Blog Category Results

China has told the U.S. that it will take steps that could lead to higher tariffs on imports of autos made by GM, Chrysler and Ford. Steve Collins, president of industry trade group the American Automotive Policy Council, said Wednesday that U.S...

From freep.com The trusted magazine Consumer Reports heaped praise Tuesday on Ford Motor Co., which continues to gain momentum in the face of the global recession. "Ford is the only domestic automaker that's producing vehicles with world-class reliability," Rik Paul, Consumer Reports' automotive editor, said. He was in Detroit to announce the magazine's 2009 Annual Car Reliability Survey...

To promote its upcoming extended-range electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt, General Motors is playing a game of "name that color." If you've seen pictures of the Volt, you're likely already familiar with its greenish-silvery hue. A contest inviting the public to suggest a name for that color launched Friday and will continue through Nov. 4...

I'm willing to bet that if you look up the etymology of the idiom, "cut off one's nose to spite one's face", you'll find references to the UAW. Is it just me, or are we in challenging economic times, particularly in the auto industry? On October 13, Ford and the UAW reached a tentative agreement on a contract...

Here's why you don't want the government's fingers in the day to day business pie. The government has sunk $50 billion into GM and $14 billion into Chrysler. Rattner has long maintained that the money the Bush administration gave the automakers -- roughly $20 billion for GM and $4 billion for Chrysler -- would have to be written off because it wasn't tied to restructuring...

Just in from the Associated Press: WASHINGTON — The shockingly poor financial management of General Motors and Chrysler weakened their case for a government bailout, but officials feared letting the automakers collapse would severely harm the U.S. economy, the former head of the Obama administration's auto task force says... "We were shocked, even beyond our low expectations, by the poor state of both GM and Chrysler...

 AR Index     613.08  +1.46  (+0.24%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  80.31  +1.38 GM        0.65    -0.05 Ford      7.57   -0.05 Dow 10092.19  +206.39   (+2.09%) According to freep.com, Ford might show a 3rd quarter profit, if analysts at JP Morgan are correct. They say Ford is benefitting from an increase in Ford F-150 pickup sales, reduced incentive spending and a surge in sales sparked by the federal government's cash-for-clunkers program. So while this seems to be good news, I think we have to wait for the Cash For Clunkers effect to wear off before we'll get a truer picture of how things are

From Gasgoo.com: Following a robust September when China's auto sales soared 78 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) now forecasts that auto sales in the country would surpass 12 million for the full year of 2009. Many global automakers are getting by in this economic crisis partly because of the continued sales boost the auto industry is experiencing in China. However, analysts fear that this interest may end as early as next year...

From the Wall Street Journal:  Mark LaNeve, General Motors sales chief and a longtime executive, will leave the company Oct. 15 for a job with a company in another industry. LaNeve headed sales and marketing until GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson restructured the management team and put former product head Bob Lutz in charge of marketing...

DETROIT — Auto parts maker Delphi ended four years in bankruptcy court Tuesday, emerging as a private company and removing a major uncertainty for former parent General Motors. The group acquiring the now much smaller Delphi will forgive nearly $3.5 billion of bankruptcy loans and will invest $900 million in capital. It may remove some uncertainty from GM's situation, but that doesn't mean GM should plan on being the big dog in town any time soon.