AUTO HEADLINES GM adds cash incentives
AUTO HEADLINES
GM adds cash incentives
General Motors Corp. is offering cash incentives of as much as $4,000 on many 2008 models to draw customers back to its showrooms following a 19% decline in U.S. sales last month.
GM has been trying to hold the line on incentive spending as it tries to raise resale values and lift average profit per vehicle sold. The automaker is offering up to $2,000 cash on many models, carried over from last month.
Those can be combined with cash rebates of as much as an additional $2,000, available only to current GM owners, McDonald said Wednesday.
Ford seeks more synergy
Ford Motor Co. said it’s integrating product development and purchasing worldwide as part of efforts to cut costs and get new models to market faster.
The units will work more closely together, eliminating duplicate efforts in separate regions, Ford said Wednesday.
The automaker also is forming a network of engineering centers that will design "core attributes" shared by all Ford vehicles.
CEO Alan Mulally, in command at Ford since September 2006, wants greater coordination across geographic markets to spread vehicle-development expenses further and avert product overlap.
Ford’s regional units in the past operated more independently, and his so-called One Ford strategy is similar to the approach at Asian automakers.
"They’re following the Toyota and Honda model," Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, said in an interview.
At Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., "there’s a close relationship between product development and procurement," he said.
Blue Water loan OK’d
A federal judge has given Blue Water Automotive Systems Inc. the final go-ahead for a $35-million loan that will be used to fund the auto-parts maker’s operations during its Chapter 11 case.
The loan is urgently required to fund Blue Water’s day-to-day operations and maintain production for its customers, Judge Marci McIvor said in an order Tuesday. The order gives the company final approval of a $35-million bankruptcy loan from Citizens Bank.
An interim order signed March 3 allowed the company to tap up to $27.5 million of the loan pending final approval.
Blue Water of Marysville entered Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit on Feb. 12. The company blamed its liquidity crisis on a downturn in the automobile industry, coupled with an increase in the price of raw materials and certain operational challenges.
Porsche falls in trading
Porsche SE, maker of the 911 sports car, fell as much as 5% in German trading after the company said North American sales slumped 24.7% in March because the market was "gripped by recession fears."
Deliveries in the world’s largest automobile market declined to 2,624 cars and SUVs last month, Porsche said Tuesday after the close of trading.
