in Opel, Too
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's plan to create a mega-automaker by combining Fiat's auto operations with Chrysler and General Motors Corp.'s Opel and other European operations may yet face competition from a previously named interested party: Canada's Magna International.
Just-auto.com reported a Russian news source as saying Magna is allying with Russia's Sberbank and GAZ Group to make a controlling-stake bid for Opel, which GM is anxious to offload and Marchionne covets in order to create a new automaker from Fiat, Opel and Chrysler.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:56 AM under Business , Chrysler , Companies , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Penske Confirms Interest in Saturn
DETROIT -- The Penske Automotive Group confirmed it is indeed interested in General Motors' Saturn brand.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Penske Automotive Group, headed by Roger Penske, said "we confirm that we have an interest in looking at future opportunities with the Saturn brand."
The company's statement continued: "Penske Automotive buys and sells dealerships as part of our normal operations; we have experience in the distribution business and are constantly looking for opportunities to grow our business and further diversify our overall operations."
The group, which also has the U.S. distribution rights to Daimler's smart franchise, said it has not made a proposal to GM. "The time frame involved is extremely tight," the company said.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:49 AM under Companies , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saturn Blazed Ahead of Its Time, Then Faded Into Oblivion
By Dale Buss
Around mid-February when General Motors placed Saturn on the chopping block, number-crunchers at Edmunds.com were shocked to discover how badly the brand had eroded -- already more than a year ago.
Edmunds.com figures showed that way back in January 2008, Saturn customers were demonstrating the least loyalty of any in the entire U.S. auto industry: Fewer than 5 percent of those who traded in a Saturn purchased another one.
That paltry showing contrasted with a loyalty factor for all of 2008 of more than 51 percent for Subaru, nearly 49 percent for Hyundai, and more than 47 percent even for Saturn's sibling brand, Chevrolet.
"Saturn's numbers even back then were horrendous," said Jessica Caldwell, industry analyst for Santa Monica, California-based Edmunds. "They had lost their message along the way. Saturn wasn't sporty, wasn't utility-oriented, wasn't even necessarily value-oriented. It had just become a one-off of other GM products."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:12 PM under Analysis , Featured , GM | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
With Chrysler Captured, Fiat Moving on Opel
By Bill Visnic
With Chrysler LLC now in bankruptcy and its assets all but promised to Fiat S.p.A. as part of a months-in-the-making ownership and alliance proposal, Fiat's hyper-acquisitive chief executive Sergio Marchionne already is laying out a plan to take over General Motors Corp.'s foundering European operations.
And yes, Marchionne's already throwing around the "S" words: synergies and savings.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:12 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
April Car Sales: The Bottom's Around Here Somewhere
By Dale Buss, Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic
April's auto sales numbers looked pretty much like those from March, and February, and January - abysmal. Industrywide sales plunged by 34 percent last month compared with a year earlier, continuing the first-quarter trend of dreadful comparisons tied to a moribund economy.
But in those April results, carmaker executives and analysts on Friday also thought they saw more than just the latest in a long string of awful comparisons with 2008. Almost to a person, they interpreted April's performance and other economic data as painting at least a near bottom of the dreadful U.S. car market - and as the harbinger of an eventual recovery.
"We won't truly be able to call the bottom until summer when we can look back at three consecutive months of increase in the annualized rate of sales," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com. "We had expected April would be the start of that. And April's annualized sales rate, while lower than March, still didn't dip to February level."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:49 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chevrolet Volt: First Media Test Drives Given
The dance of the seven veils continues as General Motors recently began offering early, early test drives of its highly anticipated 2011 Chevrolet Volt.
Edmunds' Inside Line Senior Editor Dan Pund was among the early test drivers of the engineering development car, commonly known in the industry as a "mule."
Pund called his test drive more of a progress report than a final assessment and reports its development is coming along nicely. But much more is yet to be known about the Volt, that is supposed to come out near the end of 2010.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:19 PM under Commentary , GM , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Good-Bye Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, Hummer
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors will eliminate or dispose of the Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands by the end of 2009 and Pontiac by no later than the end of 2010, under the automaker's most recent viability plan unveiled on Monday.
Eliminating the Pontiac division was a tough decision and "an intensely personal one" for many at the auto company because of its heritage, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in a press conference Monday. "But it is one that needed to be taken."
Under the original plan, GM was to make Pontiac a niche brand as the marque is generally sold alongside Buick and GMC vehicles. "We concluded that we didn't have a strategy that would allow us to win with the Pontiac brand," said Henderson. "We didn't have the resources in the form of product or marketing muscle behind the brand."
He said GM will discontinue production of Pontiac vehicles "no later than 2010."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:48 AM under GM , News | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's New Viability Plan: An Opportunity To Restructure GM -- "And Do It Once"
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson, calling this a "defining moment" for the automaker, laid out his "go faster, go deeper" restructuring plan that includes more cuts in jobs, plants, dealers and products, including elimination of the Pontiac brand.
The revised viability plan also includes a debt-for-equity swap for bondholders, the union retiree health-care fund and the U.S. taxpayer.
"We have an opportunity to restructure GM, and we're going to do it once," Henderson said in a press conference Monday morning.
Henderson said GM still prefers to restructure out of court but will do it in bankruptcy court if necessary -- a strong signal to unions, dealers and bondholders that they'd better get on board with the new plan. Henderson said the chances of filing bankruptcy are higher today than they were earlier largely because of the bondholder exchange.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:42 AM under Featured , GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
April Auto Sales: SAAR Rises to 10 Million, Edmunds.com Forecasts
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- April vehicle sales are looking like they will come in at a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate of 10 million. That's certainly nothing to brag about in normal times and compared with the last decade. Still, April looks to be the best month in several and up from 9.1 million in February.
"The industry is slowly picking up much-needed momentum; a 'cash for clunkers program' could help while an automaker bankruptcy could hurt, depending on how consumer confidence is affected," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:48 PM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM To Give Update on Plans Monday Morning
DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson will host a media briefing at 9 a.m. Monday 
to provide an update on the automaker's revised viability plan, the company said Sunday night.
Though GM is not providing detail about what he will say, Henderson is expected to announce more cuts, including the elimination of the Pontiac brand. Other moves could include permanent plant closings and job cuts. Initiatives to reduce the number of dealers and obtain a debt-for-equity swap from bondholders likely will be addressed. And the shakiness of parts supplier Delphi Corp. may be on the agenda as well.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:15 PM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Eleventh-Hour Compromises From Chrysler Stakeholders, but Is Fiat Still Serious?
By Bill Visnic
With President Obama's economic advisor saying only that the administration is "hopeful" Chrysler LLC can wrap up a deal with Italy's Fiat S.p.A. by the end of the week in order to stave off a trip to bankruptcy court, key constituencies made gestures over the weekend a willingness to help keep alive the Chrysler-Fiat deal.
That is if Fiat even wants to.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:39 PM under Chrysler , Featured , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Edmunds: GM To Hit the Kill Switch on Pontiac
Pressured on all fronts to right-size its business in order to stave off a bankruptcy that's likely to happen anyway, General Motors Corp. next week is likely to announce the latest casualty in its crash-dive restructuring: its lost-in-yesteryear Pontiac division.
Edmunds.com's Inside Line, like AutoObserver a part of the Edmunds.com organization, reported yesterday that a source at GM indicated the company is likely to announce on Monday that it will fold Pontiac, a name that has been part of the GM empire since 1926.
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg today also reported GM will shelve Pontiac, which achieved its true prominence in the 1960s when it introduced the GTO in 1964, a car widely credited with beginning one of Detroit's most beloved marketing and engineering phases -- its muscle-car era.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 10:51 AM under Business , GM , News | Comments (7) | digg this | del.icio.us
U.S. Preparing A Chrysler Chapter 11, The New York Times Says
DETROIT -- The U.S. Treasury Department is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Chrysler that could come as soon as next week, The New York Times is reporting.
The paper, quoting unnamed sources, says the Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members' pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing.
The Times further says Italy's Fiat would complete its alliance with Chrysler while the company is under bankruptcy protection.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:42 PM under Chrysler , GM , News | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Names 13 Plants For Shutdowns; Cuts 190,000 Vehicles From Production Schedule
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT - General Motors announced late Thursday it is scheduling multiple weeks of down time at 13 assembly plants in North America to reduce dealer inventories of unsold new vehicles, eliminating 190,000 vehicles from the production schedule for the second and early third quarters.
"We are pursuing an aggressive inventory strategy so we can get our dealers and ourselves ready for a clean and quick start to 2010 model year and capitalize on upturn when it occurs," Troy Clarke, GM's North America President, told reporters in a conference call Thursday afternoon.
Clarke said another reason for the production cuts was possible parts shortages caused by "the complicated and difficult negotiations" with auto supplier Delphi Corp., which has been in bankruptcy since October 2005, and "its debtor in possession lenders." He would not elaborate.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:16 PM under Featured , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat Could Be Set To Take Stake in GM's Opel
By Michelle Krebs
General Motors appears set to shift a majority stake in its German unit Opel, possibly to Italy's Fiat, though GM is in talks with other potential investors as well, according to European media reports Thursday morning.
GM also is talking to other parties, including Magna Steyr, the Austrian unit of Canadian auto supplier Magna International, reports say.
GM could sign a letter of intent with one of them as early as Tuesday.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:58 AM under Companies , GM , In the Media , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Extends Summer Breaks To Slash Bloated Inventories
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT - General Motors plans to extend its usual summer shutdown from two weeks to as much as two months for many of its North American assembly plants as it attempts to reduce its record-high inventories of unsold vehicles.
GM's inventories, among the highest in the industry, are the highest since Edmunds.com began keeping records. Sales, and in turn revenues, have not picked up as GM had hoped as the slow sales months of the summer approach.
The move clearly is anticipation as well of a possible Chapter 11 filing that, GM has long argued, would shut off the sales tap even further as customers steered clear of a bankrupt company.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:13 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
One Million Plug-In Hybrids by 2015? Maybe. Profitable? Probably Not
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- Most members of a panel of electric vehicle and battery experts at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress here say President Obama's goal of having 1 million plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles on the road by 2015 is possible -- but will be difficult.
But when asked if automakers or battery suppliers will be able to make a profit on the coming generation of electrified vehicles -- hybrids, plug-in hybrids and extended-range electric vehicles such as General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt and others -- that need advanced (but more expensive) lithium-ion batteries, the chances are even slimmer.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:54 AM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , Technology | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Obama Administration Loans Chrysler, GM More Money
The Obama administration, as promised, is providing more funds for Chrysler and General Motors as working capital to keep them afloat as they try to meet the government-imposed deadlines.
Chrysler received about $500 million to get it through the end of April. The Obama administration has set an April 30 deadline for Chrysler to negotiate a final deal with Italy's Fiat in order to be granted $6 billion more in government funds or face bankruptcy. And the government will end its support of Chrysler if it goes into
bankruptcy.
GM is receiving $5 billion through May to help it meet its June 1 deadline to return to the Obama administration with a viable restructuring plan or it faces bankruptcy, during which the government will provide funding.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:16 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM May Unload Opel for a Song
By Bill Visnic
Hustling to clean up its balance sheet and deal with some atrophied tentacles of its overseas operations prior to a June 1 deadline from the Obama administration, General Motors Corp. could be preparing a deal to offload -- for a paltry sum -- its cash-poor Adam Opel AG European operations, the Financial Times reported today.
The paper says GM wants an investor to pay the equivalent of about $650 million for Opel/Vauxhall. But GM would then invest the money in the new company formed by its European operations, becoming one of, if not the largest, of the new company's shareholders.
Moreover, given the complexity of GM's current financial situation and the compressed time frame for GM to right its ship lest the Obama administration's Automotive Task Force decree GM should be taken through bankruptcy, GM wants this Opel proposal to proceed in a matter of weeks, the Financial Times story said.
(Read more...)
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:49 AM under Business , Companies , GM , News | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Henderson: Four-Brand, Not Two-Brand, Strategy Remains the Plan
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson, in a Friday morning conference call, brought the media up to date on the progress of the automaker's latest "go deeper, go faster" plan required by the U.S. government and tried to dispel some reports that have been circulating.
Henderson reiterated bankruptcy still is not GM's preference, but it remains a possibility and is more probable as time marches on. He said GM is planning two tracks -- one for restructuring out of court and another within the bankruptcy court. Should bankruptcy be required, Henderson said, the plan in the works is to do it quickly, something many experts doubt can happen.
On other topics, he said: potential buyers and investors are lined up for a look at Saab, Saturn and Opel; more job cuts are coming; and no other brands, namely Pontiac and GMC, have been targeted for elimination as of now.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:52 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Bankruptcy Expert: GM "Quick Rinse" Bankruptcy Risks "Rinse And Repeat"
DETROIT -- Reports have heated up of late that General Motors will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late spring or early summer, emerging as a smaller but viable company in as little as two weeks or two to four months at most in a so-called "quick rinse" bankruptcy.
Both of these scenarios are exceedingly optimistic, say bankruptcy experts at the Detroit-based law firm of Plunkett Cooney. And done too quickly, a GM bankruptcy may become a 'rinse and repeat' bankruptcy," said Doug Bernstein, head of Plunkett Cooney's Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights practice group.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:50 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Said To Study Dropping Pontiac, GMC - Not Surprisingly
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. reportedly is considering dropping its Pontiac and GMC brands as part of its massive cost-cutting efforts, unnamed sources told Bloomberg News.
That comes as no surprise. GM already has said it was paring Pontiac back to a niche brand. GMC long has been questionable since every one of its models is sold under a different GM nameplate, most notably the much larger Chevrolet truck.
Sources told Bloomberg that Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick are likely safe from cuts, but GMC and Pontiac are being studied for elimination. Already GM has said Saturn will be phased out by 2011 unless the brand is purchased, and GM supposedly has multiple parties interested in acquiring Saturn. Hummer is gone or sold soon. Saab leaves the GM family by year-end.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:06 AM under Companies , GM , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Take My Pickup - Please
By Bill Visnic
Headlines declared the auto industry achieved a showroom mini-victory in March by markedly improving sales over a dismal February. But the improved numbers were something like lipstick on a pig as March's boost nonetheless concealed some ugly realities.
One of the most foreboding trends to continue despite the March uptick: the still-accelerating plunge of the full-size pickup truck market. If segment sales do not stabilize this year, revenue-ravaged automakers may have to take drastic measures.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:42 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Featured , Ford , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Investor Group Interested in Saturn, Journal Reports
DETROIT -- An investor group that includes a number of Saturn dealers said it has
approached General Motors to acquire and operate the principal assets of Saturn, the
Wall Street Journal reports.
The investors say Saturn would benefit as an independent entity. If successful, the new company would outsource Saturn production, initially to GM, and eventually sell "smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles" from a range of companies.
GM said in its February 17 viability plan submitted to the federal government that it would phase out Saturn by 2011, when most of its models reach the end of their life cycle, unless a new arrangement could be made.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:27 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chevrolet Camaro Wins Edmunds' Inside Line Muscle Car Comparison Test
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Inside Line, Edmunds.com's online car magazine and sister site 
of AutoObserver.com, announced Wednesday that the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS took first place in its latest comparison test of iconic muscle cars.
The comparison is described in full at the 2010 Chevy Camaro SS vs. 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T vs. 2010 Ford Mustang GT Comparison Test.
"Car enthusiasts can rejoice that all three of these legendary pony cars have made a comeback," says Jay Kavanagh, Edmunds' Inside Line Engineering Editor. "But the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS leads the pack with its combination of power, speed and attitude."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:59 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Recalls 1.5 Million Cars
Just what General Motors needs right now -- a massive recall -- as it struggles to convince wary American consumers that it builds quality vehicles and it will survive its current financial crisis.
But that's what GM has. The automaker is recalling 1.5 million vehicles because of potential engine fires.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:06 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Global News: UK Electric Car Subsidy Criticized; Nissan, Renault Do Electric Cars in China; Tesla Opens EU Stores; Australian Sales Fall
In global news, the auto industry criticized Prime Minister Gordon Brown's subsidy for electric cars, Nissan and Renault announced plans to supply China with electric cars by 2011; U.S.-based Tesla is expanding to Europe; and vehicle sales in Australia tumbled in the first quarter.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:38 AM under Companies , Ford , GM , News , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saturn Dealers Lose Hope, Close Stores
Saturn dealerships are closing at a steady rate despite pleas from General Motors executives to hold on, trade journal Automotive News reports.
On January 1, Saturn had 420 stores in the United States. That dropped to 405 on February 15 and 384 on April 6. Last week, three dealerships in the Kansas City area and one in Springfield, Missouri, closed.
Saturn and its dealers are looking for an alternative ownership situation, one that may allow for the distribution of non-Saturn and non-GM products, including those from emerging markets like China and India.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:59 AM under Analysis , GM , In the Media | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Told To Prepare for Quick Bankruptcy, Paper Reports
NEW YORK -- Yet another newspaper report claims General Motors is preparing to file for bankruptcy at the urging of the Obama administration.
This time, it is The New York Times reporting in Sunday's edition that the U.S. Treasury Department is directing the automaker to lay the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing by June 1.
Citing unnamed sources supposedly briefed on the GM's plans, the Times reports the goal is to prepare for a fast "surgical" bankruptcy if the automaker can't reach agreement with bondholders and the United Automobile Workers union for a debt-for-equity swap.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:23 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , GM , In the Media | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Chrysler Bankruptcies Have Beneficiaries, Report Says
LONDON -- It's not all doom and gloom if General Motors and Chrysler go bankrupt, a new report says. In fact, some automakers will benefit from their bankruptcy.
GM and Chrysler competitors could gain pre-tax profit of more than $24 billion if the companies are forced to dramatically downsize after some kind of bankruptcy, says a report from Bernstein Research in London and reported on by the Detroit News.
In the U.S., Ford would benefit most with GM and Chrysler customers deflecting to its brand. Ford would be followed by the Japanese automakers and Germany's Volkswagen.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:19 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Tom Stephens: Lutz Successor Is a Serious Engineer - and Serious Enthusiast
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- The ouster of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner grabbed all of the headlines at the start of this month, but, at the same time, another changing of the guard was taking place quietly inside the auto company.
GM career engineer Thomas G. Stephens took over April 1 for the industry's most consistently anointed "car guy," Bob Lutz, who stepped down from daily responsibilities and will remain a GM advisor until his official retirement at year-end.
Stephens is an executive with no paltry credentials -- and plenty of his own car-guy chops.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:01 AM under Featured , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Tennessee Senator Is Whistling a New Tune
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, the "let the Big Three go bankrupt" Republican from Tennessee, is now whistling a different tune since General Motors' potential bankruptcy could hit his state.
Corker, according to the Detroit Free Press, has been arguing in news releases, interviews and columns in Tennessee newspapers that GM should not close its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant -- the one built in the 1980s to build Saturns and that now builds the Chevrolet Traverse. The plant now employs 3,000 voters --- er -- people.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:04 AM under Companies , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
U.S. Government Orders 17,600 Big Three Vehicles
WASHINGTON -- As President Obama promised a week ago, his administration is advancing plans for the purchase of new government fleet cars to spur U.S. vehicle sales and improve the fuel-efficiency of government-owned cars.
The government's order is for 17,600 fuel-efficient vehicles from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler by June 1. The total tab comes to $285 million, which will be drawn from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:50 PM under Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Economy Takes a Toll on Auto Dealers Ranks
In the first quarter this year, 271 auto dealers in the U.S. went out of business, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
NADA reports at the end of the first quarter, the U.S. had 19,738 auto dealers, down from 20,009 year-end 2008.
The trade group predicts about 1,200 dealers, mostly representing General Motors, Chrysler and Ford brands, to go out of business this year, about 20 percent more than last year.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:25 PM under Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM , News | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Europe Sees New Cars Cheaper Than Used, Too
Europe is now experiencing the same counterintuitive phenomenon that was recently noted in the States: that some new cars are selling for less than their used counterparts.
The Financial Times in London points out in a story published Thursday that aggressive discounts on new vehicles and a shortage of high-quality, late-model used cars that has pushed up used car prices is resulting in new cars selling for less than used cars.
Earlier this month, an analysis by Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com, showed the same situation in the U.S.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:18 AM under Analysis , Companies , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Auto Suppliers Get $5 Billion
The U.S. Treasury Department will start releasing $5 billion in government funds to auto suppliers next week. The Supplier Support Program will funnel the money through General Motors and Chrysler, which have loans from the government, to their shakiest and most vital suppliers.
Chrysler plans to use $1.5 billion; GM expects to use $2 billion. The remaining $1.5 billion would be available at the request of GM or Chrysler.
Ford has declined to participate as it has with government loans for itself. Instead, Ford is lending money to its suppliers.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:13 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Customers Prefer No-Bailout Ford, Edmunds.com Reports
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Ford's choice and ability to avoid taking loans from U.S. government is paying dividends in increased shopping by consumers.
An analysis of shopping on its Web site by Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com, shows the number of visitors who shopped for Ford vehicles in the first three months of this year rose 12 percent compared with the same period a year ago.
At the same time, the number of shoppers considering vehicles from General Motors and Chrysler, both of which have taken loans from the U.S. government, declined 19 percent and 15 percent respectively during the same period.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:39 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Ford , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Treasury Team Parked At GM For Next Two Weeks
A team from the U.S. Treasury Department is in Detroit this week and next helping General Motor devise a plan to save the company from a potential June 1 bankruptcy.
The Treasury Department's Harry J. Wilson, a former partner in Silver Point Capital LP, and about 14 other people including advisers from Boston Consulting Group and Rothschild Group are part of the group, Josh Earnest, a White House deputy press secretary, told Bloomberg News. Earnest added that the team will work to speed existing cuts and identify new savings.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:05 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Has Three Bids For Hummer, Reports Say
Three bidders with offers from $100 million to $200 million are interested in General Motors' Hummer brand, media outlets are reporting.
None are automakers, one is from the U.S. and two are from overseas, Reuters reported Thursday.
In addition to paying GM cash, the buyer would assume GM's liabilities for its 125 Hummer dealers in the U.S. and commit further investment to engineering, marketing and sales, Reuters reported.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:46 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Abu Dhabi Royal Family Eyes Opel Investment
Abu Dhabi's royal family might invest in General Motors' German subsidiary Opel, press reports said Monday.
Family member Sheikh Hamdan reportedly had a meeting with German regional premier Juergen Ruettgers of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to an Opel plant. Hamdan was quoted by Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper as saying the meeting was "very positive."
Agence France-Presse quoted Hamdan saying "no decision has been taken yet."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:36 AM under Companies , GM , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saab Tells Court It Will Be Sold by End of June
Swedish automaker Saab told a court in its homeland Monday that it has 20 "active" suitors and expects to be sold by the end of June. The automaker hasn't named those potential buyers. However, some indications are that Chinese and Swedish suitors are among them.
A Swedish court granted Saab an extension of the period it is protected from creditors to give it more time to restructure and find a buyer. Guy Lofalk, the lawyer in charge of Saab's restructuring, said the sale of Saab is a "crucial prerequisite for a successful reconstruction."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:33 AM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
College Hoops and Ailing Automakers
What do college basketball and troubled U.S. automakers have in common?
Plenty this year. The NCAA championship is taking place in Detroit and the "blue-collar" hometown team, Michigan State University, is in the final Monday night, to the surprise of many and the upset of those playing the brackets.
Indeed, as Wall Street Journal columnist Austin Kelley noted in Monday's edition, sports fans who wanted to forget General Motors' troubles and divert attention to college basketball were out of luck this weekend. "The specter of the ailing automaker was everywhere," he wrote.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:56 AM under Commentary , Ford , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Obama: Auto Industry Cannot Vanish
President Obama sent a message this weekend to auto workers and residents of 
auto towns that the U.S. "cannot let our auto industry vanish."
President Obama, in a column under his byline that appeared in select Midwest newspapers, said the reason the U.S. government is supporting General Motors and Chrysler with loans is because the auto industry "is an emblem of America" that helped build and sustain the middle class."
Obama acknowledged auto workers and auto towns had been through much pain and indicated they needed to brace for even more.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:15 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Henderson: File Bankruptcy Only if Required
By Michelle Krebs
Less than a week after becoming the new CEO of General Motors, replacing ousted Rick Wagoner, Fritz Henderson appeared on two major news shows Sunday -- CNN's State of the Union and NBC's Meet the Press.
In both interviews, Henderson insisted the automaker still prefers to avoid bankruptcy court to accomplish its restructuring, "but if it's required, that's what we'll do."
Henderson reiterated on Meet the Press what he'd told the media in his first press conference last Tuesday that GM needs to "go deeper and we need to go faster" in its restructuring. "We either accomplish this job outside of bankruptcy in the short term, or alternatively, if it's necessary, we'll go into bankruptcy in order to get this job done," he said."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:10 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , GM , In the Media , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
March Car Sales Show Signs of Life
By Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic
A late-month uptick caused March car and truck sales to surpass forecasters' expectations, providing a glimmer of hope to the U.S. auto industry that the long and ugly drought is nearing an end.
"We started to see some signs of life in the March numbers," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com. His remark echoed similar comments made by auto company executives and analysts as they delivered their March sales results Wednesday.
Particularly encouraging to everyone was the rise in the annualized rate and the above-average hike in sales from February to March.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:22 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Incentives Set All-Time Record, Edmunds.com Reports
By Michelle Krebs
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Automaker incentives set a new all-time high in March, even though it appears they didn't help sales much, according to Edmunds.com.
The average automotive manufacturer incentive was $3,169 per vehicle sold in March, the highest industry average on record.
"Automakers are pulling every lever in their effort to attract buyers, as evidenced by the new programs from Ford and General Motors," stated Jesse Toprak, Edmunds' executive director of Industry Analysis. "The typical incentive programs simply do not resonate in today's economy."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:49 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Close to Decision on Hummer
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors' newly appointed CEO Fritz Henderson said a decision on the future of Hummer is close.
Henderson said as his first press conference as CEO Tuesday that he had originally set a March 31 deadline to decide whether to sell or eliminate the Hummer brand. However, he said GM remains in talks with "several interested parties -- not just one" on the possible purchase of Hummer.
"We don't have a decision today but within weeks or days -- not months -- we'll be making a judgment on a sale or not," Henderson said.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:27 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Henderson: "We Will Get the Job Done"
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Frederick "Fritz" Henderson, the newly appointed CEO of General Motors, said in his first press conference Tuesday that the automaker understands what the U.S. government wants from GM and promises to get the job done.
"We will get the job done," Henderson told reporters emphatically with confidence and calm. "We'll do it in court or we'll do it outside of court. But we will get the job done."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:19 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Announces Suite of Incentives With Payment Protection Plan
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors Tuesday announced a comprehensive package of customer incentives and protection it calls GM Total Confidence.
The elements of GM Total Confidence, which are in addition to zero- or low-interest financing incentives, cash rebates and customer loyalty promotions, include:
- car payment protection for the first 24 months of ownership so that if the buyer loses income, GM makes nine payments of up to $500 per month;
- a protection plan that ensures the value of a buyer's trade-in;
- OnStar's safety and security plan for a year as standard fare;
- fully backed, 5-year/100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:50 AM under GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Fritz Henderson: The New Man on the Hot Seat
By Dale Buss
DETROIT -- General Motors has always reserved its top spot for executives with strong financial backgrounds. So from that perspective, Fritz Henderson, previously GM president and chief operating officer, is a natural to take over for just-departing CEO Rick Wagoner, who also rose through the company's treasurer's office.
But the highly regarded Henderson faces at least two big problems if he hopes to extend his "interim" as GM's new CEO into a permanent gig.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:28 PM under GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Rick Wagoner: Runs Out of Tomorrows
By Dale Buss
DETROIT -- Rick Wagoner finally ran out of tomorrows. The man who had survived at the helm of General Motors as it suffered unprecedented financial losses and a freefall in market share ultimately couldn't shake an even more procrustean force -- the vagaries of a U.S.-government bailout.
The 56-year-old former wunderkind beancounter resigned at the suggestion of the Obama administration as the new federal auto task force deals with the very latest of the recent disappointments overseen by Wagoner: GM's inability to coax and cajole unions, bondholders and other constituencies into agreeing to a sweeping new viability plan for the automaker. The government will have to extend GM's taxpayer-funded lifeline and try to wrap up a restructuring under a new CEO.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:23 PM under GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM CEO Wagoner Out as Obama Administration Goes "Hands On" With Detroit
By Bill Visnic
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has been asked to resign as a condition of extending addition federal aid to the auto company he's run for nine years.
"On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with [Obama] administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I 'step aside' as CEO of GM, and so I have," Wagoner said in a statement early this morning.
The prospect of Wagner's leaving or being forced to resign first emerged last fall when the Detroit Three automakers initially reported to Congress about their deteriorating businesses and GM and Chrysler LLC proceeded to accept federal "bailout" loans from the U.S. Department of Treasury's now-infamous Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 2:58 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Obama Team Gives GM, Chrysler Viability Plans Failing Grades; Re-Do Is Ordered
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- President Barack Obama, scheduled to take to the airwaves later this morning to discuss the plight of General Motors and Chrysler, gave the two automakers failing grades on their current viability plans and has given them more time to revamp them.
The viability plans submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department on February 17 "did not establish a credible path to viability," President Obama's automotive task force determined, and "are not sufficient to justify a substantial new investment of taxpayer resources."
The Obama administration will provide "adequate" working capital to give GM another 60 days to re-do its plan. Chrysler, which the task force concluded cannot survive on its own, gets another 30 days to complete its alliance with Italy's Fiat.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:15 AM under Chrysler , Featured , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
March Car Sales Look a Lot Like February Car Sales
By Michelle Krebs
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- March car sales to be reported April 1 by manufacturers look a lot like February car sales, and that's not a good thing since March traditionally marks the kick off of the busy spring selling season.
"If sales continue at this pace all year, we're looking at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of only 8.9 million vehicles sold, which is slightly more than half of 2007 sales," said Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:06 PM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Cadillac Put Out of Some European Markets by Distributor's Woes
The future of General Motors' Cadillac division in Europe is becoming increasingly cloudy, 
with the automaker reportedly withdrawing its luxury brand from half of Europe's 25 markets due to the financial struggles of its distributor, the Netherlands-based Kroymans Corp.
In another blow to its European aspirations, Cadillac confirmed to AutoObserver earlier this week that it has shelved plans for a new long-needed diesel engine for its rear-drive cars, like the CTS and STS, sold in Europe, where diesels are a must-have for luxury cars.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:06 AM under Business , GM , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Advisor: Doubts Bankruptcy Is Chosen Route
Roger C. Altman, chairman and CEO of investment firm Evercore Partners and currently an 
advisor to General Motors in its restructuring, says he doubts bankruptcy is the way struggling automakers like GM and Chrysler will go.
Altman was asked in an interview with the Financial Times, if we will see prepackaged bankruptcies for some carmakers. "The administration hasn't entirely made clear its position on that. So I'm not sure, but I would be skeptical that's the route this will go," he responded.
"I think the companies -- and let me focus particularly on General Motors, because that's the one I know best because we represent GM -- have made much more progress than people realized, in improving product quality, improving fuel-efficiency, streamlining themselves, lowering labor cost differentials dramatically relative to the transplant costs, and so forth," he added.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:32 AM under Commentary , Companies , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Cadillac Kills Crucial Diesel Engine for Europe
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac division, long ambitious to expand its brand in Europe, has canceled a long-needed diesel engine that was earmarked to power Cadillacs sold in that market.
The loss of the diesel engine -- currently a virtual requirement to successfully compete in Europe, particularly in premium-vehicle segments -- is another blow to Cadillac's European aspirations and is certain to cause a serious setback and realignment of Cadillac's strategy. Or even an outright surrender in Europe.
GM and Cadillac sources confirm the diesel for Europe has been canceled, but division spokesperson Joann Krell said the engine's official status, as with many diesel engine programs recently shelved, is "indefinitely delayed."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:55 PM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Global News: Volvo Cars Has Poor Resale Value; GM Guarantees Technology for Saab; Porsche Secures $13.5 Billion Loan
In Global News Wednesday, Ford Motor Co. is negotiating with three bidders for Volvo, General Motors and Saab agree to share technology for five years, and Porsche obtained $13.5 billion in financing.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:16 AM under Companies , Ford , GM , News , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Survey Says: Americans Oppose Government Auto Loans
DETROIT -- And here comes yet another survey showing that Americans oppose government loans to General Motors and Chrysler, just as the two face a March 31 deadline to convince the government they have made progress, deserve to keep the money they've received and should get more.
This survey comes from Detroit-based R.L. Polk & Co., released on Monday. It shows 61 percent of Americans oppose the loans.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:11 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Global News: Cadillac Distributor Files Bankruptcy Protection; U.K. Car Production in Freefall; German Steelmaker Cuts Jobs
In global news, General Motors' distributor in Europe has filed for the equivalent of bankruptcy protection from creditors, U.K. auto production is plummeting, and Germany's largest steelmaker is cutting thousands of jobs.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:06 PM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Bondholders Tell Regulators Debt-Swap Plan Is Risky, Unfair
By Michelle Krebs
Representatives of General Motors' bondholders, facing a March 31 deadline to negotiate concessions with the automaker, charge in a letter to federal regulators that GM's proposed restructuring will not necessarily keep GM out of bankruptcy, and if GM does file bankruptcy, their investments would be worthless.
GM's restructuring plan submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department on February 17 may not keep GM out of bankruptcy as it appears "the company is putting too much faith in a near-term turnaround in the economy that would enable annual car and truck sales to reach previous levels," said the letter sent Sunday to Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner as well as Lawrence Summers, Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, who serve on President Barack Obama's automotive task force.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:05 AM under Business , GM | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Obama Recognizes Unpopularity of Auto Bailout
President Barack Obama didn't give any hints about which way his administration was 
leaning in terms of more loans to domestic automakers, General Motors and Chrysler. But he did acknowledge the unpopularity of such loans by the American public, during his interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, which aired Sunday night.
The President said he is still committed to helping GM and Chrysler avert bankruptcy, but he says they have yet to demonstrate they can remain economically viable. And there are major political obstacles.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:33 AM under Business , Chrysler , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chevy Camaro: My Muscle Car's More Like a Prius Than Yours
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- Back when the car business was fun and nobody knew one hydrocarbon from the next, muscle car talk was big-block V8s, cam-lobe profiles -- and, of course, mine's got more horsepower than yours.
Now, you'd be forgiven for wondering if the new-generation 2010 Camaro -- a nameplate with a storied history built around all of the above -- even offers a V8.
The new Camaro hit showrooms this week. In the information distribute