GM repays $297.6 million to Germany for Opel loan | detnews.com | The Detroit News
General Motors Co. today repaid 200 million euros $297.6 million in German government aid that kept its carmaker Adam Opel GmbH afloat this year. GM also said it will repay another 400 million euros $595 million by Nov. 30. The payment comes more than a week after GM's board of directors voted to keep Opel instead of selling it to Canada's Magna International Inc. and its Russian partner, Sberbank. The 1.5 billion euro $2.2 billion bridge loan was intended to keep Opel operating until a deal was...

GM speeds repayment of loans to taxpayers | detnews.com | The Detroit News
GM Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. said recently payback would be "sooner than you think." Last Updated: November 16. 2009 1:00AM GM speeds repayment of loans to taxpayers Carmaker to pay $1B per quarter, starting Dec. 31, as finances gain David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau -- General Motors Co. will announce today it will begin repaying its $6.7 billion in government loans ahead of schedule -- a sure sign that the Detroit automaker's finances are improving since its exit from bankruptcy in...

GMC Terrain builds on Equinox's success | detnews.com | The Detroit News
You can choose your job, you can choose your name, but you can't choose your siblings. Laurie, Mark and Lisa -- the other members of Burgess Generation 5.0 -- remind me of this often. And I wouldn't have it any other way. General Motors Co., however, has had problems with family relationships in the past. Some of its cars and trucks shared a little too much in common, as if the gene pool was a half dozen chromosomes short of a double helix. Some called it cloning. Carmakers called it rebadging, and...

GM hourly workers face permanent layoffs | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- While General Motors Co. does not plan any deep job cuts, the automaker still has too many hourly workers and could permanently eliminate some of the 6,000 to 7,000 workers currently on layoff. Some of the workers are temporarily or indefinitely laid off and while GM is adding shifts at a few plants to boost output, some of the workers not called back could lose their jobs, CEO Fritz Henderson said Thursday at the Renaissance Center. "If it turns out after a period of time, that those people aren't...

GM's European CEO resigns | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive of General Motors Co.'s European operations, will leave the company, the automaker said Friday. Forster's departure is not surprising, and the move is not expected to further disrupt Opel's operations, already strained by months of sales negotiations. Nick Reilly, executive vice president in charge of GM's international operations, will fill in for Forster on an interim basis, sources said. According to several published reports, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will be...

GM considers former AT&T exec for top financial post | detnews.com | The Detroit News
General Motors Co. is considering a former vice chairman of AT&T among roughly seven candidates to replace Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, according to two sources familiar with the search. Charles Noski, a member of Microsoft Corp.'s board of directors, has the mix of financial acumen and executive experience that could also be essential if the GM board eventually replaces President and CEO Fritz Henderson, a source said. Noski was AT&T's senior executive vice president and chief financial officer...

GMC Terrain builds on Equinox's success | detnews.com | The Detroit News
You can choose your job, you can choose your name, but you can't choose your siblings. Laurie, Mark and Lisa -- the other members of Burgess Generation 5.0 -- remind me of this often. And I wouldn't have it any other way. General Motors Co., however, has had problems with family relationships in the past. Some of its cars and trucks shared a little too much in common, as if the gene pool was a half dozen chromosomes short of a double helix. Some called it cloning. Carmakers called it rebadging, and...

GM will cut jobs in Opel strategy | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- General Motors Co. said Wednesday some 10,000 European jobs will be sacrificed at its money-losing Adam Opel GmbH unit, which the automaker decided this week to keep, rather than sell to Canada's Magna International Inc. and its Russian partner, Sberbank. The job loss, about 20 percent of the unit's 50,000 European workers, is comparable to the number that Magna would have cut as part of a 30 percent structural cost reduction at Opel. John Smith, GM's group vice president for corporate planning and...

GMC Terrain builds on Equinox's success | detnews.com | The Detroit News
You can choose your job, you can choose your name, but you can't choose your siblings. Laurie, Mark and Lisa -- the other members of Burgess Generation 5.0 -- remind me of this often. And I wouldn't have it any other way. General Motors Co., however, has had problems with family relationships in the past. Some of its cars and trucks shared a little too much in common, as if the gene pool was a half dozen chromosomes short of a double helix. Some called it cloning. Carmakers called it rebadging, and...

Launch of GM's Cruze delayed 3 months | detnews.com | The Detroit News
General Motors Co. said it has delayed the launch of its Chevrolet Cruze small car about three months until the third quarter of 2010 to ensure a flawless launch. The delay also will give GM time to produce all variations of Cruze models, the automaker said Wednesday. It was not related to any problems associated with earlier Cruze launches in Europe or China, GM spokesman Klaus-Peter Martin said. Industry analyst Erich Merkle of Autoconomy.com has not heard of any problems associated with the Cruze...