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Mitt Romney Attacks Obama for how he Handled the 2009 Bailout of U.S. Auto Industry

The automotive industry is once again involved in politics and more specifically, this year’s presidential elections. This time it’s Republican candidate former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, who attacked President Barack Obama’s handling of the 2009 bailout.

In an op-ed published today at the Detroit News, Romney criticizes Obama of “instead of doing the right thing and standing up to union bosses, he rewarded them”.

Romney stated that the companies should have entered and then exited bankruptcy, but that “by the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find any similarities between the current and the former presidents of the United States. Yet, Barack Obama and George W. Bush actually do have one thing in common: they both agree that bailing out the bankrupt U.S. car industry was the right thing to do.

Bush, whose extension of bridge loans to U.S. automakers was one of the last decisions before he left office, gave the closing address to the annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention.

The former President said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned him that, unless the administration took drastic measures, a new depression was imminent.

GM regained the title of the world’s number one automotive group in 2011, but its European division losses must have surely dampened the celebrations.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that General Motors is losing its patience with Opel and Vauxhall after their fourth quarter losses and wants to make deeper cuts – and fast. The newspaper cited an unnamed GM source as saying that “if Opel is going to get fixed, it is going to get fixed now and cuts are going to get deep.”

Opel may have been responsible for the development of the Astra being the first to launch the five-door hatchback, Sports Tourer station wagon and three-door GTC variants amongst GM's global brands, but there's one body style it will be the last to get and that's the four-door sedan model.

The Astra sedan essentially made its debut as the new Buick Excelle GT in China back in the summer of 2010 followed by the North American 2012 Buick Verano at last year's Detroit Motor Show.

Now, our spies bring us pictures of the Opel Astra model while testing in Germany. There's no camouflage up front so we can see that the Opel-flavored version sports the same fascia as the European Astra.

The automaker's engineers covered the rear end, but from what we can tell, the only differences with the Buick models concern the tail lamp graphics and possibly the removal of the chrome eyebrows to create a more three-dimensional look, along with a differen license plate holder and the incorporation of a spoiler lip to the boot.

More and more automakers are looking to promote their vehicles to a younger and typically affluent crowd through popular racing games.

Today we learn that GM's Team Cadillac Racing has collaborated with iRacing.com, which is one of the most popular online motorsports games, offering players the chance to drive a virtual version of the CTS-V Coupe racer.

It surely came as no surprise to General Motors executives that their European division is once again, bleeding cash. After all, they knew that Opel and Vauxhall had already lost US$580 million in the first nine months of 2011.

However, as the Wall Street Journal reports, they weren’t prepared for the “horrendous” fourth quarter losses. Therefore, despite declaring last week that it is determined to turn around Opel, GM is now seriously reconsidering its options.

According to the report, an unnamed GM official said on Tuesday that the U.S. group is almost fed up with its European brands’ inability to make progress: “There is an increasing frustration with Opel and a feeling that the cuts two years ago did not go deep enough. If Opel is going to get fixed, it is going to get fixed now and the cuts are going to be deep.”

The 2013 model year brings some updates for the Buick Regal sedan, namely a new automatic transmission option and the discontinuation of the 2.4-liter base model.

The new Aisin AF40 six-speed automatic with Driver Shift Control will be available as a no-cost option instead of the existing six-speed manual gearbox on the 270HP Regal GS. Buick says that acceleration matches the manual with an estimated 0-60 mph sprint time of 6.7 seconds.

The 57th United States presidential elections will take place on November 6, and naturally, Barack Obama is aiming for a second term. Politics being what it is, the automotive industry is pushing hard to get some things done.

One such issue is the inclusion of Japan on the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, which Obama hopes will create a free-trade zone between the U.S. and the Asia Pacific region.

Currently, apart from the United States, there are eight other countries negotiating the plan including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. But three others want to join the talks that will be held this March in Melbourne.

And the claws are out! Chevrolet makes no apologies for its new commercial on the Silverado pickup truck that will air during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world that draws on the Mayan predictions, the ad shows a group of friends that made it out alive and who all happen to be Silverado owners.

Once they assemble, they notice that one of their buddies didn’t make it to the meeting point – the missing friend happens to own a Ford…

You can take a look at Chevy's "2012" Super Bowl ad in the video after the break.

Last September, during the Frankfurt Motor Show, General Motors executives were confident that their European operations were following the company’s restructuring plan to the letter and would break even.

Less than two months later, real-world results proved them wrong. In the first nine months of 2011, GM's European operations lost US$580 million before interest and taxes. Breaking even went down the drain.

In addition, restructuring, closing the Antwerp plant and cutting 5,800 jobs through September 2011, cost the company US$900 million. And that’s not all: its European division has cost GM more than US$2.34 billion since 2009, when it called off its plans for selling the company, and a staggering US$13 billion since 1999.

The state of California has been at the forefront of the nation’s regulations when it comes to reducing emissions since the 1970s. And now it has taken another step in this direction by approving the Advanced Clean Car program.

It is a set of regulations that aims to reduce emissions and, among other things, requires 15.4 percent of all new vehicles that will be sold by 2025 to be all-electric, plug-in hybrids or powered by fuel cells.

By implementing this program, California regulators wish to reduce passenger vehicles emissions by 34 percent between 2014 and 2015, and overall smog-forming emissions by 75 percent. It’s a goal similar to the federal standards proposed by President Obama.

General Motors' efforts to revitalize its Buick passenger and GMC truck divisions are not only limited to updating each brands vehicle lineup but also extend to refreshing their joint dealerships across the country.

The program includes a new exterior façade with updated signage, brighter and more comfortable showrooms with a customer greeting station as well as a lounge with free WiFi, while some dealers plan to go the extra mile and add a café or salon into the mix.

You may remember our Saab post from earlier this week where we asked you if you'd buy 9-3 or 9-5 sedan at half price. Among the deals we listed were several low mileage loaners with a 50 percent discount from the Shaw Saab dealership in Norwell, Massachusetts.

As we learned today from the Saabsunited enthusiast site, the aforementioned dealership is closing shop on February 3 after 44 years as an exclusive Saab seller.

Fred Shaw, the owner, posted a letter on the company's Facebook page where he announces the shut down and outlines his future plans, which include the selling of the real estate to Herb Chambers (the car shop equivalent of Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts), who will turn it into a Lexus shop.

Nothing unexpected there, but in his letter, Shaw also refers to General Motors and the role it played in the outcome of Saab's failed reorganization efforts. Being an official dealer, Shaw's view on the matter makes for an interesting read. You can check out the letter right after the break.

The issue of the Chevy Volt's fire risk and the following NHTSA investigation that ended last week after GM modified its hybrid and the federal agency cleared the car, seems to be spreading beyond the automotive realm.

According to Bloomberg News, a report released by the House Oversight and Government Committee Report led by California Republican Representative Darrell Issa poses the question whether the six-month delay in making the fire-risk issue public has anything to do with the government’s 32 percent stake in General Motors.

“This unnatural relationship has blurred the lines between the public and private sector as President Obama touts the survival of General Motors as one of the top accomplishments of his administration”, read the report. “On a political level, this relationship raises serious questions about whether or not the administration is too heavily invested in the success of GM to be an effective regulator.”

It's winter testing time for Opel's upcoming mini car that is currently known by its codename Junior, but which will probably be called the Allegra when it enters the European market in early 2013.

The Allegra will be Opel's entry in Europe's fast-growing A-segment, though GM Europe's president Nick Reilly has stated that it will compete with the more expensive offerings in its category, which puts it against the Fiat 500 and perhaps even the Mini.

On Tuesday, the Office of the Special Inspector General charged with auditing the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which bailed out among others General Motor and the Chrysler Group, came out with a report criticizing the U.S. government for failing to implement salary caps.

To brief you up, back in 2008, the U.S. government used US$700 billion under Tarp to bailout more than 700 institutions from which seven companies stood out due to the amount of money they received and the nature of their bailouts.

The seven companies that received so-called "exceptional assistance" were General Motors, the Chrysler Group, Ally Financial (formerly GMAC, Inc.), AIG, Bank of America, Chrysler Financial Services and Citigroup.

Although using taxpayers’ money to bailout privately owned institutions was an issue debated for a long time, as it turns out, saving those companies and thousands of American jobs was not the only issue on hand.

The 2012 Detroit Motor Show is more or less consigned to the dustbin of history, but that doesn't mean we'll stop talking about the vehicles that made their world premiere at the Cobo Center and especially the concept models.

Truth to be said, high-end sports cars such as the Acura NSX and Lexus LF-LC studies are the ones we'd really like to drive in the not so distant future, but for most of us, it's models like the two Chevrolet coupe concepts that correspond to mainstream reality.

While very different in philosophy, Chevrolet's Code 130R and Tru 140S Concepts share several attributes: both models were designed as four-seater coupes for the young at age (or young at heart); both are based on existing platform architectures and use production hardware, and finally, if they were to be built, their price would be in the low $20,000s.

All ends well for General Motors as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced today that it is officially closing the safety defect probe into the post-crash fire risk of the Chevrolet Volt.

The federal safety agency stated that after an eight-week long investigation and following a fix announced by GM to reduce the potential for battery intrusion from side impacts, it concludes that "no discernible defect trend exists".

"Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles," the agency said in a statement.

NHTSA had opened the investigation on November 28, 2011, after some Volts either caught fire or started to emit smoke and/or sparks in the days or weeks following a crash test.

On Thursday, General Motors reported global sales of 9,025,942 units in 2011, up 7.6% over 2010, which makes it the world's largest automaker in terms of volume.

Earlier this month, the Volkswagen Group announced that it sold a total of 8.16 million vehicles, up 14.3 percent compared to the previous year, which puts the German automaker in second spot - or so we thought.

You see, today, Volkswagen is questioning GM's numbers and of course its crown as the bestselling automotive group in the world. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the German company argues that unlike GM, it's numbers don't include sales of its affiliates such as MAN SE and Scania AB, in which VW has majority-ownership stakes.

Saab hasn’t made a car since last March. Its initial deal with the Chinese fell as did every subsequent overtake attempt basically because GM wasn’t willing to give away its technology to the Chinese for free.

Eventually, the company's owner Swedish Automobile ran out of cash and Saab filed for bankruptcy on December 19. The receivers walked in and made preparations to sell the silverware – or so to speak. Sad, but true: Saab has gone the way of the dodo. End of story, right?

Well, surprisingly enough, now that it is being torn apart, suitors come knocking on its door two at a time. Just hours after Youngman’s latest bid, Turkish private-equity firm Brightwell Holdings is the second company that will bid for the bankrupt carmaker.

Top Nice Cars

Mitt Romney Attacks Obama for how he Handled the 2009 Bailout of U.S. Auto Industry

George W. Bush Says he Would Bail Out U.S. Carmakers Again if he had to

Opel and Vauxhall Refute Wall Street Report as “Speculation”

SCOOP: The Not so New Opel Astra Sedan Takes Shape

Cadillac's CTS-V Coupe Racecar Enters the Virtual World as it Joins iRacing

GM Officials Shocked by Opel & Vauxhall's Latest Losses, Demand Much Deeper Cuts

Buick Regal Gains New Auto Transmission for GS and Standard eAssist for 2013MY

Detroit's Big 3 Object to Japanese Automakers Joining Free-Trade Talks

Chevy Takes a Stab at Ford with its New Super Bowl Ad for the Silverado

GM wants to Make Opel Profitable Despite European Crisis and Sales Drop

California wants 1.4 Million Zero-Emission Vehicles by 2025; Manufacturers Agree, Dealers Object

Buick and GMC Showrooms Receive a Makover in the States

'Half Price' Saab Dealer Shutting Down, Publishes Letter Putting Part of the Blame on GM

Volt Probe Fuels Republican Fire, GM CEO Says Company has Become a "Political Punching Bag"

Spy Shots: New Opel Allegra Mini Sneaks out to Play in the Snow

Bailout Execs Criticized for Receiving Big Salaries, Some Claimed they Couldn't Survive with $500k…

Poll: Which Chevrolet Concept Coupe Would You Like to be Built?

Case Closed: NHTSA Clears Chevrolet Volt on Fire Risk, Says Everything's Okay Now

GM is World's Largest Automaker in 2011 but VW Group Says Not so Fast

Saab Saga is a Wild Turkey: Istanbul-based Equity Firm Added to Buyers’ List