Crash Survival Zone

A Global Industry Is Transformed In Race to Reinvent U.S. Automakers

By Steven Mufson

In the space of five head-spinning months, the economic downturn and a few strong-willed financial officials in the Obama administration have done what legions of car executives, consultants and policymakers had failed to do in three decades: overhaul the U.S. car industry.

This weekend [...]

America’s auto titans are dismantling their global empires. But across the Pacific, it’s as if the global economic forces that have pummeled Detroit never struck. Chinese auto sales are up, and this year China is projected to displace Japan as the world’s largest car producer.

Now, the auto world is buzzing that China’s auto industry may [...]

Chrysler and General Motors (GM) both took the initial steps to winnow their dealer networks this week. Altogether, nearly 2,000 dealerships were informed that the bottom two of the Big Three will be ending their franchise agreements. And there’s more to come: GM needs to make further dealerships cuts to meet the restructuring expectations of [...]

Chrysler is the first major automaker since Studebaker in 1933 to try to reorganize in bankruptcy and emerge as a viable company. The process can be complicated. Here is a quick look at how it is likely to play out.
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NY Times

Smaller cars are coming, lots of them, but it’s far from clear that buyers want them.

Smaller cars are coming–we all know that. Domestic and foreign manufacturers are about to start a wave, pushed by expected higher fuel economy requirements. These smaller autos will crowd out new versions of the larger cars we have been buying. [...]

One of the carmakers showing off its electric power at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit is from China. The Shenzhen-based company BYD — which stands for Build Your Dreams — has built the world’s first mass-produced, plug-in hybrid car, beating both Chevrolet and Toyota to the punch.

The midsize sedan is called the [...]

General Motors Corp. said it may lose as many as 500 dealers in its home market this year, an increase from 350 last year, as the largest U.S. automaker works toward a goal of cutting 1,700 by 2012.

The reduction will widen in part because of the strain of a fourth straight year of U.S. auto-sales [...]

The federal government must create financial incentives for electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Imagine it’s 6 p.m. and you have just arrived home from work in your U.S.-made hybrid electric vehicle. You plug it into the outlet in your garage to charge it overnight. One charge takes you, on average, 50 miles, so you used no [...]

General Motors U.S. sales plunged to a 49-year low in 2008. December was another poor month, down 31%;
Toyota U.S. deliveries plummeted 37% percent;
Honda fell 35%;
Ford Motor fell 32%
Nissan was down 31% percent;
Chrysler dived 53%;
Mercedes-Benz was off 24;
Audi sales fell 9.3%
BMW sales fell 36%
Subaru sales were down 7.7%;
Volkswagen AG said its December sales fell 14%;
This was [...]

The historic collapse of the new-car market dragged on in December, raising questions of whether the auto industry will ever again have sales levels that it took for granted just a few years ago.

The across-the-board decline of 35 percent, reported by auto companies on Monday, is certain to put more pressure on the fragile finances [...]