By Bill Visnic
President Obama didn't come to Detroit last week to drive a 2011 Chevrolet Volt off the assembly line at General Motors Co.'s Hamtramck plant; he came to tacitly declare a success of the federal bailouts of GM and Chrysl…
After reporting yesterday that Chrysler recorded a second-quarter profit, Ford is announcing today that they turned a second-quarter profit as well. Given Chrysler’s role as the proverbial Los Angeles Clippers of the auto-industry, it should come as a surprise to no one that Ford also managed to turn a second-quarter profit. According to The Detroit News, “Ford Motor Co. reported higher-than-expected net income of $2.6 billion for the second quarter, …
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Some people may be on the lookout for flying pigs today. Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says the company turned a profit in the second quarter. Automotive News reports, "Chrysler Group posted its second straight operating profit as the automaker continues to recover from its 2009 bankruptcy. The announcement was made today by CEO Sergio Marchionne in a call with analysts. He didn't say how much Chrysler earned. Specific numbers will …
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By Michelle Krebs
Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, in announcing the Italian manufacturer's return to profitability in the second quarter, said he sees "substantial signs of economic recovery" across the globe.
All Fiat divisions were in the black, Marchionne said in a Webcast from Chrysler's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters. Fiat owns 20 percent of the American car company, which occurred during Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The strength of the second quarter – Fiat's first profitable quarter in the last three – came from higher sales of Iveco trucks and New Holland tractors, which offset lower car sales in Europe. In total, Fiat had lower vehicle sales but generated higher revenues thanks to dramatic cost cutting.
Thanks to a $145-million profit in the second quarter, the company will have full-year profits "significantly north" of the company's target, Marchionne said.
By Bill Visnic
Scarce wonder that General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC are eying buyers with sub-prime credit as the next growth market: in the wake of the recession-led credit crunch, only about 9 percent of sub-prime borrowers have their auto loans approved, said an article by the Associated Press.
The astonishing current reject rate for sub-prime auto lending represents a huge drop from historic standards that, prior to the economic meltdown, saw about 60 percent of sub-prime auto loans approved. Today's 9-percent approval rate is a bonanza for sub-prime auto loans compared with last year, which saw the approval fate fall to just 5 percent, the article said.
When General Motors and Chrysler began closing dealerships last year, many dealers protested that the closings weren't made with enough consideration, and that there would be negative effects on local economies. A new report says those dealers were right. The New York Times says, "President Obama’s auto task force pressed General Motors and Chrysler to close scores of dealerships without adequately considering the jobs that would be lost or having …
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Newly-minted president Bob King is trying to revive an ailing United Auto Workers union by 
vowing anew to organize Toyota's U.S. factories, a campaign that has as much chance of success as King being invited to perform card tricks at Toyota's next board of directors meeting.
King, one of the best thinkers to lead the UAW, surely realizes that Toyota's U.S. workers, having watched the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler on top of wage concessions at UAW plants, have scant reason to welcome the union. The UAW since the 1980s has failed to elicit the interest of Toyota workers, who now have benefitted because their employer avoided layoffs as the U.S. automotive downturn slowed and idled plants.
Jim Press, former Toyota and Chrysler executive, is now working for Renault-Nissan, the automaker confirmed.
A company spokesman confirmed Press, who once was Toyota's top American executive and subsequently Chrysler vice chairman, has been working as a consultant to the automaker's global sales and marketing group for four months. He has been visiting dealers in the United States, Europe and Japan, the automaker said.