Monday starts with a sudden flare-up of GM news, not all good …
- Tracking GM engineer’s about-face – Automotive News: In 14 months, a General Motors engineer went from telling colleagues that improving the Chevrolet Cobalt’s ignition switch was “close to impossible” to signing off on the very fix he had shot down, documents show.
- GM Faces More Recalls, NHTSA Warns – thedetroitbureau.com: After recalling 7 million vehicles during the first quarter alone, GM still appears to have some safety-related issues to address, the maker issuing two more recalls.
- Warren Buffett praises General Motors’ new CEO Mary Barra – DetN: Investor Warren Buffett says General Motors’ new CEO would do a great job running any business, and she is the best person to handle the company’s recall problems.
- A pretty profit for panned GM pickups – Automotive News: General Motors’ first redesigned full-sized pickups in seven years have come dangerously close to being labeled flops since their launch last summer.
- GM’s new survey strategy: Keep it short – Automotive News: General Motors plans to shorten its customer satisfaction survey and ask shoppers to give dealers online-ready ratings and reviews, said two sources familiar with the program.
- GM recalling 51,640 SUVs for defective fuel gauges – DetN: General Motors is recalling 51,640 SUVs because the fuel gauges may show inaccurate readings.
- Judge will consider whether GM committed bankruptcy fraud – DetN: A federal bankruptcy judge said today he will quickly consider whether General Motors committed bankruptcy fraud in 2009 by not disclosing ignition switch defects that are now linked to 13 deaths.
- GM in talks on injury suits with recall victims lawyer – DetN: General Motors Co.’s victim compensation expert said he met Friday with lawyers representing those killed and claiming injury because of the automaker’s ignition switch defect. But he called the talks preliminary and said ‘GM has agreed to nothing.’
- G.M. Talks to Families With Claims Over Defects – NY Times: The number of cases, attributing wrongful death or personal injury to an ignition defect, suggest more victims than the company has acknowledged.
- GM held preliminary talks with victims of defective ignition switches – Washington Post: General Motors held preliminary talks Friday to discuss legal claims from accidents linked to defective ignition switches that prompted the giant automaker to recall 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars this year.
- GM Invests $50 Million to Keep Compact Cruzing – thedetroitbureau.com: With the next generation Cruze making its debut in China last month, General Motors has committed to building the next generation Cruze for North America in its big assembly complex in Lordstown, Ohio. The company invested $50 million at the Ohio plant as the Cruze is making inroads in the segment.
- GM Crisis Handler, Ken Feinberg And Texas Lawyer Bob Hilliard Meet To Discuss Settlement Of All Claims – Wards: Bob Hilliard, a Texas lawyer and one of the nation’s key players in the pursuit of claims against GM, attended a requested ‘settlement meeting’ with GM’s Compensation Guru, attorney Kenneth Feinberg.
- GM Said to Weigh Equal Treatment in Ignition Recall – WSJ: General Motors’ compensation expert is devising a plan that would compensate injury victims in an ignition-switch recall no matter when their accident occurred, a Texas attorney suing the auto maker said.
- Nokia to invest $100 million on intelligent-car technology – Automotive News: Nokia Oyj plans to spend $100 million backing companies that develop intelligent-car technologies, joining the likes of billionaire Elon Musk and Google in betting that future vehicles will be smarter and more connected.
- Volvo’s April sales grow 11% – Automotive News: Volvo Car Group’s vehicle sales rose 11 percent year-on-year in April, the tenth consecutive month of growth for the Chinese-owned firm.
- BMW Plots Sustainable Supercar – WSJ: BMW’s new ultralightweight hybrid has speed fiends and the eco-conscious swooning, writes Dan Neil. Is its slimmed-down design a model for all cars of the future?
- Hyundai Aiming Genesis Straight at Germans – Wards: To attract more premium buyers, including those driving an A6, 5-Series or E-Class, Hyundai plans to pitch the Genesis as “valuable” rather than it being a good “value.”
- April U.S. Light-Vehicle Fuel Economy Maintains Year Average – Wards: Asian automakers posted a record high, but the Detroit Three brought the average back down.
- Alfa Romeo Looks for Love in U.S. – WSJ: Fiat Chrysler says a revitalized Alfa Romeo brand is a pivotal part of its global strategy as it takes on BMW and Audi at the high end.
- Jeep wants to double global sales by ’18 – Automotive News: Jeep will double global sales by 2018 with strong growth in South America and China under Fiat Chrysler’s five-year product and business plan, sources here said.
- What’s so tempting about Texas to Toyota? – Automotive News: The past three decades have seen a transformation of Japan’s Big 3 from importers of Japan-built vehicles to powerful U.S.
- Toyota moved to Texas for traditions not taxes – DetN: Toyota sent shock waves through Southern California when it announced this past week that it’s moving its North American sales headquarters from Torrance, south of Los Angeles, to Plano, Texas, north of Dallas.
- Fields: Ford can’t slip to reverse – Automotive News: If Mark Fields is going to fill Alan Mulally’s shoes at Ford Motor Co., he can’t allow the bad mojo Mulally banished from the culture to creep back in.
- Sales of green cars down, but great strides in fuel economy – Automotive News: Some green-vehicle technologies that looked like sure bets for the second half of this decade are lagging. And some technologies that seemed like long shots seven model years ago have become viable.
- Chrysler, Fiat rev up next part of global plan – DetN: The newly created Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday will debut the sequel to its ambitious, five-year business plan revealed in 2009. This time, the script will be flipped.
- China’s indigenous brand policy backfires – FT: March sales of Chinese brand sedans fell 12% year-on-year, as local automakers lost their market lead in the segment to German rivals led by VW
- Porsche plans new five-door Cayenne coupe – Autocar: More sporting crossover planned as part of expanded Cayenne SUV family, and one of seven new VW Group SUVs.
- Mercedes plans new G-class for 2017 launch – Autocar: New, lighter G-class to have more interior space but keep its iconic looks alongside new engines with 360bhp.
- Motoring: More Pickup Buyers Opt for V6s – NY Times: For the first time in about 50 years, many big-truck customers no longer consider a 6-cylinder engine to be a downgrade.
- Outgoing Ford chief weighs job options – FT: Alan Mulally says he will consider new jobs when he steps down from the carmaker in the summer, after steering the group through the financial crisis
- French Sales Up in April; Domestics Lead Way Again – Wards: French makes accounted for nearly all the country’s growth both in March and April, industry data shows.