More Car News from today's reading of The Wall Street Journal....

from The Wall Street Journal - Toyota is missing my car payment.

Too bad. It is great to get the car paid off!





Hope the President of Toyota does not lose face...


Toyota Motor swung to a worse-than-expected net loss of 436.94 billion yen ($4.41 billion) for the full year and 765.8 billion yen ($7.73 billion) for the fourth quarter as the global economic slump weighed on earnings. The full-year result is the company's first net loss in 59 years. The Japanese car maker expects its loss for the current financial year to widen to 550 billion yen ($5.55 billion) and said it plans to cut costs, cut production and introduce new hybrid models.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124175507074100049.html#mod=djemalertNEWS





Foreign bidders are lining up to pick off parts of General Motors Corp. as the contraction of the U.S. auto industry sets the stage for a global reshuffling.



French auto maker Renault SA has opened discussions about possibly supplying cars to be sold through GM's Saturn dealers, if GM lines up an owner for the Saturn network, people familiar with the matter said.





Separately, China's Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. has submitted a bid to acquire GM's Saab unit, Geely said Thursday. [SAME COMPANY is bidding for Volvo from Ford...]




The two sets of talks illustrate the global deal making now heating up for useable assets spinning out of the government-led downsizing of GM and Chrysler LLC. Chrysler is reorganizing in bankruptcy court, and GM could follow suit if it doesn't achieve a debt-restructuring agreement by May 31.

One of the first indications of a global shake-up came last year when India's Tata Motors Ltd. acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co.
Mr. Robinet said the deals are being spurred by an excess of auto-production capacity world-wide.


READ MORE AT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162175673192025.html

FD: I was surprised to learn that GM deal with the Penske Motor Group (which sells the new SMART 2 TWO cars) could allow Renault to sell its own vehicles or those made by its affiliates through the Saturn network. Renault controls both Japan's Nissan Motor Corp. and South Korea's Samsung Motors. Meanwhile, GM and Fiat are negotiating terms of an arrangement for the Opel and Latin American businesses.

Once again, we are losing our manufacturing base to global competition. We need to move quickly into NEW manufacturing of products that have global appeal: NEW cars with better fuel mileage and alternative fuels, agriculture, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, energy systems, fresh water systems... develop it here, use it here, make it here, and keep it here!