by Ken Zino | Jun 29, 2009
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said his department stands ready to implement a new buyer incentive program signed into law last week by President Obama that will help consumers pay for new, more fuel efficient vehicles when they trade-in a less fuel...
by Ken Zino | Jun 26, 2009
Troy Clarke, president of General Motors North America confirmed this afternoon that its assembly plant in Orion Township and stamping facility in Pontiac, both in Michigan, will build its future small sub-compact B-car and another larger C-size car, of roughly the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 26, 2009
To many folks, the voice of the small import automaker, Subaru, carries with it an Australian accent. That’s courtesy of actor Paul Hogan, aka Crocodile Dundee, who became synonymous with Subaru and its line-up of sport-utility vehicles, dubbed Outback, when...
by Ken Zino | Jun 26, 2009
Judge Robert E. Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has granted GM’s motions for debtor in possession (DIP) financing from the U.S. Treasury and the Canadian and Ontario governments. The final ruling, one of several issued...
by Joseph Szczesny | Jun 26, 2009
A new report based on information collected by the European Union indicates that cars sales are holding up better in Western Europe, where incentives are in place, than in new emerging markets in Eastern Europe that automakers had been counting on for new growth....
by Joseph Szczesny | Jun 26, 2009
The state of Michigan has won out over Tennessee and Wisconsin in a battle over when GM will build a new small car. As many as 1,400 jobs were at stake. The General Motors plant in Orion Township beat out GM plants in Wisconsin and Tennessee where the old Saturn...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 26, 2009
“Flat is the new up,” declared a Subaru of America official, earlier this year. And while the automaker has since discovered it can’t entirely escape the laws of gravity in a viciously weak market, Subaru is one of the only car brands that has...
by Ken Zino | Jun 25, 2009
Akio Toyoda officially debuted as president of Toyota Motor Corporation today and said the company faces “two more difficult years. Toyota is now facing a record loss off ¥550 billion ($5.7 billion) this fiscal year, according to Toyoda, a member of the...
by Marty Bernstein | Jun 25, 2009
Our Federal Automobile Websites Illegal sites are up and running in an attempt to con and deceive gullible consumers about the Cash for Clunkers program, now known officially as the Car Allowance Rebate System — CARS, isn’t that cute? NHTSA has set up an...
by Ken Zino | Jun 25, 2009
Of all the many struggles at struggling General Motors, nothing is more controversial in my mind than the second sales channel made up of two of its four core brands, GMC and Buick. This channel of essentially badge-engineered offerings, now stripped of Pontiac, is...
by Ken Zino | Jun 25, 2009
New vehicle sales through the first 17 selling days of June are down 9% from May of 2008, according to J.D. Power and Associates, which gathers transaction data from more than 10,000 dealerships across the United States. Retail sales for the month of June are...
by Ken Zino | Jun 24, 2009
The wheels of government turn ever so slowly. The Environmental Protection Agency has just released the latest version of what it calls “a state-of-the-science tool” that estimates health risks from breathing air toxics in the United States. The National...
