G.M.’s $4.3 Billion Loss Masks Progress The first detailed financial report from General Motors since its bankruptcy showed a company that has largely stanched the hemorrhaging in its day-to-day business, but is still cleaning up problems left over from its collapse last year. G.M. said Wednesday that it had positive cash flow of $1 billion in the six months after it emerged from bankruptcy protection last July, but that it lost $4.3 billion in that period, mostly because of the cost of ...

With the new General Motors Corp. expressing second thoughts about selling Opel to Canadian partsmaker Magna International Inc. — or anyone else, for that matter — a flip side to GM's indecision has emerged. Why would Magna want Opel when acquisition of the bankrupt European carmaker could jeopardize billions of dollars in business with existing customers — and possibly lead to its ruin? Negotiations between GM and Magna — based in Aurora, Ont., it's one of the world's ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's race to save automaker Opel — and the jobs of its 25,000 employees in Germany — is beginning to look like a high-speed pileup that could cost her at the polls. To get talks with Opel owners General Motors back on track, Merkel is reportedly ready to abandon her previous plan to force GM to sell a controlling stake in its European business to a consortium of Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International and Russia's Sberbank. ...

On a steamy saturday afternoon just outside Shanghai, Zhang Yi is in a blessedly cool General Motors showroom, kicking the tires of the company's newer models. He's not there to beat the heat. He drives a small Volkswagen now and wants to upgrade. A middle manager at a state-owned steel company, Zhang has no worries about his job or China's economy. "Things are still pretty good," he says. "I have no problem now affording one of these," nodding toward ...

The Toyota-owned Fuji International Speedway circuit will stop hosting the Japanese Grand Prix from next year -- the track operators have announced. Fuji Speedway hosted the Formula One race in 2007 and 2008. The race is set to return to the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit this year, and was due back at Fuji for the 2010 race -- as the 16th leg of the 18-race Formula One series. The two venues were originally due to alternate hosting the Japanese Grand ...

A U.S. federal judge in the GM bankruptcy case late Sunday approved the sale of the troubled automaker's assets to a "new GM," court documents showed. Judge Robert Gerber, in giving his approval, said it "is the only available means to preserve the continuation of GM's business." Lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments in the bankruptcy case Thursday, giving Gerber the long holiday weekend to make his decision. Hanging over the case was a July 10 deadline imposed by the ...

At time when the U.S. and Canada are pouring tens of billions of dollars into General Motors Corp. to give the bankrupt automaker a new lease on life, why is Mexico flying under the radar? Last month when Washington and Ottawa pledged to invest $60 billion in Detroit's biggest car company, Mexico — a partner in NAFTA and an integrated North-American auto industry — was conspicuous by its absence at the negotiating table. See the best ...

GM stock has been delisted, dumped from the Dow, and is pretty much worthless. But with government backing, as they say, even pigs can fly. Indeed, just days after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors Corp. is already plotting a path beyond Chapter 11, including the sale of stranded assets and even an offering of new stock. The principle shareholders of any new GM—the U.S. Treasury, Canada's federal government and the United Auto Workers—are keenly interested in getting GM stock back into circulation. "There ...

General Motors took a big step toward its reinvention as the "New G.M." today when it opened what it calls the largest automotive battery laboratory in the United States, a move the struggling company believes will hasten the development of electric vehicles. GM invested $25 million in the 33,000-square-foot Global Battery Systems Lab to develop and test the drivetrains underpinning the Chevrolet Volt and other hybrid, battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The automaker believes the facility, at its ...

Chrysler and General Motors announced this week that they would shrink their dealer base in the U.S. Chrysler will close 789 dealers, leaving them with approximately 2400 stores in the U.S. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealers and hopes to be at a size of 3,600 dealers at the end of 2010. While Chrysler dealers will be "forced out" by June 9, GM is positioning for a smoother closing of its stores, with each shutting down ...