Plunging auto sales, high gas prices and election year politics could help convince Congress to approve a $50 billion loan package to embattled U.S. automakers that Detroit's Big Three claim is key to their future success.
Falling gasoline prices were not enough to revive sales of SUVs and pickups in August as major automakers all reported a sharp fall in sales once again. And Ford Motor warned it sees even tougher times ahead.
General Motors is recalling 944,000 vehicles, 850,000 of them in the United States, because of the potential for a fire in the vehicles' heated windshield washer fluid system.
General Motors Corp. said Friday it was recalling 944,000 vehicles because of a problem with a windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire.
General Motors Corp. said Friday it was recalling 944,000 vehicles because of a problem with a windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will spend $75 million to retool part of its Michigan Truck factory to make car bodies, part of the automaker's plan to convert some truck factories to make smaller vehicles
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will spend $75 million to retool part of its Michigan Truck factory to make car bodies, part of the automaker's plan to convert some truck factories to make smaller vehicles.
Four small sport utility vehicles received top scores in crash tests to be released Wednesday by the insurance industry, a sign of improvement compared with SUVs built earlier in the decade
Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said Wednesday his company will invest $1.8 billion to expand a Detroit assembly plant and retool it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle.
Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said Wednesday his company will invest $1.8 billion to expand a Detroit assembly plant and retool it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle
Plunging auto sales, high gas prices and election year politics could help convince Congress to approve a $50 billion loan package to embattled U.S. automakers that Detroit's Big Three claim is key to their future success.
Falling gasoline prices were not enough to revive sales of SUVs and pickups in August as major automakers all reported a sharp fall in sales once again. And Ford Motor warned it sees even tougher times ahead.
General Motors is recalling 944,000 vehicles, 850,000 of them in the United States, because of the potential for a fire in the vehicles' heated windshield washer fluid system.
General Motors Corp. said Friday it was recalling 944,000 vehicles because of a problem with a windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire.
General Motors Corp. said Friday it was recalling 944,000 vehicles because of a problem with a windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will spend $75 million to retool part of its Michigan Truck factory to make car bodies, part of the automaker's plan to convert some truck factories to make smaller vehicles
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will spend $75 million to retool part of its Michigan Truck factory to make car bodies, part of the automaker's plan to convert some truck factories to make smaller vehicles.
Four small sport utility vehicles received top scores in crash tests to be released Wednesday by the insurance industry, a sign of improvement compared with SUVs built earlier in the decade
Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said Wednesday his company will invest $1.8 billion to expand a Detroit assembly plant and retool it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle.
Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said Wednesday his company will invest $1.8 billion to expand a Detroit assembly plant and retool it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle
U.S. auto sales slumped to a 16-year low in July as automakers failed to keep up with consumers' growing demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles
The nation's top automakers reported sharp drops in July sales that were much worse than expected, as high gas prices and a weak economy continue to bite the battered auto industry.
General Motors Corp. said Monday it will cut production by another 117,000 vehicles, citing continued weak in consumer demand for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles
Ford Motor Co. announced plans to transform its vehicle lineup on Thursday and reported the largest quarterly loss in its 105-year history.
The latest crash tests by the insurance industry raise safety questions about small pickups
General Motors Corp. told dealers Monday it plans to raise prices on 2009 models by an average of 3.5% despite a tough market that is forcing the automaker to cut production and discount its 2008 models
With sales of full-size pickups in a steep decline, Ford Motor Co. said Friday it is delaying the launch of its new, redesigned Ford F-150 pick-up by two months.
Meet today's most powerful production cars.
Until recently, big SUVs had resisted the sales declines hitting their smaller, mid-size brethren. That was because large SUV drivers were hard-core - they really needed interior room and pulling power, and they weren't about to switch to car-like crossovers.
Oil prices have some drivers looking for new rides, but some truck and sport-utility vehicle owners are remaining true to their gas guzzlers. They say, $4-a-gallon gas be damned; they need the space.
General Motors Corp. officially blew up its old business model Tuesday, closing four pickup truck and sport utility vehicle factories, announcing a new small car
General Motors announced plans Tuesday to shut four truck and SUV plants that employ thousands of workers. It also said high gas prices are here to stay - and, with them, consumers' growing preference for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
It appears that the prospect of $4 gas finally has Americans getting serious about fuel economy.
Jorge Fernandez strolls across the used-car parking lot littered with dozens upon dozens of sport utility vehicles the size of small tugboats.
Ford Motor Co. executives say they believe that $4 gas is here to stay, resulting in a fundamental consumer shift away from gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups and causing continued losses at its core North American auto unit.
Simply by chance, a pair of new cars fell into my hands last weekend that perfectly demonstrated the yin and yang of today's auto industry. The Pontiac G8 was powerful, exciting, fun to drive - and as obsolete as the buggy whip. The Nissan Cube was homely, utilitarian and slow - and we all ought to get used to it, because that's what most of us are going to be driving in the future.
The dwindling U.S. auto market and an accelerating shift from trucks to cars has brought grim layoff news to four General Motors Corp. factories.
Sky-high gas prices bring fuel economy front and center when it comes to buying a new car. But if you're not careful, your bargain gas-sipper could wind up costing you a lot more in the long-run.
Midsize SUVs are becoming safer, but side and rear impact crashes remain a weakness, according to recent testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Why should a female auto journalist give you advice on great date cars? Because as far as cars go, I know what turns a woman on and what really turns her off.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into possible fires in General Motors' new full-size SUV.
When Ford's new flagship Lincoln sedan, the MKS, goes on sale later this year it will be available with all-wheel-drive, a six-speed transmission and plenty of rear-seat legroom. But one feature usually found on full-size luxury cars will not be available on the MKS at any price: a V8 engine.
General Motors' Chevrolet Malibu mid-size sedan, radically redesigned for the 2008 model year, won the North American Car of the Year Award Sunday at the first media preview day for the Detroit auto show.
Tadge Juechter, General Motors' chief engineer for the Chevrolet Corvette, wants to set one thing straight: the Corvette is here to stay.
Not too long ago, uttering the phrase "diesel engine" was enough to elicit a wince from car buyers whose memories of previous-generation diesels often consisted of knocking engine noise, that distinctly-diesel fragrance, and plumes of blue smoke curling from the tailpipe.
Never easy, the automobile business has gotten exponentially more difficult in recent months, as manufacturers rewrite their new model plans to cope with the eventual tightening of fuel economy standards.
Car makers are confident they can meet new government rules calling for a national fleet average of 35 miles per gallon. But it will take a big technological push, they say.
Not one of six 2008 model year minivans tested by an insurance industry group was able to withstand a low speed, parking lot style collision without sustaining several thousand dollars in damage.
Motor Trend Magazine named the full-size Toyota Tundra its Truck of the Year for 2008 on Tuesday.
As 2007 comes to a close, Chrysler could lose its long-time bragging rights as the maker of America's most popular minivan.
The winner of this year's Green Car of the Year doesn't look a thing like the award's past winners. It's a full-sized SUV.
The number of new cars considered the safest by the insurance industry nearly tripled in the past year
It wasn't just jobs that Chrysler LLC cut on Thursday. The automaker knocked out some cars as well.
General Motors announced Tuesday that it would invest $73 million to outfit its Shreveport, La. factory to build a new Hummer pickup called the Hummer H3T.
I just spent a week driving an SUV with a 4.2-liter V8 engine that produces as much torque as the 6.0-liter V10 engine in a Dodge Viper. It can go from a dead stop to sixty miles per hour in about 6.4 seconds.
Outrage. Disbelief. Downright disgust. Those were readers' reactions to our recent story about 13 great fuel efficient cars, which featured several trucks and SUVs.
If you're like me, you probably log a lot of miles for business -- and often at the pointy end of the plane, thanks to frequent-flier programs.
More than 35 years after the death of the original muscle cars, Detroit is once again poised to produce modern muscle cars by the thousands.
While all offer reasonable protection from front impacts, there are big differences in side impact protection among six truck-based SUVs, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
It's 6 a.m. and still dark out, but to beat traffic I climb aboard a shuttle bus with a crowd of other car enthusiasts and head for the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Today is the last day of Monterey Speed Week, and the marquee event - the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the largest, most glamorous classic-car exhibition and competition in America - is set to begin.
After five years of writing this column, I'm about to shed all objectivity. Before I do, however, let's review some numbers. During the past half decade, I've tested - though not always written about - almost 200 cars, worth a cumulative $20 million or so. Although I've logged as many as 1,000 miles in a single car, on average I've driven the things between 100 and 200 miles before handing them back to their corporate overseers, thus clearing the decks for the next new ride.
By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles.
General Motors of Canada will cut about 1,100 jobs at a truck plant in Ontario amid slumping pickup sales, the company said Thursday.
With governments in the United States and Europe considering stricter fuel economy regulations, car companies all over are wondering how to meet the proposed demands.
General Motors Corp. says it's cutting scheduled overtime hours in six plants to avoid excessive inventories of full-size pickups and SUVs after high fuel prices and a weak housing market have softened demand.
While there is some genuinely encouraging news in General Motors' announcement today of $891 million in second-quarter profits, a closer look at today's earnings announcement provides a glimpse of the challenges that GM is going to face in the future.
Chemistry is a delicate recipe. Drivers and chiefs and owners don't automatically start winning races as soon as they are partnered together. Sometimes it takes days, months, or even a year to click.
For most successful people in corporate America, the average day is like a German or Japanese sedan: hard-charging, constant and complex. Competent? Yes. Thrilling? More like the perfect shade of gray.
Two-thirds of pickups, vans and sport-utility vehicles don't provide acceptable protection against whiplash in rear-end collisions, according to tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Chrysler Group on Thursday said it would roll out new hybrid vehicles, streamline its cars and trucks and introduce more diesel engines in a bid to improve the fuel economy of its product line-up.
Honda Civics, both new and used, are the most popular cars among teenage drivers, according to a recent survey.
You don't see any on the streets of Manhattan, but almost everywhere else, the homely pickup truck is America's common carrier. GM, Ford and Chrysler sell more pickups than do they anything else, more than two million a year in good times. In addition to high volume, pickups also produce high profits because they are relatively isolated from foreign competition.
With rising gas prices, diesel cars and SUVs are gearing up for a major American comeback after a brief appearance 25 years ago. But if all you remember are the smell and noise, you might not recognize the new leaner, cleaner versions.
Chrysler Group announced Monday that the gas/electric hybrid Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen SUVs to be released in 2008 will be powered by the company's 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engine.
Twenty years ago, if you were in the market for some exotic sheet metal, you would have lusted after the kind of experience only Lamborghini's Murciélago still delivers: a frighteningly powerful su...
Allow me a shameful confession: I don't love convertibles. (I'll pause a moment while your gasp subsides.) This is not a dislike, precisely, but rather a heightened sensitivity to minor annoyances....
Troubled Ford Motor Co. said Monday it would sell its Aston Martin luxury car business to the founder of an auto racing company and other investors in a deal valued at $925 million.
After a sale was postponed to answer questions about the car's racing history, an ultra-rare 1939 German racing car expected to fetch the highest price on record for any automobile did not find a buyer at an auction.
As car buyers in every market segment turn to smooth-riding, car-based, crossover SUVs, Jeep has a new hit on its hands. But it's not the small Compass on-roader.
This week marks the opening of the spring selling season for automakers and dealers. Get ready for some especially intense activity.
Just look at this!" exclaimed Seal, gesturing at the new Audi R8's carbon-fiber midsection stripe. "It gives the car a unique identity, it highlights that it's a mid-engine sports car, and it separ...
If you were to buy the car of your dreams - say, a Porsche 911 GT3 (sticker price, $106,000) - the odds are you'd drive it about 30 days a year and cover maybe 1,000 miles. Those are widely accepte...
At long last Audi announces the R8 - a two-seater that brings the brand's Le Mans-winning capabilities to the street.
Registrations of new hybrid vehicles in the United States increased 28 percent in 2006, but that was the second-smallest increase since 2000, and represented just 1.5 percent of new vehicle registrations, R.L. Polk & Co. said Monday.
Allow me a shameful confession: I don't love convertibles. (I'll pause a moment while your gasp subsides.) This is not a dislike, precisely, but rather a heightened sensitivity to minor annoyances....
Of course, the idea of GM buying Chrysler is preposterous. GM's biggest problem is overcapacity, and Chrysler is full of things that GM already has too much of: assembly plants, workers, retirees, car brands, car models, and dealers.
Patience with Chrysler at DaimlerChrysler headquarters in Stuttgart seems to have run out. After the U.S. automaker plunged into a billion-dollar loss for the third time since the 1998 merger, Daimler now seems ready to set Chrysler free. Its supervisory board (equivalent to a U.S. board of directors) declared Wednesday that it will "consider other, more far-reaching strategic options with partners in order to support and facilitate" Chrysler's restructuring. Then it added, "No option is being excluded."
The Ford Five Hundred will get a new old name for 2008 model year. It will be called the Taurus. And, as before, its Mercury cousin, now called the Montego, will be named the Sable.
Car companies are coming up with a lot of radical ideas. Here are ten that should go the distance, from Detroit's 2007 North American International Auto Show.
General Motors will unveil a new compact car for its Saturn division at the Chicago Auto Show on Wednesday.
All offer plenty of room and luxury for the money. Money Magazine scored them, point by point, to see which came out on top.
5 top full-size sedans rated
A 1971 Plymouth muscle car sold at a Phoenix, Ariz. auction Friday for $2.2 million. With a 10 percent sales commission, the total price for the car will be about $2.5 million.
American "bling" from the 1950s and '60s is expected to make a big showing at Barrett-Jackson's annual collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Later this week, a 1971 Plymouth will go on the auction block in Phoenix, Ariz. The car's estimated value is $5 million.
The target buyer of the Asus Lamborghini VX1 isn't exactly looking to go incognito: The laptop's bright yellow lid, with a shape evocative of a sports car's spoiler, prominently features the Automobili Lamborghini logo.
General Motors kicked off the North American International Auto Show by sweeping the show's car and truck of the year awards for the first time in the company's history.
General Motors and Ford Motor ended a difficult year with another plunge in U.S. sales, while Chrysler Group reported an unexpected rise in sales in the month, although it wasn't enough to stop its parent, DaimlerChrysler, from falling to fourth place in full-year U.S. sales for the first time.
The redesigned 2007 Chevrolet Silverado has been chosen as Truck of the Year by Motor Trend Magazine.
Would Mustang Sally drive a station wagon? Maybe she'll get the chance.
Bidding for Ford Motor unit Aston Martin had been particularly fierce and there was a strong chance that the car line made famous by James Bond movies could sell for more than $1.2 billion, according to a published report.
The Toyota Rav4 outranks luxury SUVs costing as much as $13,000 more in a new round-up of mid-sized crossover SUVs by the magazine Consumer Reports.
In the corporate imagination of General Motors, Hummer could be transformed from the SUV that environmentalists love to hate to an algae-infused, oxygen-exuding buggy that would open up like a flower.
General Motors is working on a plug-in hybrid version of its redesigned Saturn Vue SUV, the company's CEO announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.is looking to enter the U.S. market and has signed an agreement with independent distributor Global Vehicles U.S.A. Inc., a spokesman for the distributor said on Monday.
General Motors Corp. will likely launch a new Hummer truck in 2009, the head of the niche brand told Reuters on Wednesday.
Car lots are filling up and auto makers are offering big discounts on several SUVs and trucks to clear inventory, Edmunds.com said Thursday.
The Prius shortage may be ending, according to a report published Monday
The National Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into reports of fires in some Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute small SUVs.
Who can remember all the way back to last summer, when we had daylight-saving-time, baseball and $3 a gallon gasoline prices?
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