auto industry

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Hummer Sold to Chinese Firm
 Hummer Sold to Chinese Firm 
Oct 10, 2009 1:22 AM CDT

Hummer Sold to Chinese Firm

GM offloads brand to Chinese heavy-equipment maker

(Newser) - General Motors has finalized a deal to sell its iconic Hummer brand to Chinese heavy-equipment maker Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. The deal will save 150 Hummer dealerships and 3,000 American jobs, execs say. The vehicles will be assembled at GM plants in the US until 2011 under...

Saturn: GM's Biggest Mistake
 Saturn: GM's Biggest Mistake  
ANALYSIS
Oct 2, 2009 5:39 PM CDT

Saturn: GM's Biggest Mistake

Brand was an unsustainable distraction from the start

(Newser) - As General Motors’ Saturn experiment ends with a whimper, it’s important to understand that the brand was a failure from the start. Some obituaries blame GM for not providing a fuller roster of vehicles to build customer loyalty—but if anything, the automaker gave Saturn too much, writes Mark...

Saturn to Shut Down as Penske Deal Collapses

(Newser) - Saturn's hopes of a life after GM ended today when a deal to sell the brand to Penske Automotive fell through. GM said it will now begin shutting down manufacturing and dealership operations. Penske canceled the deal—which could have saved about 13,000 jobs—because it couldn't swing an...

Downtrodden Detroit Can Rise Again, Green

Cheap labor, empty factories, can-do legacy scream green revolution

(Newser) - The Detroit of Daniel Okrent’s childhood is gone. The “elm-lined streets” of the “City of Homeowners”—“the place that America once knew as the Arsenal of Democracy”—have become “the urban equivalent of a boxer's mouth, more gaps than teeth.” A devastating...

Recession Crushes White-Collar Michigan

Layoffs, property price plunge leaves middle-aged workers in limbo

(Newser) - Tens of thousands of middle-aged white-collar workers have been left jobless and stranded in Michigan by the recession, the Wall Street Journal reports. Auto industry veterans laid off by the Big Three are finding themselves competing against against younger people for a smattering of job openings. With property prices down...

Ford Unveils Minivan Lite
 Ford Unveils Minivan Lite 
Sep 15, 2009 5:45 PM CDT

Ford Unveils Minivan Lite

7-passenger 'people mover' on its way

(Newser) - Ford has announced its reentry into the please-don't-call-it-a-minivan category, USA Today reports. The carmaker has been out of the minivan business since 2007, and it plans to stay that way—at least in name—with the Grand C-Max, scheduled to be on US roads in two years. Built on a...

Volkswagen Rolls Out Electric Beetle

Hails new ride as 'beetle of the 21st century'

(Newser) - Volkswagen made a splash at the IAA autoshow, unveiling the E-Up, a fully-electric compact car that the company's hailing as the "Beetle of the 21st century," Fast Company reports. Its stats are fairly impressive, at least for an electric: the E-Up can accelerate relatively quickly and hit a...

GM to Try Money-Back Guarantee

Firm hopes 60-day refund period will rouse sales

(Newser) - General Motors is offering a good old money-back guarantee as a ploy to entice buyers to its showrooms, USA Today reports. Buyers will be able to get a full refund on any new GM model within 60 days of purchase. The automaker plans to announce the refund program in ads...

6 US Cars Worth Buying
 6 US Cars Worth Buying 
Sep 5, 2009 5:48 PM CDT

6 US Cars Worth Buying

(Newser) - Now that American automakers have turned it around, you’re planning to buy an American car, right? No? Well, you should be, writes Jim Montavalli of Money Watch, and he’s got six cars worth snapping up.
  • Ford Fusion: A fun-to-drive mid-size sedan that’s getting gushing reviews—Consumer Reports
...

Clunkers Drives Ford's August Sales Up 17%

Hyundai surges 47%; GM drops 20% and Chrysler 17%

(Newser) - Cash for Clunkers reverberated through August auto sales reports released today, with Ford and Hyundai scoring big jumps, the Wall Street Journal reports. The winners and losers:
  • Ford's light vehicle sales rose 17% year-over-year, with the Focus and Escape both in the top eight most popular vehicles purchased through the
...

Cut-Rate Hyundai Gets Major Mileage Out of Downturn

Once a joke, South Korean automaker is No. 4 in global sales

(Newser) - As the recession batters most automakers, onetime industry laughingstock Hyundai is riding high. The South Korean company just had its best retail month ever, the Washington Post reports. Its share of the US market rose from 3.6% to 4.6%, and it passed Ford to become fourth in global...

Toyota Accused of Hiding Evidence on Rollover Deaths

Lawsuit from former company lawyer says Toyota concealed documents in hundreds of cases

(Newser) - A former top lawyer for Toyota says the company concealed evidence relating to hundreds of rollover accidents that caused death and injury, the Los Angeles Times reports. The attorney, who says he was forced to resign from the firm in 2007, has filed a lawsuit alleging that engineering data that...

Cops Bummed as Ford Kills Crown Vic

(Newser) - In June, Ford brought the heads of the nation’s top police fleets to its Dearborn headquarters and had them test drive its latest Taurus. The goal: to convince them that there would be life after the Crown Victoria. The Crown Vic is the unrivaled king of cop cars, making...

700K Cars Sold Under Clunkers

(Newser) - The final numbers for the Cash for Clunkers are in, and they’re pretty rosy, the Los Angeles Times reports. Dealers had until yesterday to file for rebates, and the total was 690,114 new cars sold—and 690,114 clunkers traded in—for a total of $2.9 billion,...

After Clunker Frenzy, Dealers Expect a Slump

(Newser) - Just as the "cash for clunkers" program sparked a boom in auto sales, its cancellation will likely depress the industry, CNNMoney reports. As of today, the last day of the government-funded incentive, rebate applications for 625,000 trade-ins totaling $2.58 billion had been submitted. “We're definitely going...

Procrastinators Rush In as Clunkers Runs Out

(Newser) - Cash for Clunkers revved into overdrive during its final weekend, the New York Times reports. After Thursday’s announcement that the Car Allowance Rebate System would end tomorrow at 8pm, consumers across the country raced to dealerships, resulting in long lines, epic haggling sessions, and hours of overtime work. “...

'Clunkers' Ends Monday
 'Clunkers' Ends Monday 
Aug 20, 2009 4:38 PM CDT

'Clunkers' Ends Monday

(Newser) - The Obama administration will end the $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program at 8pm Monday, giving car shoppers a few more days to take advantage of big government incentives. Dealers have complained about sluggish reimbursements, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the program has been "a lifeline to the...

GM Will Advance Cash to Clunkered Dealers

(Newser) - General Motors will start making temporary loans to dealers who have yet to be reimbursed by the federal government under the Cash for Clunkers plan, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dealers, some now irate, essentially did the same thing for customers participating in the trade-in plan—covering the government rebate...

Chrysler Plans to Build Fiat in Mexico

(Newser) - Chrysler is planning to produce a Fiat-branded subcompact car at a plant in Mexico, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The move may anger two key shareholders of the restructured automaker—the US government and the United Auto Workers. Workers at the Toluca, Mexico, plant are represented by a Mexican...

Used-Car Dealers: Program's a Clunker

Other groups also unhappy with government rebates

(Newser) - The Cash for Clunkers program has proven to be a shot in the arm for the new-car market, but not everyone's a fan. Used-car dealers say their business is suffering, the Sacramento Bee reports. "The used side sort of slipped" since the program started, said one Honda dealership manager....

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