General Motors, Auto Industry | featured news

Toyota has once again dethroned General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker. The Japanese company sold 9.7 million cars and trucks worldwide in 2012, although it's still counting. GM sold 9.29 million.

General Motors' Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car topped Consumer Reports' annual owner-satisfaction survey for the second straight year. Ninety-two percent of Volt owners surveyed said they would definitely buy the Volt again.

General Motors Co on Wednesday posted a far stronger-than-expected profit and said it was targeting a return to break-even levels in its money-losing European operations by mid-decade after a loss of as much as $1.8 billion in that region this year.

General Motors Co, the largest U.S. automaker, reported a 1.5 percent increase in September auto sales on the strength of its passenger car sales, while Ford Motor Co posted sales that were on par with its results from a year earlier.

General Motors Co. announced on Friday a big recall of Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn mid-size sedans to fix a transmission problem that could cause the cars to roll away after the driver has left the vehicle.

"If he [Obama] didn't come through and give that vote and say, 'Yes we have got to save Chrysler. We have to save GM. We've got to do this,' all this Sterling Heights would have been gone, would have been dead."

Strong pickup demand fueled a big jump in U.S. auto sales last month. GM's August U.S. sales rose 10 percent compared with a year earlier, while Ford's rose 13 percent and Chrysler's 14 percent. Most automakers reported strong gains as Americans flowed into dealer showrooms, drawn by model-year closeouts, low-interest financing and appealing new models. Analysts expect overall sales to rise around 20 percent when companies finish reported later Tuesday.

Dutch sportscar maker Spyker said on Wednesday that General Motors has been served with the complaint that Spyker filed against it earlier this week and that GM is due to respond by August 28.

General Motors said Thursday that its second-quarter profit fell 41 percent as losses in Europe and South America cut into strong North American earnings.

Joel Ewanick, the agent of change brought in by General Motors just over two years ago to shake up its moribund marketing operations, has unexpectedly resigned... One source indicated that it was only decided hours before a press release finally went out that Ewanick’s departure would be described as a “voluntary” resignation. That, said several observers, raises questions about whether there was more behind the departure than simply a disagreement over policy.