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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is shutting down its Swedish car brand, Saab, after attempts to close a deal with a buyer failed. GM had announced earlier this year that it was close to reaching a deal with Swedish super-carmaker Koenigsegg. That deal fell, though. "In the end, Koenigsegg discovered some issues they didn't think could be overcome in a timely fashion," said John Smith, GM vice president of corporate planning and alliances. Dutch exotic carmaker Spyker then emerged as a bidder for Saab, but that deal couldn't be concluded in time, GM said. In both cases, according to...

Toyota Motor said Monday that it planned a widespread release of its plug-in hybrid car in 2011 as the company scrambled to gain the upper hand in an increasingly crowded battle over next-generation “green” technology. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, dominates the current generation of gas-electric hybrid vehicles, but it has refrained from rushing lower-emission cars like the plug-in hybrid to market. Instead, Toyota has focused on plans to introduce regular hybrid technology to all its models by 2020. But Toyota’s rivals are surging ahead. General Motors plans to build as many as 60,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids a year,...

In the wake of Tiger Woods’ notorious early morning crash, GM took pity.. On the Escalade. GM now plans to repair and possibly auction off the battered SUV, as it was one of several vehicles Woods agreed to be seen in after his promotional deal with Buick ended last year. Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell explained: “The vehicle will be repaired, firstly. This is a promotional/marketing vehicle -- the kinds of cars used for advertising, public displays, photography, etc. That makes this a little different than a garden-variety car repair - given its special usage.” Caldwell said the repaired Escalade could...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- House and Senate leaders proposed a compromise plan Tuesday to give shuttered General Motors and Chrysler dealers an appeals process to keep their showrooms open. Congressional aides said a broad $1.1 trillion spending bill would include language providing 789 Chrysler dealers closed in June and more than 1,350 GM dealers expected to be shut down next year an improved binding arbitration process to challenge the automakers' decisions. General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC said last week they would reconsider decisions to close the dealers as part of a compromise meant to set aside action by Congress...

DETROIT — Edward E. Whitacre Jr., the new chief executive of General Motors, has one big advantage as he tries to turn around the automaker — a stockpile of cash G.M. workers awaiting an announcement at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant on Monday that the company will invest to build the Volt, a battery-powered sedan, at that location. G.M. may spend to speed development on the Chevrolet Volt. G.M. had already pumped up its vehicle-development programs since emerging from bankruptcy with $42.6 billion in cash reserves, the bulk of which came from the government.

Workers assembling vehicles at the SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co production line in Liuzhou, Guangxi. GM and SAIC together operate eight joint ventures in the country. [Agencies] General Motors Co on Friday said it has set up a $100 million joint venture in Hong Kong along with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp Group (SAIC) to focus on the Asian markets. As part of this, the new venture would bring under its umbrella all the Indian operations of GM including the two vehicle manufacturing facilities, a power train unit and the nationwide distribution network. GM would also produce and sell small cars and mini-commercial...

Dec. 3 (New York Times) -- HONG KONG — General Motors is selling half of its India operations and a small stake in its China business to its main joint-venture partner in China, people with knowledge of the transaction said on Thursday, the latest sign of a shift in wealth and industrial power from American corporate giants to rising Asian powers. G.M.’s main partner in China, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, known as S.A.I.C., suspended trading in its shares on the Shanghai stock market on Thursday pending a major announcement, but declined to release details. G.M. said in a statement...

The CEO of General Motors, is set to resign. Chairman Ed Whitacre will serve as interim CEO. Update: According to Whitacre, the GM board has accepted Henderson's resignation.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI Government Motors 1975 America should learn from Britain’s disastrous takeover of its biggest auto company. PETER MARLOW/MAGNUM PHOTOS Striking became a way of life for British Leyland autoworkers during the seventies. After the Second World War, the United Kingdom’s newly elected Labour government resolved to build of Britain a New Jerusalem. It nationalized the commanding heights of the economy and inaugurated the cradle-to-grave welfare state. By the 1970s, the UK faced an economic crisis unrivaled since the Great Depression. Shabby and hopeless, Britain had become, in Henry Kissinger’s words, a “tragedy” of a nation, reduced to “begging, borrowing,...

A deal for General Motors Co. to sell Saab to a specialty carmaker has collapsed, leaving the storied Swedish brand born from jets in 1947 close to extinction. Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium formed by Swedish luxury sports car maker Koenigsegg Automotive AB, said Tuesday it pulled out of the deal in part because it was unable to agree with investors on how best to move the brand from mass-market to premium. For GM, it was the third time this year that a deal to shed one of its brands fell apart as it tries to recover from a stay...

TOKYO - Toyota to recall 4 million U.S. vehicles. Japan's Toyota Motor is planning to recall around four million vehicles in the United States to fix a potential problem affecting their accelerator pedals, a media report said Wednesday.The move was made due to a risk that loose driver-side floor mats could slip forward and jam the pedals, Kyodo news agency said, quoting sources close to the matter. Last month, Toyota quoted the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as saying that it had received reports of 100 related incidents, including 17 crashes and five fatalities involving Toyota vehicles, Kyodo said...

America should learn from Britain's disastrous takeover of its biggest auto company. Few of the policymakers currently nationalizing the American auto industry seem to remember the British experience, and fewer still seem to have learned anything from it. British Leyland, Britain's largest automaker, faced bankruptcy in 1975. Fearing that its collapse would leave a million workers unemployed, the Labour government nationalized it. The company remained a ward of the state for 13 years. During that time, the British taxpayers invested 11 billion pounds — the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $22 billion today — in a company whose only sign of life...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- GM could one day be Chinese owned. A shocking concept for the ultimate all-American company, but one some auto industry experts say isn't too far-fetched. "I can tell you right now the Chinese are shopping heavily in the U.S. auto sector," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan think tank. Cole said such a deal isn't imminent and wouldn't happen until GM starts selling shares to the public, likely a year or more from now. But he says buying GM would be a major opportunity for the nascent Chinese auto industry....

GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co. said Friday it had started shipping new mini cars to Europe as the South Korean unit of US auto giant General Motors Co. seeks to expand global sales. GM Daewoo, acting as General Motors' global mini car development centre, said it will ship the "Matiz Creative", the fourth generation of GM Daewoo's popular "Matiz" mini car series, under the name "Chevrolet Spark". The South Korean unit will export 20,000 units to Europe by the end of the year and begin selling the car early next year. It did not say what the vehicles would...

GM will be begin paying back the TARP money in December, the company announced this morning. It’s a statement in need of a little context. Basically, GM will be using a portion of its $50 billion in TARP bailout money it received to in turn repay another portion of the TARP loans. The reason GM can do this is because when GM emerged from bankruptcy, it struck a deal with the Treasury Department to carve up its obligation to the government in four different ways. They are, briefly: 1) $986 million remained an obligation of the old GM, the husk...

The government dumped tens of billions of dollars into General Motors, and then dictated a “political bankruptcy” that trampled the rights of senior creditors in order to cut a sweetheart deal for the Obama administration’s union pals. Americans expected to see that pay off in broader investment and job creation, and that’s precisely what GM has in mind … for Europe. ABC News reports that GM plans to spend billions restructuring its Opel subsidiary rather than its core American businesses, and that has some lawmakers seeing red: Specifically, at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels...

DETROIT -- General Motors Co. on Monday reported a $1.15 billion loss on an unaudited basis for the period from July 10 to Sept. 30, providing the first evidence of the auto maker's improvement since emerging from bankruptcy protection.

Here comes that law of unintended consequences again. Global Warming Moonbats believe that electric cars are one of the major solutions to the problem of man made CO2 emissions causing the snow caps to melt, animals to die and blockbuster video to run out of your favorite videos. New research show electric cars are not the answer. The Environmental Transport Association in the UK, believes that electric cars could increase the rate of climate change, depending on how the electricity is created. In many countries when people plug in their electric car they would be plugging into a lump of...

Volkswagen Group has displaced Toyota for the first time as the world's largest car manufacturer in terms of production. The German carmaker produced 4.4 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, overtaking its Japanese rival by 400,000 units, consulting firm IHS Global Insight said on Wednesday. Volkswagen Group owns a variety of models such as Skoda and Seat and high-end lines Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. In July it expanded its stable by acquiring Porsche. HIS Global Insight said Volkswagen was able to beat Toyota thanks to increased sales in China, Germany and the U.K. even amid...

SPRING HILL, Tenn. - General Motors will shut down its' production of the Chevy Traverse at the Spring Hill plant on Wednesday, November 24; the day before Thanksgiving.About 1,000 of the remaining 1,800 GM workers will lose their job. "A lot of them was hoping that they was going to get their time out, you know, here and be able to retire and it hasn't happened," said Spring Hill barber Diane Colley. Colley said some of her clients have chosen the option to transfer to another GM plant. "They really didn't want to leave it, but they've got to work,"...

General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre has high hopes for the future of the American auto industry. In his first speech in Texas since taking his place at General Motors Company, Whitacre addressed a crowd at Texas Lutheran University about the future of GM, the outlook of the American auto industry, and the United States economy. The former CEO of AT&T and TLU business professor said he was happy to take the job at GM. “I told everybody when I started this that I didn’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre joked. “I know a little now about cars and I know...

-snip- The announcements came a day after GM, which was struggling with a bankruptcy reorganisation backed by the US and Canadian governments, stunned the auto sector by abandoning the agreed plan to sell Opel to Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna and state-owned Russian bank Sberbank. Related article: Magna accepts GM Opel sale halt It said it would restructure the unit itself, just hours after an unwitting Merkel gave a historic speech before a joint session of the US Congress and held talks with US President Barack Obama. "It is truly tragic," wrote the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, calling the decision...

C4C Since “Cash For Clunkers” applied to Ford, GM and Chrysler. Why did Ford Motor Company post a ONE BILLION DOLLAR 3rd quarter PROFIT and GM and Chrysler post losses? It couldn’t be the autos since all models are about the same size, design and price. I believe it was the consumer buying more Fords as a REWARD for not taking TARP money and remaining a private company. The more units sold, the more profit. Consumer votes have been cast. Ford, GM and Chrysler have gone their separate ways. Now when GM and Chrysler look up they see the gutter...

Bill Gates took on the Famine Lobby while addressing a forum on the world food supply in Iowa. Speaking at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Gates took aim at the chorus of environmental leftists and organic food advocates who believe Africans should starve rather than eat genetically modified (GM) foods. “Some voices are instantly hostile to any emphasis on productivity. They act as if there is no emergency, even though in the poorest, hungriest places on earth, population is growing faster than productivity,” he said.The opposition is significant, because Gates is left-of-center himself. The Bill and Melinda...

Companies in hock to Washington now have the equivalent of 535 new board members -- 100 U.S. senators and 435 House members. Since the financial crisis broke, Congress has been acting like the board of USA Inc., invoking the infusion of taxpayer money to get banks to modify loans to constituents and to give more help to those in danger of foreclosure. Members have berated CEOs for their business practices and pushed for caps on executive pay. They have also pushed GM and Chrysler to reverse core decisions designed to cut costs, such as closing facilities and shuttering dealerships.

Give 'em an inch... Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg was no fan of the $58 billion federal rescue of General Motors Co., saying he worried taxpayer money would be wasted and the restructuring process would be vulnerable to "political pressure." Now the lawmaker says it's his "patriotic duty" to wade into GM's affairs. And he's a Republican. My problems are rarely ever with the nature of the Democrats' Hype du Jour, they generally have to do with the doomsday caterwauling and that every solution ends with the heavy hand of the federal government shoving its fingers in places I don't want...

Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg was no fan of the $58 billion federal rescue of General Motors Co., saying he worried taxpayer money would be wasted and the restructuring process would be vulnerable to "political pressure." Now the lawmaker says it's his "patriotic duty" to wade into GM's affairs. Along with Montana's two Democratic senators, the Republican congressman is battling to get GM to reinstate a contract with a Montana palladium mine nullified in bankruptcy court. "The simple fact is, when GM took federal dollars, they lost some of their autonomy," Mr. Rehberg says.

China to launch case against U.S. Big Three automakers Doug Palmer Thu, Oct 29 08:37 AM China has told the United States it is launching a trade investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, a U.S. industry official said on Wednesday. The action comes as U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are in China for high-level talks aimed at resolving trade irritants between the two countries. President Barack Obama, who will visit China in mid-November, angered Beijing last...

In a stark reminder of how some battered financial firms remain dependent on government lifelines, GMAC Financial Services Inc. and the Treasury Department are in advanced talks to prop up the lender with its third helping of taxpayer money, people familiar with the matter said.

“Any honest reading of history suggests that the federal government has quite an impressive record of rescuing institutions considered too big to fail,” suggests an article in the March/April 2009 issue of Washington Monthly. The first two examples cited by author Phillip Longman are Lockheed and Chrysler, which both received emergency loans from the government in 1971 and 1980, respectively. Both companies paid back their loans, with interest, and the government made no attempt to take a controlling interest in the institutions. In one of the largest industrial bailouts in recent history, however, the federal government took over the failing...

General Motors made a stir earlier this year when it announced that the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid would get the equivalent of an eye-popping 230 mpg in city driving. That figure was reached using a rather complicated calculation that takes into account the car's ability to travel 40 miles in all-electric mode, using no fuel at all. One of the mysteries of the Volt has been what kind of mileage it will get after those 40 miles, when the onboard internal combustion engine kicks in to provide electricity for the electric motor, allowing it to travel up to 300 miles...

Audio From Glenn Beck's Radio Program (Aired LIVE 10.22.09)- Did you know OnStar has the ability to shut off your engine, deflate your tires and listen to what you are saying inside your car?? It's true. They never used to use this technology, though it has been available- but now that the government is running GM, apparently they have decided to go ahead with it..Did we miss that press release? At the very least, it should concern you..with this kind of technology in the wrong hands.. Part 1-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDoDwEPKYMA Part 2-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhXEzJHWF1c

Rattner defends rescue of automakers, says some money is gone But ex-official believes most of GM investment can be recouped By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 22, 2009 The U.S. government's stake in General Motors is currently worth about $25 billion, or about half the amount it poured into the ailing automaker, the former chief of the Obama administration's task force on the auto industry said Wednesday. But in his most extensive remarks since leaving the post in July, Steven Rattner defended the Obama administration's decision to rescue U.S. automakers. Rattner said there's "a good chance" the...

<p>When two Visalia, Calif., police officers swung their cruisers behind a sport utility vehicle that had been carjacked at gunpoint early Sunday, they prepared for a dangerous high-speed chase.</p> <p>The 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe roared away with officers in pursuit, but shortly after the suspect made a right turn, operators at General Motors Co.'s OnStar service sent a command that electronically disabled the gas pedal and the SUV gradually came to a halt.</p>

Well GM and Chrysler begged to be bailed out...... I really don’t like this guy. I didn’t like him when he was appointed and I like him less now. But … GM and Chrysler begged for the money, they got it, and now … well … The Obama administration will soon order the nation’s biggest bailed-out companies to drastically cut pay packages for their top executives, according to several reports published Wednesday.

Shockingly poor financial management at General Motors and Chrysler weakened their case for a federal bailout, but officials feared letting them collapse, the former head of a government auto task force said Wednesday. In a first-person account posted on Fortune magazine's Web site and in a Brookings Institution speech, Steven Rattner said he was alarmed by the "stunningly poor management" at the Detroit companies and said GM had "perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company." GM's board of directors was "utterly docile in the face of mounting evidence of a looming disaster"...

Since GM's 60-day money-back return policy started, there've been around 150,000 retail sales and only one confirmed return. A manual transmission Corvette was returned after the driver tired of rowing gears. What'd he get instead? An automatic model.

[Full title was edited to comply with space requirements, here's unedited version:] "Well-Kept Media Secret: UAW Conceded No Base Pay, Health, or Pension Benefits in GM, Chrysler Bankruptcy Run-ups" A New York Times article by Nick Bunkley on Friday targeted for print on Saturday about the status of contract talks between Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers piqued my interest in a previously neglected but important matter. Ford and the UAW are apparently close to an agreement. In describing what Ford workers are being asked to give up, Bunkley wrote the following (bolds are mine throughout this post):...

Until last week I had been one of General Motors' most reliable customers for more than 15 years. But my relationship with GM ended the very day the company announced that it was closing its Saturn operation

Reviewing September's detailed sales results in the car business carried at the Wall Street Journal, three things stick out immediately: The awful performance at General Motors -- down 45% from September 2008. Chrysler's even worse performance -- down "only" 42% from September 2008, but a mind-boggling 61% from September 2007 (62,197 in 2009, 156,799 in 2007) Ford's tiny decline of only 6% from a year ago, despite the end of the Cash For Clunkers program in August. No other major maker had a year-over-year September decline that was even half of that seen at GM or Chrysler. Yet the...

U.S. auto sales tumbled by 23 percent in September as showrooms emptied after the government-funded boom from the "cash for clunkers" program, with General Motors Co and Chrysler hardest-hit. Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler -- the two U.S. automakers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy -- dropped by 45 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Ford -- the only U.S. automaker to have avoided bankruptcy -- managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent from a year earlier despite low inventories and reduced incentives for car shoppers. Automakers had braced for a sharp pullback in September...

Some significant items worth sharing in the automotive field today: Roger Penske has backed out of a deal to buy Saturn from GM at the last moment. Penske was unable to finalize a deal with Renault to sell vehicles produced at Renault factories in the coming years (GM had agreed to keep producing Saturns for Penske for the first few years). GM had said the Penske deal would save 13000 jobs. There is no indication of a backup plan now for Saturn, it sounds like it will be dead in about a year. In other news, the head of the...

General Motors said Tuesday it would wind down its Saturn brand after talks broke off with Penske Automotive Group on a bid for the nameplate. GM said in a statement that Penske "has decided to terminate discussions" to acquire Saturn "because of the inability to source new products beyond what it had asked GM to build on contract." "This is very disappointing news and comes after months of hard work by hundreds of dedicated employees and Saturn retailers who tried to make the new Saturn a reality," the US automaker said.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) - The Penske Automotive Group has announced that it has terminated talks with GM on acquiring the Saturn brand. Penske says negotiations with GM regarding the future supply of vehicles caused the breakdown in talks. G In a statement issued by General Motors, the company is very disappointed about Penske's decision. This will ultimately be the end for the Saturn brand as GM prepares to wind down production and dealership network. STATEMENT FROM GENERAL MOTORS: Today we learned that Penske Automotive Group (PAG) has decided to terminate discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn. This is...

Governments and schools across Michigan are bracing for the possible loss of millions of dollars in tax revenue as General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC argue that they should pay less in property taxes... More at link.

The president was in Pittsburgh, Pa. speaking to a group from the AFL-CIO when he defended his decision to bail out the automakers like this. Kicking off a day of outreach to blue-collar America, President Barack Obama defended his bailout of the auto industry, saying "the success of our economy depended on it." "Our belief was that if GM retooled and reinvented itself for the 21st century, it would be good for American workers, good for American manufacturing, and good for America's economy," Obama said. "I'm pleased to report that's exactly what's begun to happen at this plant and at...

Enough people have compared the ‘new GM ads’ to 1980s Chrysler ads that GM had to issue a statement saying they have nothing in common. The General Motors marketing chief Bob Lutz said, GM Chairman Ed Whitacre “is the perfect choice to help re-introduce a damaged brand to a country of skeptical consumers.” “What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,” Lutz said, noting that Whitacre “is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little...

Is a three-wheeled vehicle an "automobile?" That question is at the center of a vigorous lobbying effort in Washington, that would help little car makers like Aptera qualify for a slice of the $25 billion loan program administered by the Department of Energy. Watch video: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=118420

....officials at the GM Lordstown complex have been getting the facility ready for President Barack Obama's visit, which is expected to take place around 10:30am Tuesday. The event is by invitation only. About 700 people, including GM workers, Governor Ted Strickland, and other local officials, are expected to attend.

* GM offers a 60-day money back guarantee—if your car is under 4,000 miles and be current on payment * Government approved chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. puts GM’s future on the line * Flashback: Edward E. Whitacre has no experience in the automotive industry Vote in poll: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=118409