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GM to invest $500 million in new compact Published: Aug. 22, 2008 at 1:57 PM DETROIT, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Auto giant General Motors Corp. is preparing to invest $500 million in a new compact car, slated for production in Lordstown, Ohio, the company said. The Chevy Cruz is one of the company's answers to consumer demand for fuel-efficient vehicles and will reportedly run 45 miles on a gallon of gasoline, The Detroit News reported Friday. The company plans to spend $150 million on development and $350 million on its Lordstown factory, the News reported. GM lost $15.5 billion in...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an important shift, said on Friday he backs a plan for the federal government to provide low- interest loans to struggling U.S. auto makers. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the loans are needed to help auto makers build the next generation of cars and become financially stable. "Our auto companies are rising to the challenge of building the next generation of American cars, but are doing so in times when credit conditions cripple the funding for the facilities and technologies to take the steps to the future," McCain said in a...

ALMOST ten years ago, a jury acquitted Lord Melchett, a British aristocrat who headed Greenpeace, of the wilful destruction of a field of genetically modified (GM) crops in Norfolk. Though police caught Lord Melchett and 27 other activists in the field, the jury was unwilling to convict. Talk of “Frankenfood” and “genetic pollution” sowed popular fear of GM crops. Ten years on and anti-GM activists are still at it: in June, unknown vandals destroyed a field of genetically modified potatoes near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. If they are ever caught, they may find themselves in for rougher treatment than their forerunners:...

So it appears GM may be going under. They lost 15.5 billion dollars in the second quarter. So the question is: WHO'S READY FOR ANOTHER BAILOUT!?!

The General Motors Corporation, reeling from the abrupt shift to small cars by consumers, posted a $15.5 billion second-quarter loss on Friday, in results weighed down by restructuring charges and write-downs. According to the earnings statement, the loss included $9.1 billion in one-time charges, $3.3 billion of which was for employee buyouts. [Snip] Excluding one-time charges, G.M. had a loss of $6.3 billion or $11.21 a share, compared with income of $1.3 billion or $2.29 a share in the same period last year. Included in the results, the statement said, was $1.3 billion in write-offs that reflect the drop in...

With a market capitalization of $8 billion--near its value of 50 years ago--General Motors is cheap. That is, assuming GM can be fixed before it goes bankrupt. Of course GM can be fixed. The question is whether CEO Rick Wagoner or anyone can fix the auto giant while it remains a public company and gasps under union contracts and pension obligations in union-friendly Michigan. I'm not sure Wagoner's plan to cut $10 billion in costs over 18 months and raise $4 billion to $7 billion through asset sales and debt is quite enough, bold as it is. Here's an alternative:...

When unveiling new performance models, car companies usually boast about horsepower, engine size and expected zero-to-60 times. But when General Motors unveiled the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro Monday afternoon, it was the car's fuel economy numbers that were front and center. It's the return of a once-popular model that has been out of production since the 2002 model year. V6 versions, which GM expects will be the biggest sellers, are expected to get 26 miles per gallon on the highway. That's about the same as a V6 Ford Mustang, while boasting the same horsepower output as a V8 Mustang. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/autos/0807/gallery.2010_chevrolet_camaro/index.html

DETROIT -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday he doesn't believe General Motors Corp. needs a federal government bailout, but if conditions worsen enough for the auto maker, all options need to be considered."I hope GM does not require it, but if it looks like it is approaching that, everyone has to consider every option," the Arizona senator said in a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "I'm not ready to assume that's the case right now."

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - General Motors will begin building Saab vehicles in the United States rather than put its Swedish subsidiary up for sale, GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said Friday. < > "The issue at Saab is trying to sell too many Saabs in the US as the Swedish (kroner) has strengthened against the dollar. We can't push volume in the US. We have to let it settle out and reflect the currency. "But we've got a number of new (Saab) products coming up beginning in the third quarter next year and it will have a new...

MILWAUKEE -- Air bags were designed to save lives, not put them in danger. So imagine driving on a freeway or crowded city street and your air bag deploys unexpectedly. When Fond du Lac, Wis., was drenched in heavy rain last month, Lynda Schultz's 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier became trapped in a heavily flooded parking lot. "I'm sure the floorboards were soaked because the floodwaters rose," Schultz said. Weeks earlier, heavy rains had leaked into Tom Kleist's 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. "I just went in my car and the floor had water all over it," Kleist said. Both drivers eventually dried...

<p>One of the Big Ideas that's gotten a boost from the recent oil price shock is the notion that the energy for transportation should come from the electric grid, not an oil well in the Middle East.</p> <p>A number of big, established car makers have announced plans to produce cars that will pull from the electric grid all or part of the energy needed to make them go. They join a flock of upstart companies, such as Tesla Motors, trying to prosper by defining a new generation of mobility technology starting with a blank sheet of paper - or rather a blank video display screen.</p>

WARREN, Mich.--Speaking to a group of General Motors Corp. employees, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised to provide a $5,000 tax credit for Americans who buy electric-powered cars such as the future Chevy Volt and "other automobiles that put us on the path to energy independence," even as he suggested he might alter his climate plan to aid the auto industry.

I’d like to issue a statement: Reports that this column is stupid are inaccurate. You got that? Good. Now move on to criticizing The Laughing Chef column. I have spoken. I guess you didn’t know you can take something that seems obviously true and end all such obviousness simply by using the word inaccurate. Neither did I, until I began acquainting myself with the wordsmithing skills of one Rick Waggoner, CEO of General Motors. Now regular readers of this column will of course remember Mr. Waggoner. In February, Mr. Waggoner pronounced himself “pleased” at GM’s 2007 earnings report, which contained...

Southfield (WWJ) -- General Motors is preparing to announce a major downsizing and restructuring moves Tuesday in response to falling U.S. sales. A statement from the company says Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will discuss the changes at a news conference at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Before the news conference, Wagoner will address employees. The company released no further details.

Rising fuel prices, both in the U.S. and abroad, means that automakers can now offer similar engines in vehicles sold throughout the world. According to Automotive News, General Motors' next small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, will be offered with a new 1.4-liter force-fed four-banger, putting out between 120 and 140 horsepower and returning fuel mileage in the 40 mpg range.

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - MasterCard Inc (MA.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's second-largest credit card network, will replace Ace Ltd (ACE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in the Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX, and will also replace General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in the S&P 100 index .OEX of major blue-chip companies, S&P said on Thursday. S&P said it is dropping Ace from its flagship index because the insurer is reincorporating in Switzerland, rendering it ineligible for including in S&P U.S. indexes. MasterCard shares have risen more than sixfold since the Purchase, New York-based company went public in...

WHO shot General Motors? The company’s stock is at its lowest level in 50 years, and its market valuation has plunged to $5.9 billion, less than that of the Hershey candy-bar company. The automaker is weighing yet another round of layoffs — and maybe even a fire sale of venerable brands like Buick and Pontiac. General Motors once manufactured half the cars on the American road, but now it sells barely 2 in 10. Bankruptcy is not unthinkable for Detroit’s former king. The immediate cause of G.M.’s distress, of course, is the surging price of oil, which has put a...

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp is rushing to finish the production version of its Chevy Volt and plans to unveil a showroom-ready model of the heavily touted electric car in September, people familiar with the project say.

Bruised by a deep sales slump and a half-century-low in its stock price, General Motors Corp. is preparing to cut thousands more white-collar jobs and is considering whether it should sell or shutter more of its brands, people familiar with the matter said. Both moves are part of a broader re-evaluation of GM's strategy and of its ability to meet an internal projection of returning to profitability in 2010, these people said. [Snip] The company currently sells vehicles under eight different brands, but most, including Buick, Saturn and Saab, struggle to attract buyers despite offering new models that cost GM...

General Motors, the maker of the iconic off-road Hummer, may be gearing itself up to sell mini-cars in the US, in order to win back market share as soaring fuel costs turn Americans off gas-guzzlers. Usually sold only in Asia and Latin America, GM is thought to be developing a version of the Chevrolet Beat for America’s highways, according to a report by Bloomberg. Not much bigger than the Daimler Smart car, the Chevrolet Beat does 40 miles to the gallon - making its fuel efficiency second only to hybrid cars in the US. Chevrolet Beat: sold in Asia and...

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (NYSE:GM - News) will need to raise as much as $15 billion in cash to shore up liquidity and bankruptcy is "not impossible" if the U.S. auto market continues to slump, Merrill Lynch said. Other analysts have suggested GM, whose shares fell to a new 54-year low on Wednesday, needs to raise funds to ride out the downturn in the U.S. auto market through 2009. But Merrill's estimate of GM's financing needs is the highest yet. It also carried the most stark warning of the bankruptcy risk for the largest U.S. automaker. GM declined...

It could travel 150 miles without using a drop of gasoline, accelerate from zero to sixty mph in about eight seconds, and handled crisply. Total cost? Below $40,000, in monthly lease payments sometimes as low as $299. In a world of $4 gas, it sounds like the car that could save General Motors. There's only one problem. Every single one of these cars was sent to the crusher in 2003. The EV1, GM's short-lived electric car experiment, was cancelled when gas was selling for slightly more than one dollar per gallon. Now, with gas four times as expensive, consumers demanding...

General Motors has been an American fixture for 111 years, but some warn that might be ending. The Michigan automaker faces tough obstacles ahead critical to its survival. Brian Williams raised the possibility of General Motors (NYSE:GM) going out of business on the June 26 “NBC Nightly News” to Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money.” “[J]im, I know you talk about this, think about this everyday for a living and have a formula regarding this,” Williams said. “But first, what’s going on out there? I heard one analyst today said, ‘GM will go out of business,’ though I know...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Why is General Motors still in the Dow? GM (GM, Fortune 500) may still be the biggest of the Big Three. But it's getting more and more difficult to justify keeping GM in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an exclusive list of what's supposed to be the 30 leaders in the U.S. markets and economy. GM confirmed on Monday that it is looking into selling its Hummer brand of monstrously-sized vehicles. And in a major sign of desperation, it also announced that it would offer six-year, zero-percent loans for 2008 models until the end of June...

The crisis at General Motors is not of its making. The economy is weak, gasoline prices are at record levels and the U.S. auto industry is in a big slump. Much of the blame lies elsewhere, but the auto giant is in peril. It has been no secret that the GM bank account has been shrinking by $1 billion a month, maybe more right now. It just introduced a new round of sales incentives to help reduce inventories. At this rate, the money runs out in two years--or even sooner. We also hear that the company is rethinking its product...

General Motors is back at the scene of the crime. When the Detroit automaker pulled the plug on its unprofitable electric-vehicle program in 2000, it became known, in the words of a popular documentary, as the company that killed the electric car. Its love affair with the Hummer didn't help either. Now the company is betting big bucks — most of its current research-and-development budget — that the internal-combustion engine's time is running out. By spearheading a new generation of electric automobiles, the beleaguered giant also is hoping it can reclaim from Toyota the title of world's top carmaker.

In the end, it was General Motors who settled the debate over fuel economy standards in the United States. Responding to plummeting demand for the full-size trucks and sport-utility vehicles that prompted Detroit’s resurgence during the ’90s, GM announced this week that it is going to change its business model. It will no longer focus on trucks, and plans to close four plants that builds them – focusing instead on cars that burn gasoline more efficiently. In doing so, the company was following the oldest rule in capitalism – supply must follow demand. American consumers had finally reached their breaking...

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - General Motors Corp said on Tuesday its all-electric Chevrolet Volt was on track for a launch in 2010 after the company's board approved funding for production of the high-profile plug-in vehicle. ...Unlike gas-electric hybrids such as the Prius, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, the Volt will be powered entirely by an electric motor and have a battery that can be charged through an ordinary power socket. The Volt's on-board engine will be used only to power the battery on longer trips, GM has said. GM is designing the...

The Wall Street Journal reports that the stagnant economy and spiraling commodity prices have brought back the specter of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for a Detroit Three automaker – especially for General Motors. Market prices for GM's credit-default swaps imply a greater risk of bankruptcy for GM than for Ford, according to the Journal report, and the smaller car maker also now sports a stock-market value almost 50 percent higher than GM's.

Honda Civic, Accord, Toyota Camry and Corolla all outsell Ford F-150 for the first time The two brands who lost and gained the most sales last month (MINI and HUMMER) sum up nicely what happened to auto sales during May in the U.S. Brands armed with small cars weathered the storm and big trucks and SUVs continued to nose dive. In fact, after 17 years worth of being this country's best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150 full-size pickup (42,973) has fallen for the first time to fifth place behind the Honda Accord (43,728), Toyota Camry (51,291), Corolla (52,826) and your new...

American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it will cut its U.S. hourly work force by 2,000, or about 55 percent, as a result of a new contract ratified last week by the United Auto Workers union.

Motorheads don’t want to hear it; refuse to believe it — but ugly realities are coming down hard on the ‘09 Camaro that will very possibly cause GM to pull the plug before the first one ever rolls off the line. Doubt that? Consider the stillborn rear-wheel-drive next generation Chevy Impala — nixed because of concerns within GM about the possibility of meeting the pending (2012) 35 mpg fuel economy edict recently passed by Congress. A lighter front-drive car with a V-6 instead of a V-8 can make the cut; a V-8 RWD Impala can’t. So it’s gone. So is...

Sagging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers. The world's largest automaker by sales said Monday that the cuts, to take effect starting this summer, were brought on by weak demand due to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn. The cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac and Flint, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario, as well as the full-size SUV plant in Janesville, Wis. The layoffs represent just over 4 percent of GM's hourly manufacturing work force of...

Production of General Motors Corp.'s popular crossover sports utility vehicles ground to a stop Thursday after workers at one of the automaker's Michigan factories went on strike. GM is already suffering from the loss of pickup and truck-based sports utility vehicle production because of a nearly two-month long strike at a key supplier, former subsidiary American Axle and Manufacturing Holding Inc. Thursday's strike by workers at GM's Delta Township plant was the latest salvo in a spreading battle between the United Auto Workers union and General Motors and its suppliers. "It's just crazy," one GM official who did not want...

DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Hundreds of workers streamed out of a General Motors Corp. assembly plant that makes crossover vehicles on Thursday, threatening the automaker's ability to build one of its most popular products. United Auto Workers members at the plant in Delta Township walked off their jobs just after a 10 a.m. deadline passed. The factory near Lansing makes the Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia crossover vehicles that are selling well for GM. The strike is the first against GM over a local contract since a lengthy walkout in Flint back in 1998, said GM spokesman...

Major six page article covering essentially three areas: * GM crops, extremely aggressive law suits, suing wrong farmers, buying up nonGM seed suppliers, etc. * Dioxin production, trying to get navy subs to use PCB hydraulic fluids, Nitro W.Va. plant explosion, hiding risk from victims, etc. * Manufacturing rGBH cow hormone, suing farmers advertising milk "From cows not treated with rGBH", recent PA milk advertising ban on mentioning rGBH where E-mail protest caused fast Eddie to reverse, etc.Interesting and worth reading..... but can not post excerpt due to Vanity Fair restriction. Article is Monsanto's Harvest of Fear at Vanity Fare...

Duke Energy and smart grid company GridPoint said on Thursday that they have found a way for people to charge plug-in hybrid cars in a way that won't bring the power grid to its knees. "If suddenly you have 20,000 or 30,000 rechargeable cars--with maybe 50,000 in a few years--plugging into the grid at night, utilities have to react to that or you'll have serious problems," Lewis said in an October interview. "You see plug-in hybrids becoming a big issue; it's a tidal wave coming at utilities."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - General Motors Corp. has agreed to settle a series of class-action lawsuits claiming a faulty engine coolant damaged thousands of customer vehicles. Under the settlement, GM would reimburse class members between $50 and $800 for repairs linked to Dex-Cool, an orange coolant that GM included in cars and trucks beginning in 1995.

Not making a hybrid car like the Prius was a "mistake," outspoken General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz told a room of Chevy Volt "fan boys" at the New York Auto Show this week. "We had the technology to come out with a hybrid at the same time as Toyota," Lutz said Tuesday. "In hindsight, it was a mistake. ... We made the mistake and we won't make it again." "I think the whole company has learned when you step out and do bold things, you win and when you're cautious and let other people do the bold things, you...

Led Zeppelin's back together. Stagflation and high gas prices have made a comeback as well. And late next year, you'll be able to complete a 1970s revival with a two-door car that's all business up front and party out back. Answering the wishes of fervent fans -- and the fears of some critics -- General Motors Corp. was to unveil today its plans for a revival of the Chevy El Camino car-truck as a 2010 model Pontiac hot rod. The "sport truck" doesn't have a name yet; GM will run a contest over the next month asking for submissions at...

DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers and auto parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. went back to the bargaining table Friday, trying to end an 11-day strike that has affected factories in the U.S. and Canada. American Axle says its manufacturing workers can make up to $73.48 per hour in wages and benefits, three times the rate at its U.S. competitors.

A strike at an auto parts supplier has forced General Motors Corp. to shut down three more pickup truck factories, idling 12,000 workers, the company said Friday. Plants in Flint; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Oshawa, Ontario, were to close at the end of the second shift on Friday night, GM spokesman Tom Wickham said. The closures are in addition to the idling of a pickup truck factory in Pontiac on Thursday. All the plants make the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-sized pickups. It is all due to a strike against parts supplier American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. The...

Government plans clampdown on vandalism after lobbying from biotech firms Genetically modified crops may be grown in hidden locations in Britain amid fears that anti-GM campaigners are winning the battle over the controversial technology, the Guardian has learned. Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed they are looking at a range of options to clamp down on vandalism to GM crop trials, after intense lobbying by big crop biotech companies. The firms have warned that trials of GM crops are becoming too expensive to conduct in Britain because of the additional costs of protecting fields...

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. will extend buyouts and early retirement incentives to its entire U.S. hourly work force as the automaker expects sales to fall this year in a rapidly weakening economy. The corporation will offer all of the automaker's 78,000 workers some type of buyout, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. GM's 40,800 workers now eligible for retirement will receive special incentives next month to leave the company by April. Another 5,200 workers already were offered retirement packages to leave by March. It's not known how many of the 735 hourly workers at GM's Saginaw Metal Casting Operations, 1629...

US auto giant General Motors' China joint venture has recalled 7,056 Buick cars sold in China due to problems with their front brakes, state media reported on Monday. Shanghai GM, a joint venture between GM and China's biggest carmaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., will make repairs to the cars free of charge, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the nation's product quality watchdog. The affected vehicles are Buick

Some car owners and other users of General Motors' OnStar service may find themselves in trouble this February, the Associated Press notes. As of February 18th, the FCC will allow GM to halt the analog version of OnStar, in a bid to make its network all-digital. The difficulty is that while the approximately one million OnStar cellphones can be replaced, some cars built as late as 2005 can only access OnStar via analog signals, and have no support for GM's $15 digital upgrade. Meanwhile, some home alarm systems with OnStar must default to a backup connection without analog. OnStar service...

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Chevrolet rolled out the Chevrolet Fuel Solutions initiative designed to aggressively promote the fuel-saving technologies available in the brand’s current and future lineups. An accompanying parade of vehicles included a gasoline-powered subcompact (Aveo); a hydrogen fuel cell crossover (Equinox fuel cell electric vehicle); extended-range electric vehicle (Volt); and three hybrids. The event included the world premiere of the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid pickup truck, which will go on sale in North America later next year as a 2009 model. Chevrolet also revealed the all-new Malibu Hybrid sedan, arriving in North American dealerships this month....

Cadillac announced the world premiere of the Escalade Hybrid, the world’s first hybrid applied to a large luxury SUV. Powered by the GM 2-Mode Hybrid system (earlier post), Escalade Hybrid will deliver more than a 50% improvement in fuel economy in city driving. GM’s patented 2-Mode Hybrid system consists of an advanced electrically variable transmission (EVT) and 300-volt nickel-metal hydride Energy Storage System (ESS). These systems work in concert with the standard 6.0L V-8 Gen IV gasoline engine with Active Fuel Management (AFM) and late-intake valve closing (LIVC) technology. AFM enables the V-8 engine to seamlessly shut off half of...

A virus carefully engineered to target cancer tumours has shown promising results in treating liver cancer in a small, early-stage clinical trial. Some of the patients enrolled in the trial experienced a greater than 50% reduction in the size of their tumours over the course of the year long study, according to researchers. The virus used in the treatment works well, they say, because it can replicate and spread quickly within the tumours. Scientists have suspected that viruses might help thwart tumours ever since 1912. In that year, an Italian gynaecology journal reported that a woman with advanced cervical cancer...

BEIJING, Oct. 29 — General Motors announced on Monday that it would build an advanced research center in Shanghai to develop hybrid technology and other advanced designs, in the latest research investment in China by a foreign automaker despite chronic problems with purloined car designs. G.M. already has a 1,300-employee research center in Shanghai with its main Chinese joint venture, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. The separate, wholly owned research center announced on Monday for the most advanced vehicle engineering and development could help G.M. keep greater control over new technologies than conducting the research through the joint venture. Kevin...