Continuing coverage: Auto industry in crisis

A six-month forced march into a dramatically different U.S. auto industry is coming to a climax. From the grilling of auto executives on Capitol Hill to the government-mandated ouster of General Motors' leader to Chrysler and GM's plunge into bankrupcy, the domestic automakers are being downsized and reshaped.

What will be salvaged? What long-term future can be planned? In front of a backdrop of plummeting sales and stock prices, the answers will come soon. Track the developments in this special section.

Viewpoints

Autos Blog

Bruce Hall: A golfing buddy and I were enjoying the last few days of the season and he mentioned that he went to one of Ford's facilities in Dearborn … Continued

Joyrides Blog

Tom Nagle: The discussion a week ago was all about concern over the lack of sponsorship for the cruise and how much that would reduce the quality of … Continued

Autos: Scott Burgess' Blog

Scott Burgess: Check out this video from the Toyko Motor Show: The LFA has arrived. … Continued

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Interactive: GM Timeline

Travel through the decades with GM

Special section: GM at 100

GM deadline crucial

Henderson

The Treasury Department could stop financing General Motors' restructuring, forcing the automaker to liquidate, if a sale of the automaker's best assets is not approved by July 10. - 07/01/2009

Rattner praises Chrysler exit

In a wide-ranging interview Monday, the Obama administration's top auto adviser said Chrysler's emergence from bankruptcy in just 42 days had gone almost exactly to form. - 06/16/2009

GM slashes pensions at the top

General Motors is making dramatic reductions in the pensions of some of its outgoing high-level executives -- a move that is expected to cost ousted CEO Rick Wagoner up to $15 million. - 06/13/2009

Daniel Howes

Meddling with GM? Not us, feds say

Don't know what's more laughable: federal officials, including a president of the United States, who say they don't want to run General Motors but do. Or a GM CEO who denies altering business decisions under political duress but does. - 06/12/2009

Commentary

Retirees and pensions fuel GM's downfall

Lehrer

General Motors has declared bankruptcy as a result of a number of things -- bad management, poor products and screwy labor relations. But in the end, the biggest problem that GM couldn't solve concerned the company's retirees. - 06/12/2009

Global auto industry realigns

Volkswagen AG stores cars in a tower in Wolfsburg, Germany. Forecasts show the re-energized automaker moving up in sales ranks.

The shock waves from Detroit's desperate struggle for survival are rippling across the global auto industry, bringing radical changes in a matter of months. Foreign automakers are seizing opportunities amid the turmoil as U.S. automakers shed assets and brands to focus on their core operations. - 06/11/2009

Leadership sets Chrysler on new course

New Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, left, introduces himself to employees Wednesday at the company's Auburn Hills facilities.

Chrysler Group LLC employees on Wednesday officially met the new boss -- and he's not like the old boss -- nor does he intend to run the automaker the same way. - 06/11/2009

Daniel Howes

Howes: Old look to the new Chrysler

The new Chrysler, sprung from bankruptcy Wednesday, is not the old Chrysler. Or is it? It's leaner, smaller and lighter by 789 dealers. It's got a new CEO, Sergio Marchionne, a promoted deputy CEO, Jim Press, and the makings of a new board. - 06/11/2009

Adviser defends auto strategy

Bloom

A top adviser to the Obama administration's auto task force defended the government's handling of the restructuring of GM and Chrysler Wednesday. - 06/11/2009

GM protects global strategy with Opel deal

In recent years, Opel has been crucial to GM's vehicle development.

Most Germans think of Adam Opel GmbH as a German carmaker, but it has been part of General Motors since 1929 and recently began to play a critical role in GM's global product development strategy. - 06/11/2009

Manny Lopez

Anti-media plan bad for UAW

The call came unexpectedly. "Hello, Mr. Lopez, Mark Gaffney, the head of the Michigan AFL ..." - 06/11/2009

GM to reverse closing of 41 dealerships

General Motors has agreed to reverse its decision to close 41 of the 2,100 dealerships it plans to shutter in bankruptcy, as pressure mounts on automakers to do more for their dealers. - 06/11/2009

Auto outsider to lead GM board

Ed Whitacre Jr. is expected to give GM credibility on Wall Street.

The new General Motors will have a new, blunt-talking industry outsider overseeing the automaker's management later this summer who has experience transforming heavily regulated companies. - 06/10/2009

'Sad day' for Chrysler dealers

Chris Marinos and Colleen McDonald talk Tuesday at Century Dodge in Taylor. McDonald called Chrysler's actions "immoral, criminal and illegal."

New York -- A federal bankruptcy court approved Chrysler LLC's request to close a quarter of its dealerships effective immediately, ending an era for dealers in 49 states and sparking heartbreak among longtime dealers across the nation. - 06/10/2009

GM tweaks dealer rules

General Motors has told its roughly 4,000 surviving dealers that they must stop selling non-GM brands in their showrooms by the end of this year. They must also be prepared to sell more vehicles and improve the look of their showrooms, if necessary. - 06/10/2009

'Cash for clunkers' bill now up to Senate

Washington -- The auto industry and Michigan lawmakers are pushing for quick Senate action on "cash for clunkers" legislation to boost auto sales, after the House overwhelmingly passed such a bill Tuesday. - 06/10/2009

Editorial: Risk and reward

Marchionne

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to intervene in the Chrysler bankruptcy gives the auto firm a reprieve, but it creates new risks and problems for all companies seeking to raise capital. - 06/10/2009

Editorial: Carmakers don't need Congress' involvement

President Barack Obama is maintaining the illusion that he doesn't want to run a car company, even as the details emerge of his administration's deep and daily involvement in the bankruptcy strategies of General Motors and Chrysler. - 06/10/2009

Daniel Howes

Howes: In Supreme Court, Chrysler bankruptcy paves new legal road

It doesn't take a law degree to understand why the fate of Chrysler and its ostensibly life-saving deal with Fiat now rests with the U.S. Supreme Court. - 06/09/2009

GM reaches agreement with dealers

General Motors 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. - 06/09/2009

Bush, Obama aides differ on GM collapse

Former Bush administration officials and the Obama administration are in a war of words over who is responsible for the collapse of General Motors. - 06/09/2009

GM drops medium-duty trucks, opens battery lab

General Motors President and CEO Fritz Henderson, left, announces a 33,000-square-foot battery lab at GM's Technical Center in Warren with Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Jim Queen, GM group vice president for global engineering.

General Motors Corp. shed another bad asset Monday by scrapping its medium-duty truck business after a fruitless four-year search for a buyer. The move came on the day GM unveiled a new battery lab seen as key to the automaker's reinvention. - 06/09/2009

Right-wing radio hosts Hewitt and Limbaugh back GM boycott

A pair of right-wing radio hosts says there's only one choice for conservatives angry about government involvement in the auto industry: Boycott GM. - 06/09/2009

Chrysler creditors to appeal

Chrysler LLC's creditors have until Monday to file a last-ditch appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in their bid to block the company from selling its good assets out of bankruptcy court to a group headed by Italy's Fiat SpA. - 06/06/2009

Michigan reps seek answers on GM closures

Michigan's congressional delegation, stung this week by news of new General Motors plant closings, asked Friday for a meeting with CEO Fritz Henderson amid word that the automaker would delay closing a Massachusetts parts facility in the district of an influential lawmaker. - 06/06/2009

Daniel Howes

GOP falls flat with its auto arguments

Congressional Republicans at some point might break through with their serial laments on the metastasizing auto bailouts-cum-bankruptcy -- but they haven't yet. - 06/05/2009

Chrysler dealers plead their case to stay open

Chrysler dealer James Tarbox, right, with fellow owners Nick Tarbox and Kim Tarbox, blames his closure on a dispute with Chrysler.

They survived floods, wars and recessions. But not the collapse of Chrysler LLC. - 06/05/2009

Five times ugly equals GM's automotive failures

The causes of General Motors's descent into bankruptcy are complex, but its failures are tangible enough in a rogue's gallery of unloved and unlovely cars and trucks. - 06/04/2009

Daniel Howes

Commentary: Ford gives model for recovery

There's one powerful counterargument to the gloomy script of inevitable Detroit decline -- Ford Motor Co., the cross-town rival little more than two years ago given up for dead, mortgaged to the hilt, dumping brands and bleeding market share. - 06/04/2009

Auto execs defend dealer cuts in Senate visit

Chrysler President James Press, left, speaks to General Motors President Fritz Henderson, right, as they sit down before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Top executives at General Motors and Chrysler defended their decision to cut a total of at least 3,000 dealers while the two automakers are in bankruptcy court. - 06/04/2009

Obama official tries to quell auto fears

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, right, shakes hands with Phill Wiser and greets other employees at Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC in Holt on Wednesday.

A high-level Obama administration official spent a couple hours in Michigan on Wednesday to allay people's fears about the future of the domestic automakers and to tell business and community leaders how the government can help make them whole again. - 06/04/2009

Manny Lopez

Commentary: Obama won't let GM fail

When the dust settles on the reorganization rollercoaster here in Detroit, the nation and the world will go back to ignoring us. - 06/04/2009

Brian O'Connor

On the Fritz: Government paychecks out of whack with GM CEO's salary

Henderson

At an annual base salary of $1.3 million, GM's CEO out-earns President Barack Obama's $400,000 yearly paycheck by more than three times. - 06/04/2009

Editorial: GM should keep releasing finances to public

Contrary to the statements of some General Motors executives, it is still very much a public company, even as it goes through the bankruptcy process. It should still make all the financial disclosures it did before it went to court. - 06/04/2009

More GM dealers set to close

A GMC vehicle sits at a Los Angeles dealership in May. Closing dealers have until June 12 to sign wind-down agreements to get incentives.

General Motors is eliminating more dealers than initially reported and taking a tough stance with the rest of its retailers who must agree to stricter sales and performance targets or be eliminated in bankruptcy court. - 06/03/2009

Top auto figures may take a pension hit

Former GM CEO Rick Wagoner has a $22 million pension agreement.

The bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler will likely cost former and current top executives including Rick Wagoner, Robert Lutz and Lee Iacocca big money. - 06/03/2009

GM makes tentative deal to sell Hummer to Tengzhong

GM said its Hummer brand, with models like the 2009 H2, is worth $500 million or less. The sale would keep the headquarters in America.

General Motors has a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand to Chinese-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd., the automaker said Tuesday. - 06/03/2009

Obama officials rush aid to Metro Detroit

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and auto recovery czar Ed Montgomery take a GM auto plant tour in Romulus.

Obama administration officials fanned out across Metro Detroit on Tuesday, offering $59 million in federal money, advice about jobs and a vision for the future in the wake of General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy filing. - 06/03/2009

Senate closes in on 'cash-for-clunkers' vote

Washington -- Consumers are a step closer to getting thousands of dollars to trade in gas-guzzling vehicles for new models. - 06/03/2009

Editorial: Let GM run GM

Henderson

President Barack Obama's administration has set forth sound principles for handling the government's ownership in General Motors. - 06/03/2009

Editorial: President Obama should accept invitation to speak at National Summit in Detroit

President Barack Obama is dispatching his cabinet members across the nation to explain and build support for his economic policies. That's fine, but Michigan, the state with the biggest stake in those policies, deserves to hear the message from the horse's mouth. - 06/03/2009

Ron Gettelfinger: Labor Voices

Commentary: Automakers get chance to rebuild

The General Motors Orion assembly plant is scheduled to be idled, but it is under consideration as a site for the manufacture of small, fuel-efficient autos.

In the face of these enormous challenges, it's important to note what our union and our industry has accomplished in recent months. - 06/03/2009

Reinventing GM

Michigan feels brunt of GM's bankruptcy

Interactive map: GM's sphere of influence wraps the globe

Michigan will suffer the greatest under General Motors Corp.'s decision to shutter strip_ledemore plants and shed more workers. - 06/02/2009

Daniel Howes

Commentary: Day of infamy

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson takes questions from reporters following Monday's bankruptcy announcement.

There's no doubting the historic import of GM's bankruptcy filing Monday, the brutal humbling of an American corporate icon and confirmation that taxpayers in the United States and Canada will own 72% of an automaker to be considered an arm of government -- until it isn't. - 06/02/2009

Henderson: Fast recovery 'of the essence'

UAW Local 735 President Don Skidmore, center, takes in GM's bankruptcy announcement Monday with his wife, Dawn, and retiree Larry Clark in Ypsilanti. President Barack Obama said more jobs will be lost and more plants will close as the automaker tries to recover.

General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson is racing against time as he pushes to transform the automaker into a lean competitor under the taint of bankruptcy while holding on to its customers and keeping alive its suppliers. - 06/02/2009

Reinventing GM: National impact

GM's fall felt across the nation

Across the country there was much taking stock Monday after General Motors Corp. -- the one-time leviathan of American industry -- declared bankruptcy. - 06/02/2009

Will GM buyers come back?

Customers at Somerset Pontiac GMC in Troy listen Monday as General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson speaks during a news conference in New York on the automaker's restructuring plans. The company's bankruptcy filing means the U.S. government will have a 60 percent stake in GM and will provide $30 billion in new loans.

Government intervention and a radical restructuring plan that will shave billions off General Motors Corp.'s debt won't help save the automaker unless it gets shoppers into its showrooms. - 06/02/2009

Granholm: 'Safety net' will feel impact

State financial experts allowed for a General Motors bankruptcy when they drew up tax collection estimates last month showing the budget will fall $3 billion short over the next two years, state officials said Monday. - 06/02/2009

Reinventing GM: Political reaction

GOP attacks U.S. role in restructuring

"It's more critical than ever ... that they produce actual results," Sen. Carl Levin said of the Obama administration's plans for automakers.

National Republicans attacked the government's role in General Motors Corp.'s restructuring Monday, saying the Democratic Obama administration had "trampled" the rights of lenders to reward "union cronies." - 06/02/2009

Reinventing GM: Industry reaction

Chrysler seeks to close Fiat deal Thursday

Marchionne will become Chrysler's new CEO.

Chrysler has asked the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing its case to close the deal Thursday to sell its bankrupt assets to a new automaker in partnership with Fiat. - 06/02/2009

Delphi sold in $3.6B deal

Detroit -- While its former parent formally entered bankruptcy proceedings Monday, auto parts manufacturer Delphi Corp. reached a deal to sell the bulk of its assets to a private-equity firm and finally emerge from bankruptcy protection after nearly 4 years. - 06/02/2009

Reinventing GM: Market reaction

GM shares' fluctuations add to stock market's big bounce

A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday watches President Obama's comments on General Motors' bankruptcy. Despite the fact that shares of GM soon will be worthless, the stock rose as high as $1.01 before closing at 75 cents a share.

Wall Street shrugged off the long-anticipated General Motors Corp. bankruptcy Monday, with the Dow Jones average soaring more than 200 points -- thanks in part to a bizarre temporary gain on shares of the bankrupt automaker. - 06/02/2009

FAQ: What to expect with bankruptcy

Q . Why is General Motors Corp. filing for bankruptcy? - 06/02/2009

Editorial: GM is risky business for Obama

President Barack Obama says the government won't make decisions on GM products.

Though it had been expected for weeks, Monday's bankruptcy filing by General Motors, for decades the world's largest automaker, was stunning. Chrysler, which is emerging from bankruptcy, had been through the bailout and merger processes before, but GM had always been a symbol of American industrial might. Now, the nation is embarked on what will hopefully be a brief experiment in government control of a giant auto company. - 06/02/2009

End of the line: Four brands GM plans to phase out or sell

When GM acquired rights to Hummer in 1999, consumers couldn't get enough of the SUVs -- the bigger the better.

The future is particularly uncertain for Hummer, Saab and Saturn; Pontiac's fate is sealed. - 06/02/2009

Editorial: GM bankruptcy is Michigan's darkest day

The General Motors bankruptcy is a hammer blow for a state that was already on its knees. - 06/02/2009

Reinventing GM

Commentary: GM driven to downsize

Requiring cars to get 39 miles per gallon and trucks 30 mpg by 2016 will affect SUVs crossovers such as Chevrolet's Traverse.

Now that General Motors Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the focus will shift to a judge's deliberations, lenders' claims and other court actions. But even after the company emerges from bankruptcy, its greatest challenge will be to sell the cars and trucks the Obama administration will force it to build. - 06/02/2009

What they're saying

Excerpts on General Motors' bankruptcy filing on Monday. - 06/02/2009

Daniel Howes

Howes: GM bankruptcy is epic fall

Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe advertises one of its vehicles Sunday. As GM restructures, many dealers will be left behind.

Growing up in Flint, Dee Allen remembers the day in 1958 when General Motors Corp. chose his hometown to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The giant automaker, America's symbol of post-war prosperity, then was approaching the zenith of its power and wealth. - 06/01/2009

GM to appoint Koch restructuring officer

Al Koch

General Motors Corp. will appoint a chief restructuring officer today who will oversee the dismantling of the automaker's unwanted assets and free President and Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson to run the company. - 05/31/2009

Daniel Howes

Region reels from epic fall of a giant

Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe advertises one of its vehicles Sunday. As GM restructures, many dealers will be left behind.

Growing up in Flint, Dee Allen remembers the day in 1958 when General Motors Corp. chose his hometown to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The giant automaker, America's symbol of post-war prosperity, then was approaching the zenith of its power and wealth. - 05/31/2009

General Motors stock dives; Opel sold

Shares in General Motors sank below $1 Friday on what many investors anticipated would be their last trading day before an all-but-certain bankruptcy filing by the biggest U.S. automaker. - 05/30/2009

New Chrysler days from emerging

Metro Detroit dealership owner Colleen McDonald, with her attorney David Einstandig, testified Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings.

The fate of the newest incarnation of Chrysler, poised to emerge in Metro Detroit, won't be known until Monday or Tuesday. - 05/30/2009

UAW members accept GM deal

"It's been a long road for our membership," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Friday.

The United Auto Workers overwhelmingly approved concessions that will slash General Motors' labor costs and retiree health care burden, and now awaits details about 14 more plants GM will shutter as part of its restructuring. - 05/30/2009

Auto suppliers brace for hit

Visteon sign outside the company's headquarters in Van Buren Township. The auto parts supplier said Thursday, it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The bankruptcies of Visteon and Metaldyne occurring within hours of each other on Thursday, could be just the first in a rash of failures of auto parts suppliers. - 05/29/2009

Chrysler's sale of best assets to Fiat will be approved, chairman says

Nardelli

New York -- Chrysler LLC Chairman Robert Nardelli surprised a packed courtroom here on Thursday when he said he expects the sale of the bankrupt automaker's best assets to a new company with Fiat SpA to be approved today. - 05/29/2009

Daniel Howes

Suppliers feel the heat from GM's impending bankruptcy

As many as 1,400 suppliers to General Motors today expect to receive their cut of roughly $2 billion in payments from the beleaguered automaker, teetering near a historic bankruptcy filing likely to come as early as Monday. - 05/28/2009

Commentary

Big Three confront rough road

The crisis in Detroit and for the rest of the world's auto industry is intensifying as a depression level of auto sales continues to pummel the industry. If the government isn't careful about how it handles General Motors Corp. and the rest of the industry, it could make the problem even worse and further collapse the country's economy. - 05/28/2009

General Motors, Chrysler brace for a worrisome week

The next seven days could mark the biggest transformation ever of Detroit's auto industry. GM, which led the global auto industry for nearly a century, could face the ignominy of being forced into bankruptcy as early as this week. At the same time, crosstown rival Chrysler, which already was forced into bankruptcy, is likely to be sold to Italian automaker Fiat. - 05/26/2009

Bondholder face-off GM's next challenge

General Motors Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson says it's probable the automaker soon will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The most important week in General Motors Corp.'s history starts with a crucial labor meeting today, includes a showdown with bondholders and could be capped by one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings ever. - 05/26/2009

Chrysler to seek OK for asset sale

Though 789 Chrysler dealers recently were terminated, 2,282 are being kept alive, waiting for the carmaker to emerge from bankruptcy.

The race through bankruptcy for Chrysler LLC culminates this week with a hearing to sell the company's best assets and prepare it for a fresh start with a new international partner. - 05/26/2009

Obama auto bailout draws fire

Members of Congress, who left GM and Chrysler on the brink of collapse five months ago, sought Friday to take control of the auto bailout, with dozens of lawmakers pressing claims for dealers, workers and lenders. - 05/23/2009

Magna confirms bid for Opel

Canadian supplier Magna International Inc. said Friday that it had teamed up with Russian financial institution Sberbank Rossii to bid for General Motors Corp.'s ailing German carmaker Adam Opel GmbH. - 05/23/2009

Daniel Howes

Lawmakers posture on Chapter 11

What did they expect from the creative destruction of Detroit Auto -- more business as usual? - 05/22/2009

Mitsubishi interested in supplying vehicles to Saturn dealership network

Chrysler's Peapod Mobility electric car

Japanese automaker Mitsubishi is in talks to supply vehicles to Saturn dealers if the brand and dealer network is sold this year, according to sources familiar with negotiations. - 05/22/2009

GM, UAW cut concessions deal; bondholders have until Tuesday to decide

General Motors bondholders risk being blamed for forcing the automaker into bankruptcy court now that the UAW has tentatively agreed to concessions 11 days before a government restructuring deadline. - 05/22/2009

UAW rallies to keep jobs in the U.S.

From left, retirees Larry Christensen and Dianne Feely, and Detroit Medical worker Chris Alexander attend the UAW rally.

A rally in front of Chrysler LLC's Sterling Heights assembly plant Thursday attracted more than 400 United Auto Worker and community members to send a message to Congress that it is not right for the automaker to take millions in taxpayer dollars and close U.S. plants instead of shuttering facilities in other countries. - 05/22/2009

Daniel Howes

GM's Chapter 11 is inevitable

The voice on the other end of the line put it simply: Don't expect anything before June 1. But the executive's tone spoke clarity and inevitability. There's not much "probable" about it anymore, folks -- General Motors Corp., barring some unforeseen miracle, will declare bankruptcy, altering forever the foundation of the Detroit and global auto industries. - 05/21/2009

Ex-Piston Sura files first Saturn lawsuit

A Saturn dealership co-owned by former Detroit Pistons star Bob Sura has launched the first of an expected flood of lawsuits against General Motors arguing the automaker's plan to eliminate the brand rendered his franchise "worthless." - 05/21/2009

Ex-Duracell CEO to lead Fiat-Chrysler alliance

C. Robert Kidder will become chairman of a restructured Chrysler after the automaker emerges from bankruptcy as a new company allied with Italy's Fiat SpA. - 05/21/2009

Manny Lopez

Federal hypocrisy revisited

I rubbed my eyes and read it twice. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner actually said on Wednesday that the Obama administration wasn't getting involved in management decisions at General Motors. - 05/21/2009

Chrysler objections mount

A flurry of objections in the Chrysler LLC bankruptcy case continue to be filed in advance of a hearing next week to approve a tie-up with Fiat SpA. - 05/21/2009

Dealers aim to join Saturn bid

Local car dealers Joe Serra and David Fischer are in talks about partnering with Detroit auto tycoon Roger Penske to acquire Saturn's distribution network, according to people familiar with the discussions. - 05/20/2009

GM, UAW discuss savings

General Motors and the United Auto Workers held another round of talks at the Treasury Department Tuesday aimed at reaching a comprehensive labor savings agreement. - 05/20/2009

Editorial: Auto regulations come with price

Detroit's struggling auto companies have just been handed billions in additional costs to meet accelerated federal fuel economy requirements. The regulations will cost citizens additional money either through more taxpayer subsidies to the auto companies or through higher prices for vehicles, or both. - 05/20/2009

Daniel Howes

Commentary: President Obama's actions bring big change to auto industry

Two years ago this month, not-yet President Barack Obama laid it all out. Detroit would mass produce fuel-efficient cars, he told the Economic Club, invoking America's response to the onset of World War II. He was right, because the government-turned-chief-lender now can require it. And it will. - 05/19/2009

Dealers will take action against Chrysler

Chrysler dealers across the country are retaining lawyers to fight the termination of franchises and, failing that, to deal with inventory unsold as of the June 9 deadline. - 05/19/2009

Editorial: GM needs flexibility on number of imported cars

Peters

As General Motors and the United Auto Workers union negotiate the company's restructuring, there's a third party at the table that should be remembered -- the taxpayers. That means efforts to cut costs should take priority over other interests -- and the taxpayers' representative, the government, should help make that clear. - 05/19/2009

Editorial: Let's have fair treatment for closed auto dealerships

Saving General Motors and Chrysler is becoming an increasingly painful enterprise. What started as a surgical procedure has taken on the characteristics of a battlefield amputation. - 05/19/2009

Ford rejects big cuts in dealer network

Ford says it will not match big dealer cuts made by General Motors and Chrysler, and expects to benefit from the elimination of nearly 2,000 competing showrooms. - 05/19/2009

GM plans to shift overseas production

Henderson

General Motors will shift more production of vehicles bound for the U.S. market to China, Mexico, South Korea and Japan, but will keep total imports at roughly one-third of all sales here. - 05/09/2009

Chrysler holdouts drop the fight, clearing way out of bankruptcy

The surrender Friday of a group of Chrysler's dissatisfied lenders removed the largest remaining obstacle to the automaker's quick emergence from bankruptcy. - 05/09/2009

GM, workers air concerns to auto recovery czar

Auto recovery czar Ed Montgomery, center, and Gov. Jennifer Granholm watch the assembly of a V-6 engine at the GM Flint engine plant Friday.

President Barack Obama's auto industry recovery guru spent his second day in Michigan on Friday listening to the concerns of residents in southeastern Michigan and said he hopes to have answers soon on helping distressed cities. - 05/09/2009

Chrysler will pick dealer cuts by Thursday

Chrysler dealers are expecting to learn their individual fates by Thursday as the automaker chooses which dealerships will be part of a new and leaner company that emerges from bankruptcy. - 05/09/2009

Group lobbies for more federal aid to suppliers

Auto suppliers said Friday they are in crisis and may be forced out of business by temporary factory shutdowns at General Motors and Chrysler. - 05/09/2009

Daniel Howes

Commentary: General Motors can't avoid talk of bankruptcy

Now General Motors, the company that for so long officially refused to utter the "B" word, can't stop saying it. - 05/08/2009

Chrysler's first week rough

The first week of Chrysler's stay in bankruptcy was messier, costlier and more disruptive than the company or the Obama administration disclosed in the run-up to last Thursday's filing. - 05/08/2009

GM loss puts bankruptcy closer

Growing fear that General Motors will be forced to file for bankruptcy is scaring away buyers, a reality evident Thursday when the automaker reported a $6 billion first-quarter loss. - 05/08/2009

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Columns

Daniel Howes
Howes: Chrysler's last chance to get it right

Lots of people have challenging jobs at Chrysler Group LLC, but few are tougher than the one occupied by Doug Betts. - 11/19/2009

Scott Burgess
Hybrid fused into Milan

Mercury model distinct, even with family resemblance to Ford Fusion - 11/19/2009

John McCormick
Vehicle safety still has room to improve

Winter weather is around the corner and our roads soon will be wet, icy and potentially hazardous. - 11/19/2009

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