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Detroit, Nov. 3 [35 minutes ago] (UPI) - A Chrysler executive has apologized for his language but stands by a tweet calling out Donald Trump for saying U.S. Jeep production is moving to China. Ralph Gilles, Chrysler Group LLC vice president for product design, was responding to a Trump online posting that said "(President Barack) Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China -- and will!" ... The company said it plans to produce Jeeps in China for sale in China, but is expanding Jeep production in the...

General Motors is criticizing Mitt Romney for running an ad that says GM cut 15,000 jobs under the Obama Administration. The Detroit Free Press reported that GM spokesman Greg Martin (speaking about the Romney ad) stated, "No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country." Leaving aside for a moment the bigger issue of a taxpayer-supported entity improperly inserting itself in an election, lets examine the facts. A look at GM's annual SEC filings gives a clear picture of how many people were...

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne discussed, in limited detail, some of the Italian company's plans for future production of its vehicles, including the Chrysler and Jeep brands, during an earnings conference call yesterday. There has been much recent speculation on the possibility that some of the once American-owned Chrysler Jeep vehicles will be outsourced and produced overseas. It was confirmed that at least some Jeeps will be manufactured outside the US in the near future. The plan is to produce a new, smaller Jeep in Italy that will be sold in Europe and also exported to America. The question now...

There is nothing like having unbiased media coverage of the all-important presidential campaign leading up to next week's election. And the media is nothing like unbiased. We see this playing out again as Mitt Romney is now being accused of misrepresenting a story that Bloomberg.com reported on Chrysler's potential outsourcing of Jeep manufacturing to China. A look at the original comments from the article gives evidence as to how unfair the criticism is and just how right Romney was for pointing out the likely future outsourcing of Jeep manufacturing. According to the Detroit Free Press, Romney stated during an Ohio...

In another potential blow for the president's Ohio reelection campaign, Jeep, the rugged brand President Obama once said symbolized American freedom, is considering giving up on the United States and shifting production to China. Such a move would crash the economy in towns like Toledo, Ohio, where Jeeps are made and supplied, and rob the community of the economic security they thought Obama's auto bailout assured them. Fiat SpA (F), majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC, plans to return Jeep output to China and may eventually make all of its models in that country, according to the head of both...

American taxpayers should prepare themselves for another slap in the face, courtesy of the much-ballyhooed Obama auto bailouts. After spending about $85 billion to bail out Chrysler, General Motors and Ally Financial (formerly known as GMAC), taxpayers are being rewarded by Chrysler's parent company, Fiat, announcing that it is preparing to build its Jeep brand vehicles in China. In addition, according to a Bloomberg report, Fiat may end up building all of its vehicles in China , threatening the loss of more manufacturing jobs should the decision be carried out to move Chrysler manufacturing out of America. Italian automaker, Fiat,...

Once, not all that long ago, Lee Iacocca was courted as a possible presidential candidate. But on Thursday, the 88-year-old former Chrysler chief executive put his weight behind Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Business icon Lee Iacocca (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife) Iacocca has voiced his support for Romney in the past, notably on an appearance last year with Charlie Rose. His endorsement came in a statement issued by his California office and reported by the Detroit Free Press. He said Romney has “dozens of years of experience in the public and private sectors” and a plan that “will...

TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union said negotiating with the big three automakers - General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - before Monday's midnight strike deadline is like juggling "a lot of balls up in the air." If the CAW, which represents 21,500 members in the three companies, doesn't reach a settlement with the big three, it could mean a walkout could start at 12:01 a.m. Monday. "It's a little tough to tell at this point in time what the impact will be because it depends upon status of bargaining with each of the three companies," CAW secretary treasurer Peter Kennedy said...

The Canadian Auto Workers union is turning up the pressure in contract talks with the Detroit Three auto makers, saying it is prepared to go on strike against all of them at the same time if no deal is reached by the Sept. 17 deadline. “The corporations are refusing to add any costs whatsoever – instead they insist on cutting costs from our existing agreements,” the CAW said in a leaflet distributed Wednesday at Canadian plants operated by Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. “None of the three companies have demonstrated that they are serious about...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department has said the auto industry bailout will cost taxpayers $3.4 billion more than previously thought. Treasury now estimates the 2009 bailout will eventually cost the government $25.1 billion, according to a report sent to Congress on Friday. That is up from the last quarterly estimate of $21.7 billion. Since the $80 billion bailout of the auto industry, Detroit's big automakers have moved from crisis to profit. GM and Chrysler were put through government-funded bankruptcies that slashed costs and debt. Treasury has so far recouped about half of what was extended in grants and...

Considering the way the Obama campaign has decided to blame Romney and Bane capital for the death of a man's wife, I have decided to begin a campaign of listing the people Obama is responsible of killing. When you think of all those GM & Chrysler dealerships that were forced to close, I would bet we can find many who will be willing to blame Obama for the untimely death of their loved ones. Just consider if you will, the many lives Obama is responsible for in "Fast and Furious" alone. Besides the death of an American Border Agent, his...

The Obama Administration has become quite the expert on bankruptcy filings. The Detroit Free Press reports that the third auto bailout partaker, Ally Financial, has filed bankruptcy for its mortgage subsidiary, ResCap. The government still owns 74% of Ally, and now has an 0 for 3 record on restructuring bailed out auto-related companies outside of bankruptcy. Three years ago the Obama Administration, particularly the Auto Task Force, had a mission to restructure General Motors, Chrysler and GM's lending arm, GMAC. The stated goal was to restructure the auto industry players outside of bankruptcy. This stated goal turned out to be...

After 36 years, the Dodge Dart is back, and it's no retro model. The 2013 Dart five-seat sedan is modern and stylish, with European handling and heritage, fun features, 10 air bags and fuel-thrifty engines, including two turbos. And smart design and attention to detail inside the Dart successfully groups the information from the gauges with the controls in the center of the dashboard better than any car — Dodge or otherwise. The slew of features, standard on some models and optional on others, include denim material seat inserts, heated steering wheel and a 8.4-inch touch screen with touch screen...

Democrats and Republicans have slammed Mitt Romney for his 2008 view that Detroit should "go bankrupt," but the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said Monday his views played a big part in the auto industry's recovery. "I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back," Romney told WEWS-TV in Cleveland. Speaking after a campaign stop at a metal stamping facility in nearby Euclid, Romney said the industry needed to enter a "managed bankruptcy" process in order to fully recover – and that was what eventually helped American automakers get back on their feet.

One of Mitt Romney's top advisers said Saturday that President Obama's decision to bailout Chrysler and General Motors was actually Romney's idea. "[Romney's] position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that," Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said. "The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice."

As if we needed another reason to never buy a Chrysler...

Briefly noticed a small "Driving America" logo in the upper right hand corner of my TV last night during a Chrysler ad and shook my head in dismay.

Ally Financial seldom gets mentioned when the auto bailouts are discussed. The company was formerly known as GMAC and the 17 billion dollars that taxpayers sunk into the company was crucial for the perceived success at both General Motors and Chrysler . We now learn that Ally Financial has failed a government stress test and, according to Reuters, "fared by far the worst of 19 banks examined." Years back, GMAC changed its name to Ally Financial to dissociate itself from GM. Just changing a name can not negate the fact that the $17,000,000,000 Ally Financial received from taxpayers went...

The Detroit News reports that Mitt Romney wants a reexamination of the General Motors' bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Romney is quoted as stating, "I think it's important for us to go back and look at what happened and take apart this bankruptcy process. See to what extent the finger of politics was placed on the scales of justice and see if we can't be more fair to the people involved in this process." I agree with the sentiment, but I do have to ask, where were the Republicans on this issue over two years ago? Three years ago I served...

Did you know that there are no Volkswagen manufacturing plants in the Detroit area? Or Mercedes-Benz? Or Kia? Or Hyundai? Or BMW, for that matter? The Motor City has a well-earned reputation for having the greatest auto workers in the nation, yet honorable Michiganders largely build cars for only three companies. Apart from having their cars assembled in Michigan, it turns out that those three companies have something else in common: the United Auto Workers union (UAW). It also turns out that every other car manufacturer has something in common, too: not wanting the UAW to do to them what...