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To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago. Now that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice. Just how much they get is the central question hanging over contract talks that start this week between Detroit and one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions. The negotiations, the first since Chrysler and GM took government aid and emerged from bankruptcy, will set wages and benefits for 111,000 members of the United Auto Workers, including those at Ford, which avoided bankruptcy...

Some Toyota owners have begun complaining that their vehicles suddenly accelerated even after dealerships made repairs to fix the problem, according to reports filed with federal safety regulators. Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is asking the public for reports. “If Toyota owners are still experiencing sudden acceleration incidents after taking their cars to the dealership, we want to know about it,” the agency’s administrator, David Strickland, said in a statement. However, these reports could be a result of heightened sensitivity among Toyota drivers given the intense media attention to this issue. "Being aware of the problem, I...

MARCH 2, 2010 — GENEVA — General Motors Co is recalling 1.3 million compact cars in North America to address a power steering problem that has been linked to 14 crashes and one injury, the company said on Tuesday. U.S. safety regulators opened an investigation on January 27 into approximately 905,000 Cobalt models in the United States after receiving more than 1,100 complaints of power steering failures. The complaints included 14 crashes and one injury. The recall covers the 2005-2010 model year Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5 in the United States; 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit sold in Canada, and the...

1. Honda (77) 1. Subaru (77) 3. Toyota (74) 4. Hyundai (73) 5. Nissan (72) 5. Volkswagen (72) See Full Report...Ford: Ford graded out as the 11th best automaker and was the only American manufacturer to improve its score since last year. General Motors: Just as it did last year, Consumer Reports gave General Motors the second-worst grade amongst automakers. Chrysler: Chrysler finished dead last in the rankings. Again. The automaker’s overall score dropped two points from last year.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has told car companies they must share their technology with local businesses or leave the country. Mr Chavez gave the ultimatum to Toyota, Ford, General Motors and Fiat during a public address.

In for a dime, in for a dollar, as they say. Or for a fender, a halogen headlight or a fully reclining leather-covered heated seat. This is clearly a stopgap measure. Task force members understand that trying to save GM and Chrysler (so far, Ford laudably has declined government aid) will be fruitless without propping up the companies that make components -- often for both the foreign auto makers with factories in America as well as for the Detroit companies themselves. As an executive at a Japanese car company put it privately: "Our position is that we just want the...

Detroit’s Big Three were on Capitol Hill yesterday looking for a bigger bailout. They knew the results numbers coming out this morning would be grim and would offer little cheer for the future. The $700 billion in financial industry aid that motored through Congress last month must have flashed a big green light for the auto industry. Originally, $25 billion in loan guarantees were offered to help U.S. cars get greener. But the car companies say the restrictions on how they can use that money make it less than helpful. In fact, GM and Chrysler might not even pass a...

Some analysts suggest failure may not be such a bad thing for Detroit's Big Three. Others, especially Michigan politicians, warn of calamity. Are the Big Three worth saving? The U.S. auto industry's downward spiral has accelerated dramatically in recent weeks. In a desperate bid for solvency, General Motors Corp. is seeking a merger with Chrysler. Chrysler has talked with Renault and Nissan about partnerships. And now Ford Motor Co., GM and Chrysler -- backed by Michigan lawmakers -- are lobbying Washington to give them cash, implying that failure to provide a bailout could doom the industry to bankruptcy. Congress last...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets. The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days. The industry’s case has been helped by the fact that Michigan and Ohio, the two states most dependent on the car industry, are key swing states in the November 4 presidential election....

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Republican White House contender John McCain Monday laid down the gauntlet to automakers to extend the great tradition of US ingenuity by developing zero-emission engines. McCain, the rival to Democrat Barack Obama, offered a 300 million dollar federal prize and tax credits to the automakers as he hammered the election theme of alternative energy at a time of sky-high fuel prices. In a speech in Fresno, California, McCain said the US government should get off its fixation with corn-based ethanol as an alternative to gasoline-powered engines. Obama, senator for farm-heavy Illinois, supports ethanol subsidies and high...

DETROIT, United States (AFP) - While much of the auto world's attention was fixed on the Paris Motor Show, US manufacturers were keeping an eye on the Texas state fair, where Toyota was rolling out a new pickup truck. Texas is ground zero in the pickup wars that are about to break out across the broad American landscape. Thus, representatives from General Motors, Ford Motor Co and German-US DaimlerChrysler were all on hand for the annual State Fair of Texas in Dallas, which has become of the biggest stages for new pickup trucks. The critical segment accounts for 14 percent...

DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales have been slipping as domestic automakers have struggled to boost sales amid high gas prices this year -- a trend that will continue into next year, industry executives and analysts said. Industry-wide sales are down more than 4 percent this year as U.S. automakers such as General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) struggle with high labor costs, loss of market share to foreign rivals, and weakening sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles - typically their largest profit generators.Both GM and Ford are trying to stem billions...

Honda Motor Co. plans to build a new automobile factory in North America, according to a news report Tuesday, as the Japanese carmaker tries to bring supply in line with surging sales. The assembly plant would be Tokyo-based Honda's sixth in a region that accounts for about half the company's annual global sales. The location of the factory is not yet decided but it is slated to open in 2009 with a capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing sources for the information. Honda spokesman Shigeki Endo declined to comment on the report, which...

US President George W Bush thinks hard pressed American auto giants, General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co, should develop better cars instead of looking to Washington for help. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Bush said he had not talked to the struggling companies about their finances. But he hinted that he would take a dim view of a government bailout of the top two US carmakers, the newspaper reported. "I have been very reluctant – I'm mindful of the past where at one point in time, a predecessor of mine was faced with that same...

New car sales in Europe fell last year, despite a price war and a strong showing from Japanese car makers. According to the European Car Industry Association (ACEA), the number of new cars sold fell 0.7% to 15,222,939. Sales held steady in Western Europe with a decline of just 0.2%, but an influx of used cars in Eastern Europe meant sales there slumped by 10%. Germany, Europe's largest market, grew by 1.6% with 3.3 million registrations. British sales fell 5% to 2.4 million. Japanese car makers continued to eat away at the market share of European rivals. Sales increased by...

GM Weighs Closing Three Plants Under Plan to Reduce Capacity By LEE HAWKINS JR. Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 21, 2005; Page A3 General Motors Corp. could close at least three North American assembly plants and additional support facilities such as metal-stamping plants when it announces a plan to cut excess capacity in its home market, people who have studied the company's operations say. GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has promised to unveil a plan before year's end to bring GM's capacity in line with North American sales by 2008, and an announcement could come...

Toyota Maps Plan To Displace GM As Top Car Maker Challenger Revamps Models, Boosts U.S. Manufacturing As Detroit Faces Struggles By JATHON SAPSFORD in Tokyo and NORIHIKO SHIROUZU and JOSEPH B. WHITE in Detroit Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 19, 2005; Page A1 Toyota Motor Corp. is making a big bet that it can ride a host of new models past struggling General Motors Corp. next year to become the world's biggest maker of cars. Late next month, when the Japanese auto maker unveils its 2006 targets, it could set the ambitious goal of producing as many...

<p>The Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate will give automakers a more friendly audience in Congress next year, but relations with two key committee chairmen will determine how Detroit's legislative agenda fares.</p> <p>The auto industry's fortunes in Washington improved with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. But Detroit's Washington representatives say they will still need support from both political parties to expand global trade, dodge tougher environmental laws and more stringent fuel economy rules, and minimize regulations.</p>

<p>In an unprecedented federal attack on a California auto pollution program, the Bush administration backed carmakers Wednesday in a legal challenge to the state's requirements for increased sales of electric and low- polluting vehicles.</p> <p>Justice Department lawyers filed papers with the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco arguing that the state Air Resources Board's latest zero- emissions rules violate the federal government's exclusive authority to regulate fuel efficiency. The ARB rules do not dictate mileage-per-gallon standards but allow manufacturers to comply by selling a certain percentage of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that run on both gasoline and electricity.</p>

<p>It used to be the car of the future. Then it became a has-been. Now it's a cause.</p> <p>So it goes in the start-stop-start-stop world of the all-electric, charge- and-go, battery-operated car -- the first Edsel of the new millennium.</p>