Lenders move fast to liquidate Heard’s stores
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April Wortham
Automotive News | October 6, 2008 - 12:01 am EST

ENLARGE

A Bill Heard dealership in Kennesaw, Ga., is one of 14 stores that closed after Heard filed for Chapter 11 protection.
[...]

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Mitsubishi workers in Illinois ratify contract
Associated Press
NORMAL, Ill. — United Auto Workers members at a central Illinois plant ratified a four-year contract with Mitsubishi Motors North America on Saturday that calls for them to take pay cuts in exchange for job security.
Mitsubishi agreed to no involuntary layoffs for the more than 1,200 [...]

THE GREAT COLLAPSE

Richard Truett
Automotive News | October 6, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
 
 
DETROIT — For the auto industry, September could be the start of a really bad stretch.
Last month, U.S. light-vehicle sales declined 26.6 percent, and industry executives glumly predict that a turnaround won’t occur until 2010.
Some analysts expect that U.S. sales this year [...]

 
GMAC is out of leasing — at least for now
queryvar=”gmac,is,out,of,leasing,—,at,least,for,now”;

Alysha Webb
and Jesse Snyder
Automotive News | October 6, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
 
 
GMAC Financial Services, the nation’s largest auto lessor as recently as midyear, virtually has stopped writing leases in the United States.
In September, leases accounted for less than 2 percent of General Motors’ [...]

 
Toyota battles Detroit 3 with cheap loans
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Hans Greimel
Automotive News | October 6, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
 
 
TOKYO — As consumers struggled with tight credit, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. last week started offering no-interest loans on 11 models.
The incentives are a direct challenge to the financially struggling Detroit 3, which can ill afford an incentive [...]