General Motors Co. dealers became frantic after receiving a letter from GM warning them that they are required to remove non-GM brands from their premises by Dec. 31. GM has since sent a retraction, clarifying that it will only require separate showrooms for the GM products and not exclusive properties.

GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney says that dealers who got the erroneous letter will receive an explanation about the error sometime this week. She declined to say exactly how many dealers got the misleading letter. It’s not hard to imagine how the dealers would have responded to the demands stated in the letter. In fact, lawyers and dealer associations had reacted to the alleged message in the letter with much anxiety. They cited the June 1 sales and service agreements GM issued to dealers when the automaker was in bankruptcy. They reminded GM about the “participation” agreements that enumerated the requirements for dealers GM wanted to keep in its retail network.

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Tags:car news, general motors, GM, gm dealers, gm news
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Suzuki Motor Corp.’s move to sell its 50% stake to General Motors Co. ends their CAMI joint assembly operation in Canada, cutting one of the few remaining links between the partners. No reason was given for the timing or pricing of the sale that had been announced very recently.

Due to declining sales of the XL7 SUV, Suzuki halted production at its Ingersoll, Ontario, plant last summer. Last month, GM revealed that it would invest $85.1 million to retool the plant and pump up production by 40,000 vehicles. CAMI currently makes the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, gm news, suzuki cami stake, suzuki gm cami joint-venture
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With General Motors Co. CEO Fritz Henderson’s sudden departure and GM’s presentation of a far-from-complete restructuring plan for Opel and Vauxhall comes the expected criticism from German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle.

Last Wednesday, Bruederle said that these facts confirm that “there is no clear line at GM.” With regards to GM’s signal that it will be contributing about 600 million euros ($904.3 million) of its own cash to restructure its Opel carmaking unit and that it wants the rest to be provided by European taxpayers, Bruederle would say that the paper submitted is not an application for state funds and cannot serve as the basis for making an assessment of one. He said that GM has failed to answer any of the important questions about Opel’s future. GM has disclosed that it requires 3.3 billion euros to restructure Opel, 2.7 billion euros of which are expected to be financed by European governments.

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Tags:car news, fritz henderson, GM, gm fritz, gm news, Minister Rainer Bruederle
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After backtracking on plans to sell Opel to Magna International Inc., General Motors Co. was able to pay back a loan from Germany and has even decided to lower the number of job cuts planned for Opel workers. Instead of the 10,000 to 50,000 jobs believed to be cut from Opel’s European workforce in its restructuring, Nick Reilly, Opel CEO, said the current plans are for only 9,000 to 9,500 jobs to be cut at Opel and Vauxhall. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, gm germany loan, gm loan pay bacj, gm news, Opel
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A group of rejected General Motors Co. dealers are up in arms over the carmaker’s promotional scheme that offers 45-day discounts to the 950,000 customers of its closed dealerships. Beginning Nov. 16, customers of those stores that have shut down or lost a franchise have received letters indicated that they qualify for discounts from $1,000-$2,000 on most models of its four surviving US brands. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, GM, gm dealer incentives, gm news
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With the end of China’s government stimulus program by the end of the year, General Motors Co. forecasts that its sales growth in the country will drop drastically in 2010. In an interview with Reuters, Kevin Wale, president of GM’s China operations, said that China sales were expected to rise 50 percent in 2009 but in 2010, only 10 percent to 15 percent is expected. At the sidelines of the Guangzhou Auto Show, Wale had said that GM’s full-year forecast had been changing each month. Unlike most markets throughout the globe, China’s auto market has been a major bright spot in 2009 due to a number of government incentives, including aggressive cuts in sales taxes on small cars. GM’s China vehicle sales in October more than doubled from a year earlier to 166,911. From January to November, GM and its joint venture partners have sold a total of 1.5 million vehicles in China.

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Tags:car news, general motors, gm china sales, gm news
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As General Motors Co. seeks to reduce production by 20%-25% across Europe, it will be presenting a new viability plan for Opel this December, GM Europe boss Nick Reilly announced. As part of GM’s 3.3 billion euro ($4.9 billion) restructuring plan, it aims to lower its production to slightly less than the capacity of three plants. Reilly asserts that it’s too early to determine whether any production sites would be closed. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, GM, gm news, gm opel restructuring plan
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General Motors Co. is predicting an increase in its US market share and annual sales rate for the month of November. Mike DiGiovanni, executive director of global market and industry analysis, said that they expect GM’s market share in the US to rise for the fourth consecutive month in November. He also forecasts that the US industry’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate this month would approach or slightly exceed 11 million units. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, GM, gm news, gm shares increase
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The Obama administration wants to hurry up its initial public offering (IPO) of General Motors Co. shares to reduce its majority stake in the automaker, according to Ron Bloom, the head of the U.S. government’s autos task force, in an interview with Reuters. At the earliest, an IPO for GM could come in the fourth quarter of 2010. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:general motors, generalmotors, gm fast-track ipo, gm initial public offering, gm ipo, gm news
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As many as 10,000 jobs at General Motors Co. could be lost as part of its European restructuring plan, according to Nick Reilly, interim head of GM’s European business. During a news conference in London last Tuesday, Reilly said that details of this plan would likely be finalized within the next three weeks. Continued after the jump!

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Tags:car news, general motors, GM, gm europe job cut, gm news
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