Friday, February 27, 2009
GM bleeds; aid talks heat up
GM loses $31B in 2008, burns $5.2B in 4th quarter
Robert Snell / The Detroit News
Pressure is mounting on General Motors Corp. to secure additional federal aid and money-saving concessions from the United Auto Workers and bondholders in light of the automaker’s $30.9 billion loss last year.
GM revealed [...]
Friday, February 27, 2009
Daniel Howes
Commentary: General Motors choking as global economy gasps
The world may not be enough to keep General Motors Corp. afloat.
As the ailing automaker gutted through a years-long North American restructuring that morphed last fall into pleas for a $30 billion lifeline from the feds, GM’s revenue and, especially, profits from China, Latin [...]
GM’s Wagoner, auto task force meet in ‘beginning’ session
queryvar=”gms,wagoner,auto,task,force,meet,in,beginning,session”;
Automotive News | February 26, 2009 – 12:30 pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Top General Motors executives met for nearly six hours today with the Obama administration’s auto industry task force.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner was joined [...]
France wants to check if U.S. car aid fits world trade rules
Automotive News | February 27, 2009 – 4:00 am EST
SAINT-VULBAS (Reuters) — France wants U.S. aid to the car sector to be checked to see if it fits World Trade Organization rules, President Nicolas Sarkozy said, escalating tensions over rival industrial policies.
Sarkozy, who [...]
GM’s Opel in talks to sell car plant to Daimler
Automotive News | February 27, 2009 – 12:01 am EST
MUNICH — General Motors sources today confirmed press reports that its Opel subsidiary could sell a German car plant to Daimler.
A GM source said a decision could be made within weeks on whether Daimler, which makes [...]
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Workers protest at GM Europe plants
Associated Press
RUESSELSHEIM, Germany — Tens of thousands of workers at General Motors Europe’s factories demonstrated Thursday, hoping to save their jobs at Adem Opel AG and other of the troubled U.S. automaker’s European divisions.
Opel’s red-brick factory in the gritty western German town of Ruesselsheim provided the backdrop [...]
Jesse Snyder
Automotive News | February 26, 2009 – 7:37 am EST
GM posts wider loss, burns through $5.2 billion in cash
queryvar=”gm,posts,wider,loss,burns,through,$52,billion,in,cash”;
General Motors, battered by a global economic collapse and buoyed by U.S. rescue loans, posted its sixth straight quarterly loss and burned through $5.2 billion in cash as revenue shrank 34.2 percent.
[...]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Obama says U.S. can’t let Big 3 fail
In first speech to Congress, he also tells nation ‘we will recover.’
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama scolded the domestic carmakers Tuesday night for "years of bad decision making," but said "the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away [...]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
GM gets closer on deal for investors
Bondholders signal they’re willing to accept less cash for forgiving unsecured notes.
Robert Snell and Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Negotiations between General Motors Corp. and its bondholders are progressing, with major investors signaling that they are now willing to accept less money than originally sought [...]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Ford execs, workers to take pay hit
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and CEO Alan Mulally said they would take a voluntary 30 percent pay cut Tuesday as the struggling automaker asked union workers to accept major concessions that could cost them thousands of [...]
February 23, 2009
Report: $40B in bankruptcy aid sought for GM, Chrysler
BY JULIE ARMSTRONG
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Outside advisers to the U.S. Treasury have started lining up the largest bankruptcy loan ever, talking with banks and other lenders about at least $40 billion in financing for General Motors and Chrysler in case the two automakers need [...]
Auto team drives imports
Fed task force has few new U.S. cars
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The vehicles owned by the Obama administration’s auto team could reflect one reason why Detroit’s Big Three automakers are in trouble: The list includes few new American cars.
Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task [...]
Dealers lobby statehouses for beefier franchise laws
queryvar=”dealers,lobby,statehouses,for,beefier,franchise,laws”;
Donna Harris
Automotive News | February 23, 2009 – 12:01 am EST
As General Motors dumps brands and other automakers slash their retail networks, auto dealers are waging a nationwide lobbying blitz for more protection under state franchise laws.
[...]
Jamie LaReau
Automotive News | February 23, 2009 – 12:01 am EST
Saturn to dealers: Give us another 60 days
queryvar=”saturn,to,dealers:,give,us,another,60,days”;
DETROIT — General Motors is trying to keep Saturn dealers in the fold even as it has pronounced the division’s likely death.
GM is considering [...]
Report: German state says it is ready to consider Opel stake
Automotive News | February 19, 2009 – 9:00 am EST
BERLIN (Reuters) — The German state of Thuringia is ready to consider a stake in carmaker General Motors’ Opel unit if the German subsidiary is spun off, the eastern region’s economy minister Juergen Reinholz told [...]
