Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , Green When President Obama signed the Cash-for-Clunkers bill into law back on June 24, the Transportation Department was given 30 days to set the official rules and regulations for the program that will put the plan into motion. According to the official CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) site, NHTSA intends to get the deed done a day early by July 23. Although the paper the President signed stipulated that consumers may be eligible for …

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Autoblog

Topics: green, obama, cash4clunkers, president

Filed under: SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , China , Government/Legal , HUMMER , Earnings/Financials China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, the company that recently surfaced as the top bidder for Hummer, is about to start talks with Chinese regulators to secure the deal. While General Motors has a tentative agreement with Tengzhong, the two companies have yet to receive the state’s blessing, which is necessary for the sale to go through. Tengzhong, GM and Hummer have been working on a …

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Autoblog

Topics: chinese, report, hummer sale, hummersalechina, entry

The 25-year marriage between General Motors and Toyota is over. GM said today that it will pull out of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, the joint venture plant in Fremont, Calif. The plant’s 4,700 workers—most of who are United Auto Workers union members–make the Toyota Tacoma pickup, Toyota Corolla compact and Pontiac Vibe. Pontiac sold 46,000 Vibes last year and 17,000 of them through May of this year. That’s not massive…

David Welch

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Auto Beat - BusinessWeek

Topics: labor, toyota-corolla, texas, toyota

Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , GM , Opel , FIAT Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, watching the travails of GM, Opel and Magna from his comfy Italian perch, has sent word that his previous offer for Opel is still on the table if anyone is interested. That offer, though, can’t be sweetened because he doesn’t “believe we could improve Fiat’s offer. It’s the most rational one we can put forward from an industrial viewpoint.” It doesn’t appear as though anyone’s listening. …

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Autoblog

Topics: beijing automotive, sergiomarchionne, rhj, wants-the-most, opel

Filed under: SUVs , China , Government/Legal , HUMMER , Earnings/Financials 2008 Hummer H2 - Click above for high-res gallery General Motors’ pending deal to offload its unwanted HUMMER brand may have hit a major snag. Although no official word has come from the Ministry of Commerce or the National Development and Reform Commission, state-run radio organizations are reporting that the Chinese government will indeed block the sale of HUMMER from GM to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. It’s impossible to know exactly how this whole…

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Autoblog

Topics: sichuantengzhonghummer, hummer sale, radio

Filed under: Government/Legal , Videos , Chrysler, LLC. , GM Commercial regarding GM and Chrysler’s liability claims — Click above to view the after the jump A group called the Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM and Chrysler put together a commercial to run on Comcast throughout the weekend. The group numbers 460 people, 300 of whom are plaintiffs against GM, the rest against Chrysler, all of whom claim catastrophic injuries or the deaths of relations due to defective vehicles from the two companies. The ad attacks …

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Autoblog

Topics: entry, government, productliability, chrysler, after-the-jump

Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , GM , Opel When it came to buying Opel, Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne told GM and the German government: “If you have a better offer, take it.” They both took Magna, along with its Russian partners Sberbank and GAZ, because that consortium offered a better competitive arrangement and fewer job cuts in Germany. The deal wasn’t slated to be finished until September, but it’s encountered a few pockets of serious turbulence. …

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Autoblog

Topics: europe, belgium, legal

Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , Ford In the coming weeks before the U.S. Department of Transportation finalizes the rules and regulations for the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), otherwise known as Cash-for-Clunkers , we expect every automaker who operates in this country to start promoting which vehicles they sell that meet the program’s eligibility requirements. Ford Motor Company has got 20 vehicles spread across its Ford and Mercury brands, …

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Autoblog

Topics: cashforclunkers, ford cash-for-clunkers, obama

Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , Chrysler, LLC. , GM America’s “Cash for Clunkers” bill is on the cusp of being signed by President Obama, but according to a new survey by Rasmussen Reports, a majority of U.S. citizens aren’t in favor of the plan. According to the telephone survey, fully 54% of those queried are against the measure, while 35% are in favor and 12% aren’t sure how they feel about …

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Autoblog

Topics: car survey, obama, study

Filed under: Convertibles , Euro , Government/Legal , Plants/Manufacturing , Special/Limited Editions Karmann throughout the years - Click above for high-res image gallery Troubled coachbuilder and specialty car manufacturer Karmann has gone dark. The firm’s final vehicle - a Mercedes-Benz CLK came off the lines on Monday as the legendary company has been shuttered because of insolvency. Perhaps best known for its Volkswagen-based Karmann Ghia coupe and convertible (shown above), Karmann has actually produced in excess of 3.3 million automobiles for …

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Autoblog

Topics: karmann, insolvency, coachbuilder, tier-1 supplier