Automobile Industry

The breakdown of two of Detroit's Big Three is bringing urgency to the scramble among the world's automakers to forge alliances with former rivals, carve inroads into new markets and shop for well-known brands. The turmoil has led to a flurry of deals realigning the automotive playing field. Italian automaker Fiat's bid to become a truly global player by acquiring control of Chrysler and eyeing General Motors Corp.'s European operations is only the most obvious move.

President Obama's plan to save failing U.S. automakers -- and make them the instruments for creating a cleaner, greener transportation system -- marked a major step across the line that traditionally separates government from private industry. His announcement Monday of a new position on bailing out Detroit went beyond a desire to be sure tax dollars were not wasted in bailing out struggling companies.

California officials told the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday that major automakers are already on track to meet the state's strict proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. But they clashed again with auto industry supporters at a daylong hearing over whether the EPA should grant California's request to allow it and 13 other states to set their own emission standards.

The major players in a key industry file for bankruptcy protection with the hope of reshaping operations quickly and coming back to compete more strongly. But it's not the automakers; it's the airlines, which just a few years ago underwent a wrenching restructuring in Bankruptcy Court that fundamentally altered the travel industry. Circumstances are different. But with Chrysler's filing for bankruptcy protection Thursday, and General Motors Corp.

Car dealers -- sponsors of Little League, fixtures of Main Street, vibrant symbols of the American entrepreneurial dream -- could now prove to be the biggest threat to the future of the very industry they built. For much of the last century, in exchange for selling Detroit's new models and providing a public face to distant industrial giants, dealers were richly rewarded with a steady, lucrative business and received community respect.

Declaring that the country had reached the end of the road with Detroit's automakers, President Obama on Monday mapped a new course for bailed-out General Motors Corp. and Chrysler in a series of moves designed to force the hands of workers, creditors and others with a stake in the companies. Obama, using the threat of bankruptcy as a weapon, vowed to transform the U.S.

President Obama on Monday announced plans to cope with the problems facing Detroit's auto industry. Here is a primer of the issue and how it will affect consumers. Why does the car industry have a problem? Essentially, fewer people bought cars from General Motors Corp., Chrysler and Ford Motor Co.

General Motors Corp.'s last-ditch, Hail Mary bid to avoid bankruptcy fell with a thud Wednesday as its bondholders overwhelmingly rejected a deal to swap their debt for equity in the company. That offer was a central element in the automaker's efforts -- guided by the federal government -- to restructure outside of court. Without it the company appears almost certain to file a Chapter 11 petition by Monday.

Is the love affair between cars and young people starting to cool? That could be the case, according to a new study of auto-related online commentary among teens and young adults by J.D. Power and Associates. The market research firm analyzed hundreds of thousands of online conversations held from January to August on auto-related websites such as Autoblog, on personal blogs and on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The goal was to gauge the perceptions of Generation Y (those born in the 1980s and early 1990s)

A day after the president threw down the gauntlet for the American auto industry, General Motors Corp. began the work of selling cars anew. On Tuesday, even as its new chief executive acknowledged the growing possibility of bankruptcy, the ailing carmaker announced an aggressive new incentive plan that, in part, will cover car payments for customers who lose their jobs.