Blog Category Results

From freep.com - At the Los Angeles Auto Show Dec. 2, General Motors will announce the initial retail markets where the electric-drive Chevrolet Volt will be sold, the company said Tuesday. I'm still not sure how a car that's not going to make Dollar One in profit is going to turn GM around and get me my $165 back (roughly the amount spent on the bailout for every man, woman, and child in the US) The markets will no doubt be picked to maximize sales and buzz, but the car is going to have to stand or fall on it's own merits and not the hype.

AR Index     663.56  +28.25  (+4.45%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  80.20  +1.08 GM        0.64    +0.06 Ford      8.71    +0.53 Dow 10406.96  +180.02   (+1.76%) Lots of green this week as everything is up and the news seems good. Somehow they're even calling a $1.2 billion loss at GM in less than a quarter a positive sign. (I'll believe we're getting our money back when I see it) The only place I'm seeing red, and it's a good red, is that prices at the pump eased again as the speculators were unable to have their way, although as the three recent bumps in the graph show, that have been trying!

From The Independent World The Dutch government is to become the first country in Europe to introduce a green tax to replace annual road tax on cars. Drivers will have to pay per kilometer driven in a bid to end chronic traffic jams and cut carbon emissions. The system, which will use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to monitor cars, could be used as a test case for other countries weighing options for easing crowded roads...

General Motors Co. has decided to produce the Cadillac Converj, an extended-range electric car using the same technology as the Chevrolet Volt, The Detroit News has learned. I guess it's the natural followup to the wild success and overwhelmingly positive reaction that the public has had to the Volt...

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler has disbanded a team of engineers dedicated to rushing a range of electric vehicles to showrooms and dropped ambitious sales targets for battery-powered cars set as it was sliding toward bankruptcy and seeking government aid. The move by Fiat SpA marks a major reversal for Chrysler, which had used its electric car program as part of the case for a $12.5 billion federal aid package. I've said it before and I'll say it again...

The image is from the Charlie Chaplin classic, "Modern Times", which follows the Little Tramp through his trials and tribulations at a factory. I was reminded of the film while reading an interesting op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about how Ford is making it comeback, and how the UAW is throwing a real monkey wrench into the works. The real issue is the job classifications...

It's a headline too good to pass up... As Chrysler sits on blocks, what will Fiat do to fix it? Given that some folks have suggested that Fiat is an acronym for Failure In Automotive Technology or Fix It Again Tony, the headline gave me a little chuckle...

How appropriate that on election we have a story about how the US Treasury is considering options for divesting itself of our stake in the auto industry. One of the options it is focuing on is on a series of public offering. Taxpayers have sunk more than $50 billion in bailout and bankruptcy financing in GM and more than $14 billion in Chrysler this year...

In just two days of voting, the Canadian Auto Workers pulled off what the UAW was unable to do in weeks -- convince its membership to vote for yet another set of contract changes with Ford Motor Co. Not only did they agree to the changes in the contract that put them in line with the deals with GM and Chrysler, they did so by voting 83% in favor as opposed to roughly the same percentage in opposition at the UAW plants. Will Ford start to migrate work to Canadian plants?..

Another historic UAW "victory" as workers at the Sterling Heights axle plant vote down the concessions Ford needs to stay competetive. Under the terms of the agreement, Sterling Axle was supposed to get new rear-wheel drive work that would have added about 100 jobs. Now, union sources fear that work will be given to Getrag Corp., a German supplier with a nonunion factory in North Carolina...