Big Three | featured news

Barely two years since it filed for bankruptcy, Chrysler still has to prove it can deliver on its “second chance.” The carmaker seems to be heading in the right direction.

The U.S. economy is on increasingly unsteady footing, hurt by stubbornly high unemployment and volatile oil prices, the head of General Motors Co told reporters on Tuesday.

The Treasury Department said on Thursday it reached an agreement to sell its remaining 6 percent equity stake in Chrysler to Italy's Fiat in a deal that will net Washington $560 million.

General Motors' U.S. sales fell 1.2 percent in May as it offered fewer deals to customers.

The Treasury department said on Tuesday that automaker Chrysler Group LLC has repaid $5.1 billion in bailout loans and ended its ability to draw a remaining $2.1 billion.

Chrysler Group LLC is expected to announce today that it will repay about $7.5 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans on May 24 -- about a month earlier than it recently said, and years ahead of the original schedule.

General Motors' U.S. sales of cars and truck jumped 27 percent in April as the economy continued to improve and $4 a gallon gasoline pushed buyers into more efficient vehicles.

General Motors on Tuesday reported that U.S. sales jumped 49 percent last month, aided by sweeter financing and lease deals that drew a response from other major automakers.

Sixty-four former Chrysler dealers sued the U.S. government on Thursday, saying the Obama administration violated their rights by closing their stores during the automaker's bankruptcy without compensation.

General Motors said the payments, worth “upwards of $4,000” for hourly workers, were the largest profit-sharing checks in the automaker’s history.