Toyota, GM in tight race for No. 1
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press
TOKYO — Toyota said today that its global group sales rose 6 percent last year to 9.37 million vehicles, making for a tight race against General Motors, the world’s biggest automaker.
GM has not released its annual sales tally but earlier estimated [...]
Hummer concept shrinks footprint
Thursday, January 10, 2008
2008 North American International Auto Show
David Phillips / The Detroit News
Hummer — once synonymous with big and brash and thirsty — is slimming down and going slightly "green" for the times.
General Motors Corp. will unveil a Hummer off-road concept at the North American International Auto Show on Sunday that [...]
Dana to name Devine as chairman
Automotive News | January 10, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Driveline parts supplier Dana Corp. will name John Devine as its chairman when the company emerges from bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing multiple people familiar with the situation.
Devine is a former [...]
GM settles funds suit for $39M
Current employees and retirees sued to recover funds lost when stock in 401(k) plans was devalued.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — General Motors Corp. has agreed to pay about $39 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by employees and retirees for claims involving company [...]
Chrysler offers new buyouts
Workers at Jefferson North, Illinois plants get bid as carmaker cuts back.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
Workers at Chrysler LLC’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit and at a factory in Illinois will be offered buyouts in the coming days, the automaker confirmed Tuesday.
The early-retirement and buyout programs spare [...]
Lutz commits Volt to 2010 launch
queryvar=”lutz,commits,volt,to,2010,launch”;
Richard Truett
Automotive News | January 8, 2008 - 4:09 pm EST
DETROIT — Tests of lithium-ion batteries are going well, and General Motors hopes to soon begin driving the first running versions of the Chevrolet Volt.
Writing Monday on the company’s Fastlane Website, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the company [...]
Ford will pursue new rwd cars
queryvar=”ford,will,pursue,new,rwd,cars”;
Amy Wilson
Automotive News
January 8, 2008 - 10:23 pm ET
DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. is developing new rear-wheel-drive cars for its Ford and Lincoln brands, company leaders confirmed Tuesday.
"It’s important going forward,” CEO Alan Mulally said at a dinner with journalists in suburban Detroit.
Ford global product chief Derrick [...]
GM: Driverless cars may be on market in 10 years
Monday, January 7, 2008
Consumer Electronics Show
Tom Krisher / Associated Press
DETROIT — Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.
GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on [...]
Report: GM set 2007 sales records overseas
Monday, January 7, 2008
Detroit News wire services
General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner said the automaker will probably get 75 percent of car and truck sales from outside the U.S. within a decade, Bloomberg News reported today.
GM will push sales in the fastest-growing markets as demand in the U.S. stagnates, [...]
UAW: Ford and Chrysler are in strong financial positions
queryvar=”uaw:,ford,and,chrysler,are,in,strong,financial,positions”;
Jamie LaReau
Automotive News | January 7, 2008 - 4:51 pm EST
DETROIT — UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. are in healthy financial positions to weather economic hardships.
UAW forecasters predict the first six months of the year will be “pretty tough,” especially [...]
Publisher of auto plant efficiency report sees chance to grow
Harbour is sold to N.Y.-based global consulting firm
January 7, 2008
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Harbour Consulting, the Troy-based firm that set the standard in automotive shop-floor efficiency studies with publication of the first Harbour Report in 1989, has been sold to Oliver Wyman, a $1.3-billion global consulting [...]
Ford to unveil eco-friendlier engine
January 6, 2008
By SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Ford Motor Co. is to unveil a new engine technology today called EcoBoost that will deliver up to 20% better fuel economy on half a million of the company’s Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles during the next five years.
The new EcoBoost family of [...]
Gas prices aren’t spurring small cars
DATAPOINT
January 6, 2008
Gas prices are becoming a bigger issue in the U.S. auto market, but consumers are not necessarily flocking in droves to tiny, fuel-efficient vehicles.
Through November, the small-car segment, which includes the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Chevy Cobalt, rose just 0.4%, compared with the same period in 2006, [...]
VEBA gag order irks UAW ranks
GM retirees seek details of health trust
January 6, 2008
By KATIE MERX
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Retirees from General Motors Corp.’s UAW ranks are rankled over a judicial order that appears to allow just about anything in the court proceedings to establish a $29.9-billion UAW health-care trust to be deemed confidential.
The health-care trust [...]
Delphi, Autonet team up to develop in-car Internet
Delphi Corp. said Friday it will work on in-vehicle Internet information and entertainment products and services with a company that provides such systems to Avis Rent a Car.
Autonet Mobile said in a statement that the two companies will seek to combine its technology that provides Internet services [...]
State seeks Delphi taxes
Michigan officials say auto supplier owes millions in unpaid business and use levies, dating to 1999.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The state of Michigan is conducting two new tax audits at Delphi Corp. as it presses a bankruptcy court to force the supplier to pay $10.5 [...]
Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid: Just right, yet wrong
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Review
Dan Neil / Los Angeles Times
By way of a fantastic exertion of technology and human capital — which I hereby honor and praise even as I question them as mis-allocated — GM has managed to give one of its behemoth SUVs marginally better fuel economy. Here [...]
Iconic Explorer embarks in new direction
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Scott Burgess / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. unveiled the future face of its iconic SUV on Sunday — the Ford Explorer America concept — and it’s a radical departure from the past that reflects the rapidly changing dynamics of the U.S. car market.
While the futuristic-looking vehicle [...]
Vue gets ‘greener’ with another hybrid model
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Scott Burgess / The Detroit News
Saturn plans to market another "green" Vue — this one a two-mode hybrid , and the Vue Green Line 2 Mode hybrid will have its world debut at the North American International Auto Show next week.
It is the third hybrid in [...]
GM ends $4.1 billion credit line
Automotive News | January 4, 2008 - 3:35 pm EST
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors today said it terminated a $4.1 billion standby credit agreement with a syndicate of banks, saying it had sufficient liquidity without the borrowing arrangement.
GM had entered into the credit agreement in June 2007. The automaker had [...]
GM takes camouflage off new Camaro
January 4, 2008
General Motors has released the first picture of the new Chevrolet Camaro without camouflage. In fact, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has decreed that all of the preproduction Camaros be driven without the cladding and camouflage to better test aerodynamics and cooling efficiency, Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper [...]
GM says 2010 no sure thing for Volt
Wagoner says automaker wants production as soon as possible; battery development is key.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. still hopes to have the Chevrolet Volt — the automaker’s ambitious attempt at a plug-in hybrid — on the road by 2010, CEO Rick Wagoner [...]
GM’s turning 100, hold the nostalgia
Web-heavy campaign will emphasize issues restructuring auto giant faces in next century.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. will launch a massive, year-long blitz of marketing and special events to mark 100 years in existence.
But the fete won’t include a commemorative book or even much nostalgia [...]
This Big 3 sequel is scary
Problems confronting automakers nearly three decades ago still haunt them without change.
Daniel Howes
Friday, January 4, 2008
Twenty-seven years ago — when oil breached an inflation-adjusted $100 a barrel, lines formed at gas stations and the Japanese began a generation-long march into the American car market — Detroit and its hometown automakers [...]
Toyota snatches No. 2 spot from Ford
Japanese carmaker’s sales rose 3.1% in 2007; it could overtake GM as world’s largest automaker this year.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Fifty years after Toyota Motor Corp.’s first tentative foray into the U.S. market, the Japanese automaker has soared past Ford Motor Co. to claim [...]
Chrysler to cut 1,096 jobs in Belvidere, Ill.
queryvar=”chrysler,to,cut,1,096,jobs,in,belvidere,ill”;
Ryan Beene
Automotive News | January 3, 2008 - 11:37 am EST
Chrysler will eliminate 1,096 jobs next month at its assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill., a company spokeswoman said today.
The job cuts have been expected since CEO Bob Nardelli said Nov. 1 that Chrysler would eliminate up to [...]
GM cancels V-8 program for luxury cars
queryvar=”gm,cancels,v-8,program,for,luxury,cars”;
Richard Truett
and Jamie LaReau
Automotive News | January 3, 2008 - 12:50 pm EST
DETROIT — General Motors has canceled plans to build a new advanced double overhead-cam V-8 for its luxury cars.
The move means the future for Cadillac’s V-8 car engines is unclear.
In January 2007, GM said it [...]
Too many buyers for Malibu
Dealers struggle to get new GM product on the lot, worry about how long buyers will be willing to wait.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. has finally built a family sedan Americans crave, yet dealers across the country are having a hard time getting the cars [...]
U.S. auto sales seen down in December
queryvar=”us,auto,sales,seen,down,in,december”;
Automotive News | January 2, 2008 - 4:40 pm EST
DETROIT (Reuters) - Housing woes and high gas prices likely combined to send U.S. auto sales to a weak finish in December, capping the industry’s worst sales year in a decade and increasing pressure on U.S. automakers to cut production [...]
GM ads to focus on cars, small SUVs
queryvar=”gm,ads,to,focus,on,cars,small,suvs”;
Jamie LaReau
Automotive News | January 2, 2008 - 4:42 pm EST
DETROIT — General Motors will shift its advertising emphasis from full-sized pickups and SUVs to cars and small SUVs in 2008.
The automaker also will highlight its fuel economy and eco-friendliness, says Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of [...]
‘Street Rods’ recreates Corvettes
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News
Mike Walker returned from Vietnam when he was 21 years old and bought a tavern.
"It did real well, but I couldn’t handle the late nights," he recalls.
So the downstate Illinois resident left the tavern in favor of a karate school that he [...]
GM retirees to pay more for health care in ‘08
Co-pays, deductibles, premiums to increase for former salaried workers.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Sofia Kosmetatos / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. salaried retirees will shoulder much more of their health care costs in 2008, a result of money-saving measures the company announced in 2006.
The increases in deductibles, out-of-pocket [...]
Delphi pay plan draws fire
Miller could get $8.3 million for leading exit from Chapter 11
January 1, 2008
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Delphi Corp. wants to pay its Executive Chairman Steve Miller $8.3 million for his work steering the company through Delphi’s high-stakes and complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
The Troy-based auto supplier detailed in court papers [...]
Big 3 go after diesel market
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
Recently passed energy legislation that mandates 40 percent fuel efficiency increases on automakers has them looking toward a technology that’s existed for years — diesel.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have committed to a diesel option in the next [...]
GM to lay off 180 in Grand Rapids
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. will temporarily lay off 180 workers at a Grand Rapids plant this week, another result of slumping truck sales in 2007.
About 180 workers already are off work at the plant, a metal stamping factory that services several [...]
