auto industry

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GM to File Bankruptcy at 8AM, Name Interim Chief

(Newser) - General Motors will appoint Al Koch as chief restructuring officer when the company files for bankruptcy tomorrow at 8am, the Wall Street Journal reports. A managing director at an advisory firm, 67-year-old Koch has attended GM management meetings for months and helped negotiate pre-bankruptcy deals with shareholders and lenders. He...

GM Bondholders OK Debt-for-Equity Plan in Vote

Vote paves way to bankruptcy filing tomorrow morning

(Newser) - GM bondholders voted yesterday to forgive $27 million in debt for equity in the restructured automaker, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move opens the door for a bankruptcy filing tomorrow morning, the New York Times notes. The Treasury Department was in charge of deciding whether enough bondholders backed the...

We Fell Out of Love With Cars
 We Fell Out of Love With Cars 
OPINION
May 30, 2009 12:38 PM CDT

We Fell Out of Love With Cars

(Newser) - Plenty of economists are trying to define what killed Detroit, but they’re looking in all the wrong places. “Fire the MBAs and hire a poet,” writes PJ O’Rourke in the Wall Street Journal. This isn’t a story of unions or financial crisis. “It’s...

UAW Overwhelmingly Backs GM Concessions
 UAW Overwhelmingly 
 Backs GM Concessions 
UPDATED
May 29, 2009 12:56 PM CDT

UAW Overwhelmingly Backs GM Concessions

(Newser) - United Auto Workers members have ratified a package of concessions designed to reduce General Motors' labor costs. Union president Ron Gettelfinger said today 74% of GM's production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor. The vote comes before the company's expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing Monday. Bankruptcy experts say having...

GM's Opel, Vauxhall Get a Shot at Survival

Canadian firm wants to buy brands, but deal needs German help

(Newser) - Canadian auto supplier Magna wants to buy GM’s European brands, offering Opel and Vauxhall a chance at survival, the Wall Street Journal reports. A deal for Opel would need temporary German funding. Angela Merkel’s government is debating putting up some $2 billion—but wants GM and the US...

Fiat Pulls Out of German Talks to Buy GM Arm

Prospective Opel buyer balks at new request for bridge funding

(Newser) - Fiat is boycotting talks in Germany today to acquire Opel, the European arm of General Motors, blasting GM for withholding financial information necessary for due diligence and balking at a new request for emergency funding. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has taken part in days of negotiations with GM and German...

GM Will Declare Bankruptcy June 1: Insiders

(Newser) - General Motors will file for bankruptcy protection Monday, insiders tell Bloomberg. The company has apparently decided that it cannot make the government-mandated June 1 deadline to shed $44 billion in debt. The timeline is unclear, but bondholders' agreement today to forgive debts in exchange for a stake in the “...

Bondholders Reject GM Deal; Bankruptcy Looms

(Newser) - General Motors says not enough of its bondholders agreed to swap their debt for company stock, meaning the troubled automaker is almost certainly headed for bankruptcy protection. GM has until Monday to finish restructuring or file for bankruptcy. But the company said today that its offer to exchange $27 billion...

US Likely to Own 70% of Bankrupt GM

(Newser) - If General Motors goes into bankruptcy next Monday—as is widely expected—the US government will own 70% of the automaker, the New York Times reports. Under a plan that GM officials detailed today to union members, the UAW would take a 17.5% stake though its health care fund,...

Would-Be Car-Battery Kings Jostle Over $2.4B From Feds

States seek to become lithium-ion capital of US

(Newser) - Some 165 companies and states are battling for a $2.4 billion Obama administration grant aimed at making the US a leader in electric-car batteries, the Wall Street Journal reports. General Motors, Dow Chemical, and General Electric are among the firms vying for the money; states like Michigan, Kentucky, and...

GM Bankruptcy a Gold Rush ... for Lawyers

Most complex filing ever will net hundreds of millions in legal fees

(Newser) - GM's expected bankruptcy is bad news for thousands of auto workers, dealers and managers—but a bonanza for the lawyers and consultants orchestrating the most complicated Chapter 11 in history. Bankruptcy specialists who are already billing Chrysler, Lehman Brothers and the US government stand to make hundreds of millions of...

GM Borrows Another $4B From Feds
GM Borrows Another $4B From Feds
May 23, 2009 6:09 AM CDT

GM Borrows Another $4B From Feds

Company to cut 3,400 more white-collar jobs amid restructuring

(Newser) - General Motors has borrowed another $4 billion from the Treasury ahead of its June 1 deadline to restructure or face bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reports. A statement from the automakers said the loan, which brings the total borrowed to nearly $20 billion, is "to maintain adequate liquidity" during...

Ford Courts GM, Chrysler Customers

Helps pay off their loans, trains dealers in 'conquests'

(Newser) - With General Motors and Chrysler struggling, Ford is moving to pick off some of its rivals’ customers, the Detroit News reports. The firm is passing cash to its dealers to ease Chrysler owners’ loan payments—so they can pick up Fords. Ford may soon do the same for GM owners....

Feds to Send GM Into Bankruptcy

Rejection of survival plan means GM may go into bankruptcy as Chrysler emerges

(Newser) - The Obama administration is preparing to steer General Motors into bankruptcy next week, sources tell the Washington Post. The restructuring plan, which aims to shrink GM and turn it into a globally competitive automaker, will bring the company an extra $30 billion in federal loans, for a total of $45...

With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences
With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences
Analysis
May 19, 2009 9:44 AM CDT

With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences

(Newser) - The new, strict and streamlined national fuel efficiency standard President Obama will announce today could be a victory on three fronts, the Climate Change argues in a piece running on the New York Times web site. Obama will boost his climate change cred, help floundering automakers, and resolve the federal...

Obama Will Streamline Emissions, Fuel Rules for Autos

Federal standard replaces patchwork

(Newser) - President Obama will announce plans for new national automobile fuel-economy and emissions standards tomorrow, overhauling and streamlining the current patchwork, sources tell Politico. The move will harmonize the CAFE standard and the EPA’s greenhouse-gas standard, so that struggling automakers needn’t fear the regulations moving independently. The announcement will...

Dealer Cuts Mean Deals on Chrysler, GM Cars

Closing dealership networks have just weeks to move massive inventory

(Newser) - At 789 Chrysler lots across America sit 44,000 potential bargains, cars and trucks that are stuck between shellshocked dealers and a troubled company that no longer wants their services. The dealers have just a few weeks to sell the Chryslers, Dodges, and Jeeps or risk losing thousands of dollars...

Chrysler Woos Current Owners With $1K Coupons

Company hopes to help sales

(Newser) - In an effort to boost sales, bankrupt Chrysler is planning to send $1,000 coupons to all its current customers, the Wall Street Journal reports. The certificates, good toward the purchase of any new Chrysler vehicle, will be mailed in the next month or so with a letter from CEO...

GM to Close 1,100 Dealerships
 GM to Close 1,100 Dealerships  
UPDATED
May 15, 2009 9:20 AM CDT

GM to Close 1,100 Dealerships

(Newser) - GM has sent termination notices to 1,100 of its 6,000 US dealerships as part of its plan to eventually shutter 42% of its retail network, CNN reports. The dealers have been notified that their contracts won't be extended next October, and some will shutter this year, a GM...

Minority Car Dealers Stand to Lose Big in Closures

(Newser) - African-American and Latino car dealers will likely take a big hit in the dealership closures announced by Chrysler and planned at GM, the Wall Street Journal reports. The minority dealerships, located mainly in urban areas, have faced stiff competition as business has moved increasingly to suburbia. “We're more vulnerable,...

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