Auto Industry

Ford Motor Co. will offer about 90,000 U.S. salaried retirees and former employees vested in its pension plan a lump-sum payment to buy them out of monthly benefits. Ford, which also reported lower first-quarter earnings Friday because of losses in Europe and Asia, said the plan was an innovative strategy to reduce its pension obligations. The automaker won't put up any operating cash but rather will make the one-time payments from existing pension plan assets. "We believe this is the first time a program of this type and magnitude has been done in an ongoing pension plan," said Bob Shanks, Ford's chief financial officer.

MARTINS FERRY, Ohio -- Joe Biden Thursday mocked Mitt Romney for attempting to claim credit for the rebound of the American auto industry, linking the GOP hopeful's past criticism of the Obama administration's rescue plan with his role as the head of venture capital firm Bain Capital. The setting for Biden's latest attack on Romney was a Chevrolet plant in the southeast corner of Ohio, to a crowd of 450 invited supporters standing before three Chevy Cruises. The vice president praised Obama for stepping up to save Big 3 automakers General Motors and Chrysler from "liquidation," to preserve what he called an "iconic industry that helped build the middle class.

More signs emerged Tuesday that the U.S. auto industry may actually be recovering from its deep slump, despite estimates of anemic January sales and Toyota Motor Corp.'s suspending sales of eight vehicle models because of accelerator problems. Ford Motor Co. said it would hire 1,200 workers, and General Motors Co. announced a big investment in manufacturing electric engines. Also, Dutch sports-car maker Spyker Cars said Tuesday that it had struck a deal to acquire Saab from General Motors.

LANSING, MICH. -- Campaigning down the road from a GM plant, Mitt Romney made no mention Tuesday of the federal auto bailout that he opposed and that many credit with saving that company and Chrysler. Instead, his only remarks about cars were lamenting the demise of Oldsmobile, which had been headquartered in Lansing. “It was a fine car and a source of pride for the city. It was also a source of a lot of good paying jobs,” he said. “These last few years have been hard on the people of Lansing, and they have been hard on the people of America.

Automobile classified advertising site AutoTrader.com plans to acquire one of the most venerable names in car shopping ? Kelley Blue Book. The pending deal, announced Tuesday, would give Atlanta-based AutoTrader two of the leading advertiser-supported go-to destinations for car buyers. The AutoTrader site, which launched in 1998, gets 15 million visitors a month viewing its buy and sell ads from dealers and consumers, the company said. Kelley Blue Book of Irvine provides price information on new and used cars.

Filling in for his boss, Vice President Joe Biden devoted  a weekly radio address to what the White House sees as a winning issue: the post-bailout revival of the auto industry. Chrysler paid back a total of $7.6 billion in loans this week from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a sign of financial solvency that the White House sees as a validation of the industry bailout. Biden also cited the announcement that General Motors is now running three full shifts at a Michigan factory, adding 2,500 new jobs.

Attention all car buyers: The era of cut-rate financing, generous cash-back offers and big discounts is coming to an end. With the effects of the earthquake in Japan rippling through the industry and causing shortages, prices are rising for both new and used cars, and fewer models and options will be available come summer, especially for the hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles that Japan produces. That's prompted many experts to voice something rarely said in the sales-happy auto industry: With consumers facing the toughest market in recent memory, if you can, put off purchases until things sort out, probably early next year.

Lest anyone doubt his solidarity with the American blue-collar worker, President Obama left the office Tuesday afternoon and spent some quality time with a Camaro. He never cranked up the stereo and took it for a spin, of course, but rather admired it on the showroom floor of the Washington Auto Show. But the photo op with the classic American muscle car gave Obama the chance to brag that the 2009 bailout he pushed through Congress ended up saving the big automakers. “The U.S. auto industry is back!

Facing a cascade of slipping economic signs that could endanger his reelection, President Obama sought to shift attention to a decision he made early in his term that appears to be paying off: bailing out the auto industry. Obama's appearance Friday at a Chrysler plant in this politically important state showed how few economic stories he can highlight. New figures Friday showed unemployment rose to 9.1%, the second straight month that the jobless rate climbed. Speculation grew that the economy might slip into another recession, which would hurt families nationwide just as the 2012 campaign begins.

Chrysler Considering Dropping Plymouth Name: Chrysler Corp. said it has discussed dropping its 63-year-old Plymouth nameplate, but a decision isn't coming soon. For years, auto analysts have said Chrysler has too many marketing divisions, especially since its 1987 acquisition of American Motors Corp.

LANSING, Mich. - Mitt Romney is making a play for his native Michigan, which last voted for a Republican for president nearly a quarter of a century ago. His task is made infinitely more difficult because of his opposition to the auto bailouts that many credit with saving the industry, a fact that was illustrated when he took the stage here Tuesday, not far from a GM plant. As protesters outside the Lansing Community College auditorium where he appeared criticized Romney's opposition to the bailouts, the presumptive GOP nominee was introduced by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican who has called the $80-billion federal loans to GM and Chrysler successful.

Mitt Romney has car trouble. No, we're not referring to the notorious 1983 incident in which he forced the family dog to ride in a crate strapped to the top of his station wagon, but a matter likely to hurt him far more with blue-collar voters: his contention that the bailouts of the U.S. automotive industry by both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama were a bad idea. If a speech last week by Vice President Joe Biden is any indicator, the Obama campaign is going to use the auto bailouts as a sledgehammer against Romney, should the latter emerge as the GOP nominee.

In a campaign thus far dominated by 30-second ads and debate sound bites, President Obama's reelection effort is taking a more expansive approach is it begins making its case to voters in earnest. Obama 2012 on Thursday released a two-minute trailer for what is ultimately set to be a 17-minute documentary that advisors say will "put into perspective" the challenges that the president has faced and the difficult choices he has made in an effort to put the American economy back on track.

Sometimes you just gotta wonder. Federal regulators have been calling on the auto industry for years to help reduce accidents by installing rearview cameras on vehicles. Yet an official rule requiring such technology on new cars and trucks keeps getting postponed. In January, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress he expected his department to issue the requirement by Feb. 29. Now he says it probably won't come until the end of the year. "Further study and data analysis -- including of a wider range of vehicles and drivers -- is important to ensure the most protective and efficient rule possible," LaHood said.

On the eve of the unlikeliest showdown of a dumbfounding campaign year, the bitter Republican primary battle in Michigan has turned into an all-out class war. Rick Santorum, flaunting the fieriest populism in years by a GOP presidential contender, is waging a determined challenge against Mitt Romney, heir to a storied Michigan political dynasty. Romney had once been expected to cruise to victory in the state his father governed and that he won four years ago. But Santorum was aiming for an upset that, as he says, would shock the Republican world.

The latest ad buy in the Michigan Republican primary battle is from a Democrat -- President Obama. The president's reelection campaign announced Thursday it is running a new 30-second advertisement in the state, the latest bit of Democratic meddling in the tight GOP contest (see video below). The spot, the campaign's first single-state ad campaign, touts the Obama administration's bailout of the auto industry by hailing the "grit and sacrifice of Michigan workers. " "When a million jobs were on the line, every Republican candidate turned their back," the ad states.