Automotive News Video Feed
Source: MSNBC
A leaner General Motors emerged from bankruptcy Friday morning, making an unusually quick exit with ambitions of making money and building cars people are eager to buy.
Once the world’s largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. The U.S. government owns a majority stake although the Obama administration says it has no plans to run the automaker.
Continue reading "General Motors Exits Bankruptcy Protection"
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune A House panel voted to require General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to restore agreements with auto dealerships shed during bankruptcy proceedings. A bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee also would
require the Treasury Department to disclose more information to
lawmakers about the future of the Troubled Asset Relief Program,
including how much money the government expects to either gain or lose
through the initiative. The committee last night unanimously approved an amendment to the
Treasury Department's 2010 budget that would require the companies to
re-establish the franchise agreements as a condition of receiving
federal aid. Continue reading "House Panel Votes To Protect Auto Dealerships"
Source: Japan Today
Bankrupt U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp said Monday it will reemerge in a streamlined form following a federal judge’s approval of its plan to sell profitable assets to a government-backed company. Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued the ruling late Sunday, only around a month after GM filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 1, according to GM.
The government-funded company, NGMCO Inc, will change its name to General Motors Co The new GM will be made up of four brands—Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC—and will seek to be relisted in 2010. The plan calls for selling other GM brands such as Pontiac and Hummer.
Source: Wall Street Journal
The three biggest car makers in America called a bottom to the long decline in U.S. auto sales as the industry reported its smallest monthly sales drop this year.
New-vehicle sales in June fell 28% from a year earlier to 860,000 cars and light trucks, according to the market-research firm Autodata Corp. That would be the smallest decline in any month this year.
"We believe the industry is moving beyond the bottom," said Bob Carter, group vice president of Toyota Motor Co. in the U.S. "The weak economy's grip on the auto industry appears to be lessening."
Source: MSNBC
General Motor’s bid to sell its “good” parts into a new company and emerge from bankruptcy protection began Tuesday as hundreds of lawyers converged on a Manhattan courthouse.
GM, whose June 1 filing for bankruptcy protection was the fourth-largest in U.S. history, is hoping to avoid a lengthy sale hearing that could drag out the process and postpone its emergence from Chapter 11. Last month, objections from a group of bondholders and others dragged out rival Chrysler LLC’s sale hearing for three days.
Continue reading "GM Seeks Court OK To Become ‘New’ Company"
Source: WKOWTV.com
Wisconsin's Attorney General has joined a court fight to stop Chrysler from avoiding state statutes that protect auto dealerships.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced that he has joined Ohio, Illinois, and eight other states in an effort to oppose attempts by Chrysler LLC to use bankruptcy to avoid state statutes designed to protect auto dealers.
On June 3, 2009, Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez will conduct a hearing to consider the objections brought forth by Van Hollen and others, including representations of hundreds of Chrysler dealers throughout the U.S. who argue that bankruptcy does not allow Chrysler to avoid statutory protections at the state level.
Continue reading "Wisconsin Joins 10 States In Fight To Protect Auto Dealerships"
Source: Associated Press
The Energy Department is lending money to the Ford Motor Co. and two other automakers from a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient vehicles, congressional officials say.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu was scheduled to announce the loan funding for Ford, Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc. on Tuesday in Dearborn, Mich., the officials said. They requested anonymity because an official announcement was pending.
Dozens of auto companies, suppliers and battery makers have sought a total of $38 billion from the loan program. Ford has asked to receive $5 billion in loans by 2011, but it was unclear how much money the automaker would receive. Nissan has applied for an undisclosed amount of assistance, while Tesla has sought $450 million.
Continue reading "Ford, Nissan, Tesla To Get Government Loans"
Source: Detroit News Online
The White House's head of recovery efforts in auto communities hinted that long-awaited decisions on loans to help the auto industry retool are coming soon.
The comments by Ed Montgomery came during an interview in which he praised Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plans for diversifying Michigan's economy and discussed the broad outlines of his longer-term goals for helping Michigan and other battered states recover from the auto industry downturn.
"My understanding is that some of those grants are going to be announced in the very near future," Ed Montgomery said in an interview last week, referring to the $25 billion retooling loans Congress approved last year and a $2 billion grant program to help companies develop advanced vehicle batteries.
Continue reading "Feds May Decide Soon On Carmaker Retooling Aid"
Source: NADA Newswire
The NADA board of directors reaffirmed its support for H.R. 2743, the “Automobile Dealer Rights Restoration Act,” which would restore dealers’ rights under state automotive franchise laws. Bipartisan support continues to grow for the Maffei-Kratovil bill with 101 Democrats and 46 Republicans. "The weakening of state automotive franchise laws under an automaker bankruptcy filing affects the rights of every dealer," said NADA Chairman John McEleney. "And that's why we strongly support the Dealer Rights Restoration Act." NADA's legislative office is urging all dealers to contact their representatives and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2743. House members can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121. Click here for the current list of co-sponsors.
Source: NADA's AutoExec
Consumers this summer are hearing about more good reasons to “buy now” as phase two of NADA’s national media campaign kicks off the sales season. The new TV, radio, print and online ad campaign, "No Kidding," touts the federal sales-tax deduction and the potential for lowering monthly payments thanks to the great deals available. With children as the ads’ “spokespersons,” the messages are sure-fire attention grabbers. The collaborative effort comes thanks to the California ad agency Brandtailers that volunteered to produce updated versions of last fall’s “Best Time to Buy” messages for free. That campaign—the most comprehensive in NADA’s history—resulted in tens of millions of dollars worth of free airtime and print.
Source: MSNBC
In 1973, the local newspaper in Akron, Ohio, sent a photographer to Rick Case's filling station to take pictures of his signs bearing gas prices. The Middle East oil embargo was in full swing. Gas prices were around 30 cents a gallon and rising fast.
Case also owned the Honda dealership next-door. Before the photographer arrived, he changed the signs to read 99 cents — as high as the displays would go back then.
Case was on to something. A confluence of political and market forces gave Honda Motor Co. its big break in the U.S. in the '70s. Consumers who were suddenly worried about gas prices snapped up fuel-efficient small cars like the Civic that Case and a handful of other Honda dealers were selling. The Japanese automaker has found success by offering Americans affordable, reliable gas-sippers ever since.
Continue reading "After 50 Years, Honda Confronts New Challenges"
Source: MSNBC
A person briefed on the matter said Wednesday that a Chinese automaker is considering buying Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo unit.
The person said Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. is taking a look at Volvo, and is expected to meet with executives at Volvo’s Gothenburg, Sweden, headquarters. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.
Source: Detroit News Online
The new General Motors Corp. will have a new, blunt-talking industry outsider overseeing the automaker's management later this summer who has experience transforming heavily regulated companies.
Edward Whitacre Jr., the former chairman and CEO of AT&T Corp., whose experience transforming SBC Communications, the smallest of seven "Baby Bells," into the industry's largest telecommunications company could lend itself to his new role as chairman of GM, which is trying to evolve from bankrupt automaker into a viable, profitable enterprise.
Source: Bloomberg
Chrysler LLC, planning to shed 25 percent of its dealers, guaranteed those losing their franchises that it will find others to take their unsold vehicles and extended a deadline to transfer the cars and trucks.
Dealers slated to be eliminated are protesting rejection of their contracts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York today. The company will give the 789 dealers being rejected until June 15 to sign paperwork that lets them transfer vehicles to others that will keep operating, Chrysler lawyer Kevyn Orr said in court. That deadline had been today.
Continue reading "Chrysler Guarantees Rejected Dealers Place for Autos"
Source: Detroit News Online
General Motors Corp. reached a deal with the National Automobile Dealers Association on franchise terms for the more than 3,500 dealers it plans to keep after it exits bankruptcy, GM and NADA said Monday night.
John McEleney, chairman of NADA, complained last week in Senate testimony of "onerous one-sided" agreements that will leave dealers with few legal rights. They must sign by June 12 or GM can cancel their agreements.
NADA met with GM's Troy Clarke on Friday to discuss their concerns. Late Monday, NADA issued a statement saying it "supports GM's amendments to the Participation Letter Agreement."
Source: Bloomberg
Chrysler LLC’s planned asset sale to a group led by Italy’s Fiat SpA was delayed by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a request for a longer postponement that might scuttle the deal.
Moments after her order was issued, Fiat Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said in a telephone interview that the company will “never” walk away from the deal. The company previously set a June 15 deadline for completion.
Continue reading "Chrysler Fiat Sale Delayed by U.S. Justice Ginsburg"
Source: El Paso Times
Gerhard Mueller doesn't mince words when he speaks about his beloved Saturn and its relationship with General Motors.
"There was a very strong political faction (within GM) that didn't like (Saturn) and sabotaged it from the beginning," said Mueller, owner of the Saturn dealerships in El Paso and Las Cruces. "They (GM) really starved it to death."
Saturn, born 24 years ago as GM's import fighter, isn't dead. Instead, it's headed for a new life.
Source: MSNBC
After a long hiatus, American consumers appear ready to return to auto showrooms to buy new cars, experts say, although not in the large numbers seen in past years.
A rise in new U.S. car sales in coming months would be a welcome development for the nation’s automobile industry. A nasty recession has decimated sales to less than 10 million vehicles a year — a drop of more than 40 percent from past years — and helped force General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Continue reading "Car Buyers May Be Off Endangered Species List"
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