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DETROIT (AFP) - French automaker PSA confirmed Thursday its plan for a gradual return to the US market even if Washington follows through on a threat to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on auto imports. PSA, which manufactures the Citroen, Peugeot and Opel brands, "confirms the implementation of its 10-years progressive return project in North America," as announced in April 2016, the company told AFP in a statement. The automaker, which it left the US in 1991, started its return in 2016 with the introduction of its Free2Move app "that provides access to all car-sharing providers." The second...

France’s PSA Group, maker of Peugeot and Citroën cars, says it’s exploring a “potential acquisition” of Opel, the money-losing European business of General Motors Co. […] GM has endured years of losses at Opel, its main brand in Europe. It had hoped to reach break-even by now, but last year posted a loss of $257 million for the year. …

Most Buick vehicles sold in the United States after 2016 could be imported from China and Europe, according to two sources familiar with parent General Motors Co's plans. Only two of Buick's future U.S. models, replacements for the mid-size LaCrosse sedan and the large Enclave crossover, are expected to be built in North America, according to the sources, who did not want to be identified because their companies work with GM.... In Detroit, Cindy Estrada, head of the UAW's GM department, said the automaker would be "tone deaf" to import vehicles from overseas "after the sacrifices by U.S. taxpayers," as...

It’s the end of an era as the last car rolls off the production line at Opel’s Bochum factory, making Friday a bitter day for the city and the factory’s 3,000 workers. […] The last vehicle made in Bochum, an Opel Zafira compact van, will not be sold but will be dedicated to social work with details expected to be announced by the company on Friday. Opel, a subsidiary of General Motors, is shutting down its former flagship factory due to overcapacity. In its heyday, the Bochum plant employed 22,000 people. Now, it will only employ 700 to make auto...

General Motors will invest €4 billion ($5.2 billion) in its troubled German subsidiary Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall by 2016, the US auto giant has announced. “As a global automotive company, GM needs a strong presence in Europe, in terms of design and development as well as manufacturing and sales,” GM chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson said at Opel headquarters in Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt late on Wednesday. … The German car maker has been making losses for years as it has been slow to react to the crisis in demand for cars in Europe, by far its...

Thousands of German workers at Opel cars will lose their jobs in another round of cuts announced this week by the car maker’s owner General Motors. As many as 2,300 people have already been let go. … The company lost half a billion dollars in Europe alone in the third quarter, when it produced just 196,000 cars—down from 270,000 in the same quarter last year. …

Wednesday morning, August 27, between 11 am and 1:30 pm EST or 9 am and 11:30 am mountain time, I'll be chairing a New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force event in Denver at the Colorado History Museum. The keynotes are Senator JOHN KERRY (D-MA), Obama National Security Adviser GREG CRAIG, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School Dean ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, former Congressman and Obama Adviser MEL LEVINE, former German Foreign Minister JOSCHKA FISCHER, and Aspen Institute President (and former CNN Chairman and CEO and TIME Managing Editor) Walter Isaacson. Our panel will be former Israeli negotiator and New America Foundation Senior Fellow...

Three years into their forced marriage with GM, the American taxpayers have seen the value of their investment in GM deteriorate by approximately $24 billion, largely due to continuing European losses. Exposure in Europe has contributed to crushing the value of GM's stock due to its chaotic and failing Opel unit in Germany. While government, journalists and Wall Street sympathizers have given the Obama Administration and GM leadership an almost incomprehensible pass on this value destruction and massive loss (presumably due to the macro-economic nature of the crisis), it's time to call for the accountability that this new Board was...

Opel will take the wraps off its battery-powered electric car, which it refers to as the One Euro, at this week’s Frankfurt Car Show. The little two-seater will get much attention for its looks, its clean-environment support, and its One Euro promotional tag. Opel's overall message is that it has the concept of a car that in production would be an affordable, great-looking electric vehicle for tight budgets. "One Euro” refers to Opel’s claim that the car can cover 100 kilometers (62 miles) for one euro ($1.41). The car has a range of 60 miles and a top speed of...

I am ordering parts to repair the torque tube on my 1970 Opel GT. The question I have is, why is it there? What purpose does it serve? It would seem to me that a simple driveshaft would suffice, but no, I have a heavy (everything seems heavy in an 1800 pound car) piece that serves, as far as I can see, no purpose. I have read the Wikipedia definition of what it does, but this makes no sense to me. Can someone tell me in layman's terms why it is there?

GM's about-face has angered both Opel workers and European governments. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, union leader and Opel board member Armin Schild blasts GM for mismanagement and says that the US company is uninterested in saving the Opel brand. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Schild, General Motors has decided not to sell Opel after all, preferring to restructure the German automaker itself. What do Opel employees think of the plan? Armin Schild: GM is going to continue pursuing company policies that have already led to the firm's decline over the last 20 years. Pressure on the employees and on the...

General Motors last night staged a dramatic U-turn by choosing to hold on to its European Opel and Vauxhall subsidiaries in a major snub to Magna International and the German government. The surprise decision by GM places a further question mark over the future of the company’s van plant at Luton, which employs around 1,500 workers, but is likely to safeguard the future of its Ellesmere Port facility, where it employs about 2,000 workers. The 11th-hour volte-face, made during a GM board meeting in Detroit, is understood to have come as a result of the potential threat to the Magna...

US automaker General Motors has called a press conference on Thursday in Berlin to unveil its plans for the German unit Opel, the head of Opel's works committee told German television. The GM briefing would take place at 1230 GMT, Klaus Franz told the public station ZDF, following a GM board meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in the United States. GM negotiator John Smith was to inform the German government of the US group's decision before the news conference. Berlin still officially supports a bid for Opel by the Canadian auto parts maker Magna, backed by the Russian bank Sberbank,...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has run into problems with her attempt to save the troubled German carmaker Opel: The US government doesn't want a consortium featuring Russian investors to take over the GM subsidiary. Thousands of German jobs are hanging in the balance as talks drag on. snip

When Barack Obama, US president, announced his decision to shepherd General Motors into bankruptcy on Monday, Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, was conducting some car industry business of his own. Mr Putin met in Moscow with Siegfried Wolf, co-chief executive of Canada’s Magna International, and German Gref, head of Sberbank, whose groups are due to take a controlling interest in GM’s spun-off European Opel division in a deal to be negotiated in the coming weeks. Two days earlier, when Magna and Sberbank won preferred bidder status over Italy’s Fiat for a joint 55 per cent stake of Opel, Mr Putin...

A deal has been struck to save car manufacturer Vauxhall and Opel, the European wing of car giants General Motors. An agreement was reached in the early hours of Saturday morning between the German government and Magna International, a Canadian car parts maker, that will see the firm take over most of GM Europe. Under the terms of the deal, Germany is expected to provide an immediate loan facility of €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion). However, it is still feared that 2,500 jobs in Germany could be lost and unions in the UK expressed fears that jobs in the UK could...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has revealed the US president helped swing a deal to save carmaker Opel from the imminent bankruptcy of its parent firm. She said Barack Obama helped clear some hurdles threatening the transaction during a phone conversation. Earlier, Germany agreed the deal with Magna International, a Canadian car parts maker, to take over Opel, part of the European wing of US carmaker GM. It should protect Opel if GM files for bankruptcy protection in the US. GM is expected to do this as early as Monday. Marathon talks"I spoke on the phone with the American president yesterday...

German politicians entrusted with the fate of General Motors' Opel business need to show their mettle and set politics aside. The European autos market must shed capacity to preserve Opel's long-term viability in manufacturing mass-market cars. Based on the limited available details on the proposed bids for GM's European subsidiary, Fiat's proposed merger best ensures this path. Though that may mean more job cuts, legislators should support it. Angela Merkel, the German premier, is in a tight spot. The US government deadline for GM to restructure or enter bankruptcy is June 1. Germany must decide before then whether to leave...

German work force at Opel applauded the abrupt departure of Rick Wagoner as chief executive, while Berlin signalled it needs more time to work on a plan to save the GM unit. "The move was overdue," senior Opel labour leader Klaus Franz told Reuters on Monday, welcoming head of operations and former GM Europe president Fritz Henderson as Wagoner's replacement. Henderson -- who oversaw a sweeping restructuring of Opel years ago that resulted in thousands of job cuts when he was head of GM Europe -- made a clear push for a carve out of GM's German brand, according to...

Opel workers rally against GM cuts in Europe5 hours 29 mins ago Christiaan Hetzner Some 15,000 Opel workers rallied on Thursday at the German headquarters of their struggling company, demanding that parent General Motors scrap plans for plant closures in Europe. Skip related content Carrying banners reading "Free Opel" and "Yes we can, even without GM," they called for Opel's independence from the floundering Detroit parent, at company headquarters west of Germany's financial capital Frankfurt. In Sweden, police said 2,500 to 3,000 people marched through Trollhattan, the southwestern town where GM unit Saab has its headquarters. Saab filed for protection...