Auto Industry, Automaker | featured news

Every week, Chrysler demonstrates some new phase of its determination to transform its three-year-old lifeline into solid viability — dare we even say, success? The company that has come to define corporate melodrama over the last 30 years looks more and more like the formidable long-term player that Chrysler never quite has been until now.

Honda wants to silence its critics when it rolls out the new Accord this week. The automaker, chastened for cheapening the Civic compact earlier this year, says that won't happen with the midsize Accord.

Dutch sportscar maker Spyker said on Wednesday that General Motors has been served with the complaint that Spyker filed against it earlier this week and that GM is due to respond by August 28.

Toyota has surged back from a downturn following the natural disasters in Japan last year and is expecting to sell 23 percent more vehicles than it did in 2011.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it's recalling 778,000 RAV4 SUVs and Lexus HS 250h sedans in the U.S. to fix a suspension problem that could cause crashes. The company says if rear suspension nuts aren't tightened properly after a wheel alignment, the arms can rust and separate from the vehicle.

General Motors said Thursday that its second-quarter profit fell 41 percent as losses in Europe and South America cut into strong North American earnings.

U.S. auto sales remained soft in July and all three Detroit automakers reported sales for the month that fell slightly short of analyst estimates, as high U.S. unemployment and weak consumer confidence kept would-be buyers on the sidelines.

Chrysler reported its second-quarter profit soared as its predominately North American operations shielded it from the European economic slowdown on plaguing its U.S. competitors.

Pickup truck buyers are a stubborn lot, or so goes the conventional wisdom. What matters is payload and towing capacity; all else be damned. But recent trends suggest that’s not necessarily the case. The latest generation of full-size trucks now offer the sort of high-tech, high-touch features you might expect in a luxury car. And, perhaps most shockingly, Ford Motor Co. is now selling more than half of its F-Series pickups equipped with V-6s, rather than the classic, heavy-hauling V-8.

Joel Ewanick, the agent of change brought in by General Motors just over two years ago to shake up its moribund marketing operations, has unexpectedly resigned... One source indicated that it was only decided hours before a press release finally went out that Ewanick’s departure would be described as a “voluntary” resignation. That, said several observers, raises questions about whether there was more behind the departure than simply a disagreement over policy.