Big Three | featured news

General Motors said Tuesday that United States sales rose 11.5 percent in February over the period a year ago, including a 32.2 percent gain for the four brands it is keeping: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.

General Motors said it would put $2.6 billion into its Opel and Vauxhall units and reduce the amount it is seeking from European governments.

General Motors Co. said Monday it will recall 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.

GM is looking at two offers for its Hummer brand after a deal to sell the line of sport utility vehicles to a Chinese manufacturer collapsed this week.

The automaker says it's unable to complete a deal to sell its SUV brand to a Chinese industrial company. It plans to wind down Hummer operations, which would affect about 3,000 workers.

General Motors chairman and chief executive, Ed Whitacre, Jr. will receive a compensation package worth $9 million, the automaker said Friday.

Chrysler Group LLC says it will invest $550 million to build the Fiat 500 minicar at its assembly plant near Mexico City.

US auto sales rose in January but were tempered by Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), which suffered a sales slide late in the month from a recall that led the auto maker to halt sales of more than half its vehicles.

Ford, the only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy court, clawed its way to a $2.7 billion profit in 2009 and expects to stay in the black in 2010. It was the automaker's first annual profit in four years.

Chrysler Group LLC will recall 24,177 vehicles due to a potential defect in a brake system that could result in sudden brake failure, the automaker said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.