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AUTOS' WORLD NEWS
* GM considering $500 million expansion of Toledo plant
TOLEDO, Ohio,USA -Associated Press -Jan 14, 2006: General Motors Corp. is considering a $500 million expansion of its transmission plant to produce a new, six-speed automatic transmission, officials said Friday...
* GMAC sees $450 million charge for goodwill impairment
WASHINGTON,DC,USA -Dow Jones/AP -Jan 14, 2006: General Motors Acceptance Corp., the finance arm of General Motors Corp., on Friday said it will take a non-cash impairment charge of roughly $450 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31... According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the charge is mainly for the 1999 acquisition of The Bank of New York's commercial finance business...
* Wagoner GM's says fate of Delphi, GMAC will affect GM's financial picture
DETROIT,Mich,USA -AP, by Dee-Ann Durbin -Jan 14, 2006: General Motors Corp. expects to save about $4 billion this year as it implements its North American turnaround plan... But Wagoner declined to give any earnings guidance, saying there are too many outstanding issues facing the struggling automaker... Earlier this week, Jerome York, an aide to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, said GM should consider cutting its annual $2 per share dividend in half, which he estimated would save $566 million a year...
* A shareholder asking for less?
NEW YORK,NY,USA -The Detroit News, by Rachel Beck -Jan 14, 2006: One of General Motors Corp.'s biggest investors proposed something this week that came as a shock to many in these times when greed often rules: He's willing to give up guaranteed cash for the sake of trying to put the struggling company's business back on track... Top Kerkorian lieutenant Jerry York gave a frank critique of GM's turnaround plan... Kerkorian can't be thrilled with the automaker's performance over the last year. GM has failed to boost slumping sales, especially of gas-guzzling SUVs, while it wrestles with higher labor costs. It lost nearly $4 billion in the first nine months of last year... Among the suggestions: Ask board members to work for less than the $200,000 a year they are currently paid, and slash the compensation of the company's top five executives. York also said that GM should seek wage concessions from United Auto Workers members, who he said might be more willing to accept pay cuts if they saw them happening up and down the company's ranks... Of course, one can't forget Kerkorian's ultimate goal in all this is to make money. He certainly isn't just leaving money on the table out of the goodness of his heart. What he seems to believe is that by giving up the dividend payments, that may boost his chances of recouping more should the stock price surge if GM begins to turn itself around... It's a gamble that could backfire, of course, if a dividend cut sends GM shares into a new freefall. But one at least one particularly savvy investor believes the risk is worth taking...
* GM sees flat U.S. market and ramps up savings
DETROIT,Mich,USA -Reuters, by Jui Chakravorty -Jan 13, 2006: General Motors Corp., which lost nearly $4 billion (2.3 billion pounds) in the first three quarters of 2005, on Friday said it would accelerate its cost-savings plan as it moves to stanch losses in the face of a flat or weaker year for the U.S. auto market... The world's largest automaker expects to realise about $4 billion in savings in 2006, the bulk of $7 billion it had previously targeted through 2008 -- including $6 billion in structural costs and $1 billion in material costs... GM said it was aiming to lower its structural costs, including pensions, to 25 percent of its revenue in 2010 from the current level of about 34 percent...
* Toyota Prius hybrid outselling its tax credits
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -Los Angeles Times, by David Colker -Jan 14, 2006: If you want a tax break on a new hybrid car, you may have to settle for your second choice... When the hot-selling model reaches 60,000 units sold this year, tax break phases out... U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on Friday promoted the new tax break for buyers of gas-electric powered hybrids... For automakers, the new tax law has been something of a bureaucratic headache... Buyers can claim a fuel economy credit of up to $2,400 a hybrid, depending on how much less fuel the vehicle uses over a standard 2002 model, plus up to $1,000 based on estimated lifetime fuel savings... However, the final savings depend on data supplied by automakers... On Friday, car manufacturers were told to submit to the Internal Revenue Service detailed information on their hybrids' weight and fuel efficiency before the agency would certify a specific tax credit...
* Toyota '05 Sales In Russia Up 39% On Year
MOSCOW,Russia -Dow Jones/The Japan News -13 Jan 2006: Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday its sales of Toyota and Lexus models in Russia rose 39% in 2005 to 66,007 cars. The sale of Toyota models rose 73% on year to 60,638 cars, led by the Corolla model which clocked 22,442 sales. The sale of Lexus vehicles rose 39% to 5,369. The off-road RX300 led Lexus sales with 2,806 cars leaving the forecourt...
* India's Tata Motors to sell Fiat cars as part of alliance
NEW DELHI,India -Associated Press, by Rajesh Mahapatra -Jan 14, 2006: India's largest automobile manufacturer, Tata Motors Ltd., has agreed to sell Fiat cars as part of an alliance that is intended to allow the Indian and Italian automakers to share technologies and designs, the companies said Friday...
* DaimlerChrysler Suspends Manager
BERLIN, Germany -The Spiegel News Magazine/Associated Press News -14 Jan 2006: DaimlerChrysler AG has suspended nine managers over allegations that the carmaker paid bribes in order to secure contracts with Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, German media reported Saturday... The German-American carmaker suspended the managers as a result of the investigations by a U.N. commission and U.S. stock-market regulators...
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