AUTOS' WORLD NEWS - Condenseds -
* Struggles at General Motors
* 1 - GM Cuts pinch shareholders, retirees, execs and raise pressure on UAW for givebacks
DETROIT,Mich,UDSA -The Detroit News, by Bill Vlasic -Feb 08, 2006: General Motors Corp., in an unprecedented show of shared sacrifice to UAW leaders, dug deep Tuesday by cutting its dividend in half, capping health care benefits for salaried retirees, and slashing the pay of Chairman Rick Wagoner and other top executives and directors... "I think you could say the whole family is participating in the effort to turn the business around," said Wagoner. The automaker lost $8.6 billion last year amid further declines in its share of the U.S. market...
* 2 - GM freezes salaried pensions
DETROIT,Mich,UDSA -The Detroit News, by Christine Tierney -Feb 08, 2006: New plan may include 401(k)s or lump sum payment at retirement for white collar staff... As part of an all-out effort to slash costs, General Motors Corp. will join the swelling ranks of American companies that no longer guarantee yearly pensions for white-collar workers...
* 3 - GM Salaried retirees hit again
DETROIT,Mich,UDSA -The Detroit News, by Brett Clanton -Feb 08, 2006: The caps are meant to shield GM from rising health care costs, which have grown at double-digit rates in recent years, by locking in coverage at 2006 levels. In other words, if health care costs go up next year, retirees will pay for any amount that surpasses what GM spent for their health costs this year...
* GM, Ford workers won't get profit-sharing checks
DETROIT,Mich,USA -Associated Press/Grand Forks Herald -Feb. 08, 2006: Employees of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. won't be getting profit-sharing checks this year because there isn't much profit to be shared... Ford made $2 billion in profits last year, a decline of more than 40 percent from 2004. GM, which voted Tuesday to cut its annual dividend in half, lost $8.6 billion in 2005...
* GM fuels ethanol debate: Automaker adds 20 E85 stations to its gasoline program
Chicago,Ill,USA -The Chicago Tribune, by Jim Mateja -Feb 8, 2006: GM will announce Wednesday that it is increasing its commitment to E85, a fuel that is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline... E85 consumes less gas, runs cleaner and reduces dependence on foreign oil. The automaker offers 13 models that run on E85, and its goal is to sell 400,000 autos annually... GM and several retailers will announce 20 new E85 fueling stations will be added to the 100 already in Illinois. Also, GM will team with Shell Oil Co. on a pilot program to add the fuel to at least six additional Illinois Shell stations to determine whether the oil company should expand the program...
* Diesel car sales soar
Prospect Hill,Galway,Irish -Galway Independent -Feb 8, 2006: Sales of new diesel cars in Europe continue to rise as consumers switch from less expensive petrol cars in search of fuel cost savings... The latest quarterly pricing survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and eurocarprice.com shows that diesels accounted for 49 per cent of the total European car market at the end of 2005... Diesel is now set to overtake petrol as the primary fuel for new passenger vehicles in Europe during 2006...
* Drivers keep attention!
Prospect Hill,Galway,Irish -Galway Independent -Feb 8, 2006: Research at Volvo into how drivers are affected by inattentiveness has resulted in new systems being developed which actively make drivers keep their eyes on the road... Approximately 80 per cent of collisions could be explained by the driver taking his eyes off the road just before the incident... Trent Victor, project manager at Volvo Technology and a researcher at Uppsala University, has developed a system to deal with the problem of drivers looking away at the wrong moment. With the help of an eye camera, sensors in the steering wheel and a camera in the windscreen, the driver’s eye movements and head movements, jerky movements of the steering wheel and the vehicles’ lane position can be studied...
* Bush highway safety nominee to push safety programs
WASHINGTON,DC,USA -Associated Press/The Detroit News, by KEN THOMAS -Feb 08, 2006: The Bush administration's choice to lead the government's traffic safety agency pledged Tuesday to make the nation's highways and roads safer for families while tackling issues like vehicle rollovers and teenage crashes. Nicole Nason, as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said she would try to "reduce the toll of motor vehicle crashes on America's families"...
* Survey: Fuel economy ranks last with U.S. drivers
WASHINGTON,DC,USA -The Washington Post, by Warren Brown -Feb 08, 2006: For the majority of motoring public, price, make and safety lead list of concerns, not mileage... What's important, what's not? Progressive Group of Insurance Companies surveyed 1,000 car buyers on the things they consider when buying a vehicle. Factors that are most important to people shopping for a new car. 1. Overall purchase price: 46% 2. Specific make and model: 31% 3. Safety features; Performance: 7%, tie Factors that are least important to people shopping for a new car. 1. Cost of insurance: 40% 2. Vehicle color: 28% 3. Fuel efficiency: 11% ...
* Euro cars sales marginal drop
Prospect Hill,Galway,Irish -Galway Independent -Feb 8, 2006: The Volkswagen Golf was Europe’s most popular car in 2005... The total car market in Western Europe dropped by 0.2 per cent in 2005 compared with 2004. Car industry analysis firm JATO Dynamics reports that 14,854,554 new cars were sold in Western Europe during 2005... New car sales rose in 10 out of the 19 markets in Western Europe, including the large markets of France, Germany and Spain. The UK market dropped by 5 per cent. The three markets showing the greatest growth compared with 2004 were Iceland (up 41%), Denmark (up 20%) and Ireland (up 11%)...
* Toyota to expand output capacity in Canada
TOKYO,Japan -Associated Press -Feb. 08, 2006: Toyota Motor Corp., whose solid growth could soon put it ahead of General Motors as the world's largest automaker, said Wednesday it will increase output capacity at a new assembly plant it is building in Canada... Annual production capacity at Toyota's planned factory in Woodstock, Ontario, will be raised to 150,000 units, from an initial target of 100,000 units, the company said in a statement. The plant, now under construction, is scheduled to come online in 2008...
* BMW car sales up in January on weak comparison
FRANKFURT,Germany -Reuters -7 Feb 2006: BMW, the world's biggest premium carmaker, reported a 14.6 percent increase in January group vehicle sales to 93,811 units, flattered by weak 3-Series demand last year before the model's relaunch...
posted by Unknown @ 12:21 PM
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