Auto Industry Archive

In October, baseball teams that get eliminated from the playoffs and the World Series start a chorus of “Wait until next year!” General Motors and others in the U.S. auto industry are saying, “Wait until the year after next!” U.S. auto sales in 2009 are expected to be roughly flat with dismal 2008 sales. Some 2009 forecasts are slightly below this year, and some are...

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The auto industry is a major loser, if the failed financial-industries bailout or something like it can’t get credit markets back to normal. Automakers are both borrowers and lenders, an aspect of the automobile business that’s second only in importance – in practical terms, maybe equal in importance – to the car companies as building and selling cars and trucks. “Absent...

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Most still get approved, but even prime-risk customers are having a harder time getting auto loans approved in the current credit crisis. That’s according to CNW Marketing Research, which said that the share of auto loan applications that got final approval dropped for all three of the main credit-risk categories — prime, near-prime, and subprime. “Even a prime customer is...

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September auto sales look even worse than the preceding months this year, well into what’s usually the fall selling season. The sales downturn this year is so deep and so persistent, it has some analysts, including Robert Schnorbus, chief economist for J.D. Power and Associates, predicting it will be 2010 before auto sales improve significantly, with sales this year and next in the range...

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The U.S. Senate in an unusual Saturday session today approved an omnibus spending bill that included funding for $25 billion in loans to U.S. automakers, to help pay for development of more fuel-efficient vehicles. “At a critical time in our nation’s economy, these loans to our auto industry will help create good-paying jobs right here at home,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow...

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Tesla Motors Inc. says it will build a $250 million factory in San Jose, Calif., to build its own battery-powered sedan, with a goal of starting car production in late 2010. Tesla called its five-passenger luxury sedan “Model S” in its Sept. 17 factory announcement. It is expected to have a base price of about $60,000, the company said. Tesla’s first car is the two-seat Tesla...

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Chrysler managed a couple of surprises the other day by showing off three new vehicles that use lithium-ion batteries: two existing models, a Jeep Wrangler and a Chrysler minivan that can run on batteries, which also have a small gasoline engine; and an all-new, all-electric Dodge sports car. An electric vehicle, like the old General Motors EV1 of the late-1990s, runs on batteries all the...

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It looks as if Congress will pass legislation that will fund $25 billion for direct loans to automakers, to re-tool their manufacturing facilities to produce the next generation of advanced technology vehicles. The $25 billion was authorized in last year’s Energy Security & Independence Act, which became law in December of 2007, according to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. The loans will...

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Maybe a story in this space in June about private-equity firm Cerberus selling its stake in Chrysler — which appeared to be off-base at the time — could turn out right in the long run. The story at the time was that the prestigious Financial Times had reported that Cerberus had sold most of its stake in Chrysler to investors. Cerberus denied it at the time, but in such vague terms...

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In a new wrinkle to proposed government loans to the Detroit 3 to help develop more energy-efficient cars, a small, would-be electric vehicle company took out a full-page ad in The New York Times today directed at congressional leaders saying in effect, “Hey, we’d like some of those loans, too.” Last year, Congress approved, but did not fund, loans to automakers to help them...

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