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GM to Acquire AmeriCredit for $3.5 Billion to Provide Automotive Financing

By Michelle Krebs

General Motors announced Thursday morning that it has signed an agreement to acquire AmeriCredit, one of the nation's leading independent auto finance companies, for $3.5 billion to provide automotive financing for its vehicles.

AmeriCredit becomes GM's captive financing, a function that GMAC used to perform before GM solds its controlling interest in the finance company in 2006.

"This acquisition supports our efforts to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles by expanding the financing options we can offer to consumers who want to buy GM vehicles," said GM Chairman and  CEO Ed Whitacre in a press release issued Thursday. "Adding AmeriCredit to our team will improve our competitiveness in auto financing offerings."

The two companies hold a joint press conference call Thursday morning.  

GM Quick to Resolve Safety Concerns in HD Pickup Trucks

Toyota could learn a thing or two from General Motors. Less than a week after PickupTrucks.com discovered a potentially dangerous glitch in the hill-hold assist feature equipped in GM heavy-duty trucks, GM has already identified the problem and issued a fix. PickupTrucks.com explains the problem: “Hill-hold assist automatically applies the vehicle's brakes for 1.5 seconds once you lift your foot off the brake when you're on an incline that’s 5 …

Read more of this story at U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

Fewer Than One in Ten Sub-Prime Auto Loans Approved

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.

Report: GM, Chrysler Too Hasty in Dealership Closures

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 …

Read more of this story at U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

Ford Joins GM in New Focus on Latin-American Operations

Just weeks ago, General Motors Co. announced it is forming a new regional organization to administer to South America and this week chief rival Ford Motor Co. is indicating it, too, will be placing more emphasis on its Latin-American business.

In a reorganization of its Canada, Mexico and South America business units, Ford is appointing Eduardo Serrano, current president and CEO of Ford of Mexico, as executive director, Latin America. Serrano now will have responsibility for South America and Mexico.

EPA negs Volt’s 230 mpg fuel economy formula

The EPA rejected the formula that General Motors used to calculate its 230 mpg estimate, but has yet to offer another option.

COMMENTARY: UAW to Organize Toyota? Not Likely

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.

New Edmunds.com Award Says Camaro Most Successful New-Model Launch of Last Year

A new annual award from Edmunds.com provides the auto industry and consumers with a detailed measure of how well newly launched vehicles perform in the market. The first winner of the Edmunds.com Launch Breakthrough Award is General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Camaro.

The Launch Breakthrough Award measures and analyzes 18 variables to derive a single score for each of the 54 eligible vehicles, which had to be launched during the 2009 calendar year. Each vehicle had to be totally new or redesigned and must sell at least 100 units per month.