Car Throttle

The breakneck pace of automotive news happening over the past few days continues today. Yesterday, on the conference call with General Motors Chairman (and now interim Chief Executive Officer) Ed Whitacre, it came out that GM would be considering offers for Saab until the end of December. For those hoping for Saab to continue on, that was good news. It seems as if the most promising bidder though, Merbanco, is now out of the running according to Automotive News. SaabsUnited had conducted an interview with Merbanco's CEO a few months ago that was very encouraging. Reports have indicated Merbanco was very serious in moving forward. GM is currently going through the process of narrowing down bidders in hopes of a quick sale.  However, Merbanco wasn't

It has been a whirlwind of news today! The automotive world is alight with comments about the resignation of General Motors' Chief Executive Officer, Fritz Henderson. This follows the push out of former CEO Rick Wagoner, who Fritz Henderson replaced. Twitter has proved to be place to get the latest thoughts and reaction from the public. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for the quickest news updates  - we've been on there a lot today keeping up with all the happenings. On a GM conference call today, it was abruptly announced that Fritz Henderson would be resigning his position at GM. Ed Whitacre of recent AT&T fame and current Chairman of the GM Board, made the announcement. He also will be taking over the position as

Well, well, well - look what has transpired here. General Motors' cash crunch over the past year resulted in attempts to rid itself of global assets. That has included Saab and curiously until now, Opel. Opel's sale to Canadian supplier Magna International has been in the works for quite some time. Now, GM is announcing the termination of that deal struck with Magna International.  That's right, after all of this wrangling, GM's Board of Directors has decided to keep Opel. Opel has been integral to GM's current product lineup and it looks to play an even bigger role in the future. For instance, future new product like the Buick Regal is being sourced directly from the brand. Without control of Opel, GM would lose that developmental prowess, as

Bob Lutz, bearer of good news! He is fresh off his "unretirement" and back, better than ever. The reshuffling retains his position as Vice-Chairman of GM and actually adds responsibilities: he's in charge of “creative elements of products and customer relationships.” Bob Lutz is known famously in the auto industry for his propensity to speak his mind, and that hasn't changed. Pontiac's G8 has seen new life in it's sales numbers since the announcement about the Pontiac brand cancellation. Clearly the product has potential; it was critically acclaimed in the press. Not only that, there is multiple other reasons for keeping the car, like Australian production revenue that is vital to GM's Holden subsidiary. The logical reasons are there, which is why the response of GM's CEO Fritz

Oddly as it may sound, as GM has entered bankruptcy there has been more optimism about the future of the economy and the auto market even in the near term.  The Ford's and GM's numbers sales numbers have shown surprising strength and automakers are saying that they're seeing the the beginnings of recovery. That is good news indeed!  Ford may just be able make it through this without government intervention, and GM *could* be as profitable as as early as next year. Chrysler on the other hand; well we'll have to see how that whole deal works itself out. Regardless, it's true that through this process GM will be able to compete much better. Look at how much they have cut already and yet are still operating; talk about bloated!  I'd rather have fewer

Over the past few weeks, the major auto manufacturers have been releasing their First Quarter operating figures. As expected, they weren't pretty, with most posting major losses. Let's take a look at the results from General Motors released yesterday. To be honest, Ford is looking in excellent shape right now compared to most of it's competition. In almost every measure they're outperforming; sales, cash burn as well as posted losses. GM's results aren't pretty, and the company has less then a month until it's government-imposed June 1st "Viability" deadline. What a joke! Numbers like this aren't viable at all. They need to find a way to to chop this down significantly if they have any hope of surviving. These losses are government-financed. The loss works out to $6 billion, $9.78