There are a lot of threads to tie together in today’s reporting of news in the auto sector.
General Motors has reported a third-quarter loss of $1.15 billion. But all indications are that car sales continue to outpace expectations in the United States.  Meanwhile, there are conflicting stories that GM both plans to pay back [...]

An article in the National Post suggests General Motors may look to divert some of its bailout money to Europe in the wake of a chill in German government support for subsidies. Talk of using taxpayer money to benefit workers in other countries is sure to raise ire, especially in the United States where the [...]

You could see this one coming given the humiliating circumstances under which the German Chancellor learned that GM was pulling out of the Magna deal.
The BBC is now reporting that Germany will give General Motors no aid to restructure it’s business. That’s 4.5 Billion Euros they now need to come up with.
Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle [...]

I have been reading press accounts of the GM decision to back out of the Opel/Vauxhall sale to the Magna/Sberbank consortium from various countries. There are a lot of different perspectives on this event in the U.S., Belgium, Spain, Germany, Russia, the U.K and elsewhere, because a lot of players are involved.
The conclusion I [...]

The sale to Canadian auto parts maker Magna International and its partner, Russian lender Sberbank is off. With bankruptcy now behind it, General Motors now feels confident it can proceed with Opel under the GM umbrella.
From the GM press release:
Given an improving business environment for GM over the past few months, and the importance of [...]

China has sent yet another public signal that it is unhappy with the U.S. and its trade policy by prepping an investigation into alleged illegal auto subsidies by the U.S. government.  The timing of this announcement puts a spotlight on the bailout of GMAC, the auto financial company which effectively has been nationalized the firm. [...]

And you thought the bailouts were over and market discipline might be restored.  Not a chance – the bailouts will continue, come hell or high water. The latest demonstration of this is GMAC, where the government will now be majority owner. GMAC has officially been nationalized. Now the government is running auto financing in addition [...]

Toyota, now the world’s largest automaker, has said it would halt production at a plant in Aichi prefecture in Japan, reducing total output by a massive 220,000 cars.  This should be seen as a recognition of the over-capacity tat exists in the auto sector despite other recent upbeat news.
Toyota raised its parent-only production target for [...]

You may have heard the reports that US auto dealers were swamped on Monday night as the car scrappage scheme dubbed “Cash for Clunkers” expired. American taxpayers were eligible for a tax rebate of up to $4500 for trading in an older gas guzzler for a new vehicle.  And all evidence shows that they took [...]

Now that it has emerged from bankruptcy and received free money from the Federal Government, General Motors is seriously thinking about keeping Opel by raising capital.  The German government has been urging GM to make a decision about the bids it received for GM Europe from Magna, the Germans’ preferred bidder. But, the company has [...]