Big Three | featured news

Sunday’s Super Bowl game saw a powerful ad air for U.S. automaker Chrysler — a company desperately in need of some serious buzz.

General Motors is planning to pay its hourly workers in the U.S. at least $3,000 each under a profit-sharing provision in its UAW contract.

General Motors said that 90% of GM dealers are reporting profits, up from 40% at the end of 2009.

An optimistic Chrysler narrowed its net loss significantly in the fourth quarter and forecast a net profit for 2011 as it continued a comeback from bankruptcy protection.

Ford earned its largest profit in more than a decade in 2010, as demand for its cars and trucks rose and it benefited from years of restructuring.

General Motors Co has withdrawn its application for $14 billion in subsidized loans from the U.S. Department of Energy, saying it has the financial strength to fund investment in more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.

Chrysler is in the midst of a new-product blitz that includes revamped models of the Grand Cherokee and the 300 sedan, as well as smaller models it will get from Fiat.

Bill Ford Jr. just can't let the good times roll. In late December, Ford, 53, was on a family ski vacation in Colorado but found himself unable to put aside dark visions of how too much success could lead to the next crisis for the auto industry.

General Motors Co posted a 7.5 percent rise in December U.S. auto sales and said it expects the industry to report sales at a 13 million-vehicle annualized rate for last month -- far higher than many forecasts and what would be the highest rate of 2010.

Investor demand for General Motors stock has been so strong that the company will expand its initial public offering by 31 percent, to 478 million common shares, a person briefed on the sale said Tuesday.