Auto Industry, Detroit | featured news

In seeking support in Michigan, Obama speaks frequently about how the federal bailout of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group led to GM's resurgence as the world's No. 1 automaker and 32,000 more auto-related jobs in the state since the companies emerged from their 2009 managed bankruptcies. Romney opposed the move, even writing a New York Times opinion piece in 2008 that carried the headline "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

General Motors will halt production of the Chevrolet Volt.The automaker has told 1,300 workers at its Detroit Hamtramck plant that they will be out of work for about five weeks.

Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up. Three years after the U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed, sales of cars and trucks are surging.

Welcome to an unlikely beacon of hope for the global auto industry -- Detroit. Executives arriving this week for the Detroit auto show find a U.S. car market that has morphed from meltdown three years ago to a safe haven as concerns grow about the stability of other big economies, from Europe to China.

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.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers union on changes to retiree health care, becoming the first Detroit automaker to secure union concessions on the key issue.