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Two South Dakota car dealers are suing General Motors, claiming state law bars the Detroit automaker from ending its franchise with them, at least without a hearing. Now I'm sure there's something about the relationship between GM and dealer franchises that I don't understand, but if these dealers want to keep selling cars that aren't selling, why stop them? Read more at the Chicago Tribune  

With GM reaching a tentative deal to sell Saturn to Roger Penske, you sort of wonder why anyone would want to jump into the auto manufacturing business right now. One thing for certain, Penske is no fool. He must feel pretty sure that he can make this work...

Here's the problem with messing with private companies and the free market... where do you stop? "I honestly don't believe that companies should be allowed to take taxpayer funds for a bailout and then leave it to local dealers and their customers to fend for themselves," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who convened the hearing...

As the Detroit carmaker began retooling after filing for bankruptcy protection, a company spokesman said Monday he did not expect further cuts to GM Racing's budget, which supports NASCAR, NHRA, ALMS and short-track racing activities around the country and adheres to the "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" mantra. "Racing equals good ROI (return on investment)," said Steve Janisse, group manager for Chevrolet Communications. "There are no expected budget cuts right now." But will it sell the smaller, more fuel efficient cars that Government Motors is promising?..

AR Index     554.93  +48.67  (+9.61%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  81.72   +6.40 GM        0.75      -0.68 Ford      6.13     +0.87 Dow 8721.44  +444.12   (+5.37%) With all the semi-uncertainty last week about whether GM would file bankruptcy and what would happen as a result, GM stock lost almost half its value in the last week. It's actually not quite to penny stock territory, but that 75 cent price tag might induce some speculation, even by small investors, in the GM that might emerge out of all this. Speaking of speculation, the current run up at the pumps, for no apparent underlying supply or demand reasons, shows that those commodity markets are still not quite right...

Was it a red sky last and sailor's delight, or a red sky this morning and GM take warning? Today's the day for "the announcement" and naturally enough there was all sorts of media speculation about what it will all mean, liberally sprinkled with plenty of gloom and doom since that's all they seem comfortable doing. (If it bleeds, it leads) A NY Times blog yesterday had several experts weighing in on different aspects of the situation and this comment by a professor or economics on closing dealerships caught my eye: For us consumers, we’ll soon have only half as many places to buy G.M...

This is the weekend. Monday is the deadline. We have a member of the auto task force calling bondholders "terrorists" and it looks likely that Monday is going to be the day that we the people are going to own a large stake in GM...

Auto parts makers Visteon Corp and Metaldyne Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for their U.S. operations, becoming the latest casualties of the global auto industry. Every time some people here the word "bankruptcy" they think that means companies are going out of business, and that's not really what's going on here...

Things that make you go duh! Car dealers that are slated to be closed by GM and Chrysler are selling cars at deeper discounts than dealers that are going to survive the cut. DUH On the other hand, getting car sales moving again is the whole point of this exercise isn't it?..

From a Reuters story I just saw... NEW YORK (Reuters) - If General Motors Corp files for bankruptcy, as widely expected, its healthy assets will be quickly sold to a new company owned by the U.S. government, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday...