GM hourly workers face permanent layoffs

Detroit -- While General Motors Co. does not plan any deep job cuts, the automaker still has too many hourly workers and could permanently eliminate some of the 6,000 to 7,000 workers currently on layoff---...More

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Chrysler lays out lofty revival plan

Auburn Hills -- Chrysler Group LLC Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne laid out an ambitious, detailed plan Wednesday to revive the struggling Auburn Hills automaker by replenishing its lineup with high-quality and attractive models to more than double sales within five years and start generating profit in 2011.---...More

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GM will cut jobs in Opel strategy

Washington -- General Motors Co. said Wednesday some 10,000 European jobs will be sacrificed at its money-losing Adam Opel GmbH unit, which the automaker decided this week to keep, rather than sell to Canadas Magna International Inc. and its Russian partner, Sberbank.----...More

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Marchionne: Man with the plan to rescue Chrysler

CEO to unveil his 5-year strategy Wednesday

From the dark rumpled sweaters he wears most days to his modest, fourth-floor command post at the Chrysler Tech Center in Auburn Hills, Sergio Marchionne has said that he is intent on debunking the "Great Man" theory of leadership.
"At Fiat, we have created a culture where everyone is expected to lead," he wrote last December in the Harvard Business Review....More

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Toyota Designs Fuel Efficient Cars, but can't design a floor mat- 3.8 Million Recalled

3.8 Million Toyota cars recalled for floor mats. They have balled up under brakes and caused accelerators to stick.

Washington -- Toyota Motor Corp. began mailing notices this week to 3.8 million vehicle owners, urging them to remove their floor mats while it seeks a remedy for reports of sudden, unintended acceleration.....More

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$5.6 billion in new capital in GMAC

The Treasury Department plans to inject up to $5.6 billion in new capital in GMAC -- the latest effort to help the auto finance giant, a government official confirmed late Tuesday....More

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2010 Dodge Ram truck intro to be well financed

Scott Burgess / The Detroit News
The 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy pickup will hit dealerships in a few weeks with a new look and the same powerful engines, but with a well-financed marketing campaign in tow, Chrysler LLC executives said Tuesday.

"There is pent-up demand in all of the markets, especially the truck market," said Mark Heber, director of Dodge Ram marketing. "All we need is a little bit of an uptick in the economy and things could take off."

Heber said the automaker, which emerged from bankruptcy in July, remains committed to the truck and will have a substantial marketing budget. He declined to give figures or say how soon the campaign will begin....More

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Chrysler's product plans to be shown in 'six-hour extravaganza'

WINDSOR, Ont. — Some industry analysts are calling it "a six-hour extravaganza." That's the length of time Chrysler Group LLC has allotted for the public unveiling of its long-awaited, five-year product and business plan.

Journalists and auto analysts will gather at the Technology Centre at the automaker's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters Nov. 4 to hear CEO Sergio Marchionne finally release details of how he intends to integrate Fiat and Chrysler in a way that ensures the No. 3 automaker's survival.

Although his revival efforts face an avalanche of skepticism, the Italian-Canadian CEO is being compared to industry icon Lee Iacocca. Following a speech recently to the Detroit Economic Club, U.S. Transportation SecretaryRay Lahood said Marchionne is "the next generation of Lee Iacocca....More

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Europe's politics hold up GM's Opel sale

The Germans aren't the only ones hoping to hurdle European Union objections to General Motors Co.'s plans to sell a majority stake in its Adam Opel GmbH unit.

GM is pushing to close "open issues" in a binding deal, perhaps as early as this week, that would convey 55 percent of GM's German automaker to Magna International Inc. of Canada and Sberbank, a Russian financial player with close ties to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin and the automaker GAZ.

GM's board, which vetted proposals for Opel at meetings in late August and September, is not expected to reconsider the transactions unless emerging EU questions force a reappraisal. GM management, I'm told, is using the holdup simultaneously to reassess the logic of its complex Opel deal and to press to get it done, politics or not....More

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GMAC: Most Chrysler dealers to qualify for new loans

GMAC Financial Services President Bill Muir said Sunday that the number of Chrysler dealers expected to close because they dont qualify for new loans through the lender is likely to be small----...More

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GM OKs Hummer deal

General Motors Co. has reached a sales agreement for its Hummer brand with a Chinese company that plans to keep the rugged auto company's headquarters in the Detroit area.--...More

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Chrysler Has Electric Vehicle As Part Of 5 Year Plan

VERRONE, Italy -- Auto makers Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat SpA are working together on developing an electric car, a Chrysler board member confirmed Thursday. Alfredo Altavilla said the development process is "going very well" with Chrysler contributing its electric propulsion technology to the alliance. Mr. Altavilla made the comments at the opening of a gearbox plant in Verrone. This is the first time a Chrysler or Fiat executive has publicly confirmed Chrysler's electrification plans since Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne took control of Chrysler's assets in June after the U.S.-based company filed for bankruptcy protection.....More

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