Big Three, Auto Industry | featured news

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.

Every week, Chrysler demonstrates some new phase of its determination to transform its three-year-old lifeline into solid viability — dare we even say, success? The company that has come to define corporate melodrama over the last 30 years looks more and more like the formidable long-term player that Chrysler never quite has been until now.

General Motors said its sales increased 7.6 percent from a year ago. Ford’s were up 6.1 percent and Chrysler’s rose 20.1 percent.

Ford Motor Co plans to build a $900 million production plant in India, doubling its investment in the country, as the U.S. carmaker seeks to catch up with rivals in the second-fastest growing auto market in the world.

Both companies report rising sales, but Ford Motor Co. says profits fell about 8% compared with the same period last year as the automaker paid off debt and invested in new vehicles.

The Treasury Department said Thursday it has exited its investment in Chrysler LLC after Italian automaker Fiat SpA purchased the U.S. government's remaining holdings in the auto company.

Chrysler Group LLC has recalled 11,351 vehicles for a possible missing or incorrectly installed part that could result in loss of steering capability and increase the risk of a crash.

The U.S. economy is on increasingly unsteady footing, hurt by stubbornly high unemployment and volatile oil prices, the head of General Motors Co told reporters on Tuesday.

The Treasury Department said on Thursday it reached an agreement to sell its remaining 6 percent equity stake in Chrysler to Italy's Fiat in a deal that will net Washington $560 million.

General Motors' U.S. sales fell 1.2 percent in May as it offered fewer deals to customers.