Chrysler

BERLIN -- Kirk Kerkorian, the Las Vegas billionaire with a history of shaking up the Detroit auto industry, is on the steps of DaimlerChrysler AG, offering $4.5 billion to take the struggling Auburn Hills, Mich.-based unit off the Germans' hands. In a letter to DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche and the company's supervisory board, made public yesterday, Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. made a cash offer for the Chrysler Group. He also offered to place $100 million in escrow for a 60-day exclusive window to review the company's books before making the deal final.

ST. LOUIS -- While much of the auto industry is fixated on who is visiting Chrysler Group's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., workers at its South Assembly plant in Fenton, Mo., are closely watching visitors in their own workplace. Trailers from Overland, Mo.-based Alberici Constructors, which is involved in retooling the South Assembly facility, are occupying part of the employees' parking lot. Workers are looking for any change in the pace of Alberici's work as they wonder whether Chrysler will follow through on a long-term plan to retool and modernize local operations.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The Chrysler Group is set to announce a restructuring plan today aimed at securing its place in the crowded American car market - and within DaimlerChrysler AG. The plan is expected to include the elimination of about 11,000 blue- and white-collar jobs, along with the closing of one and possibly two assembly plants - in Delaware and Missouri - people with direct knowledge of the plan said this week. Chrysler may shut smaller plants elsewhere and announce other cost-cutting measures to meet its stated goal of reducing costs by about $1,000 a vehicle.

DETROIT -- After a tremendous run-up, shares of DaimlerChrysler AG may have peaked yesterday, as traders appear to have decided that selling Chrysler was fun, but now it's time to cash out and sell those shares. Just three months ago, on Feb. 13, the day before DaimlerChrysler AG first hinted the Chrysler Group might be sold, the stock opened at $63.94. Now that a deal has been announced for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management to acquire Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler's shares are going for more than $86 - a 34 percent increase in just three months.

WASHINGTON -- If there's an eternal optimist still floating around the offices of Detroit's automakers, it might be wise to keep him away from Consumer Reports' latest overview of the best and worst cars and trucks. Sure, the bible of consumer reviews had some positive words in its annual auto issue released yesterday for Ford Motor Co.'s mid-size sedans, and it noted some improvement in the fit and finish on General Motors Corp.'s newest models. But, as occurred last year, no Detroit vehicle ranked in the magazine's 10 Top Picks, in which Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. had seven models.

BERLIN -- DaimlerChrysler AG insists it is keeping all options open for the future of the Chrysler Group. But judging by its tense annual meeting here yesterday, Daimler's marriage to Chrysler is already finished, except for the ink on the divorce papers. Trying to placate restive shareholders, DaimlerChrysler confirmed for the first time that it was in negotiations with a number of bidders about a deal for the troubled American unit, which lost $1.5 billion last year. "We are talking with some of the potential partners who have shown a clear interest," the chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, said.

Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union began contract talks yesterday, formally opening the U.S. auto industry's effort to reduce labor costs that now give an advantage to Asian rivals. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Thomas W. LaSorda shook hands to mark the start of bargaining in a ceremony at company headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. The talks are aimed at replacing a four-year contract expiring Sept. 14. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. open negotiations Monday.

DETROIT -- News that DaimlerChrysler AG was discussing the possibility of selling the Chrysler unit to General Motors Corp. cheered its mostly German stockholder base yesterday, but drew jeers elsewhere. Analysts and industry executives questioned why GM, whose own turnaround efforts are still under way, would use some of its $26.4 billion in cash raised by selling profitable assets such as GMAC to buy another unprofitable North American automaker. The companies declined to comment on the reports.

DETROIT -- With Chrysler LLC's announcement last week of an additional 12,000 job cuts, the number of jobs to be eliminated from U.S. and Canadian automakers and their former parts divisions in the second half of this decade has grown to 150,000 - and counting. With buyouts or early retirement offers expected at all three Detroit automakers after the new United Auto Workers union contracts that allow new hires to get less in pay or benefits, the number is sure to grow. And in the future, as the American automakers face competition from more and more rivals from low-cost countries, analysts say, more painful cuts will almost certainly follow.

SHARES OF Volvo AG and BMW AG have climbed recently amid speculation of merger talks between the automakers and Ford Motor Co.If Ford hooks up with a foreign automobile manufacturer, it would be the second major change recently in the automotive landscape. The first change came in May, when Daimler-Benz AG, the German industrial giant that makes Mercedes-Benz automobiles, announced an agreement to acquire Chrysler Corp. for more than $30 billion.Is a wave of international consolidation in the automotive industry inevitable?

Car dealers and manufacturers said the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program did its job in giving a much-needed boost to the struggling industry, but now they're bracing to see how long-lasting the effects will be. The program, which gave consumers as much as $4,500 to junk their inefficient vehicles for new models, ended at 8 p.m Monday with the Department of Transportation estimating that 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles sold under the program in just a...

Fiat closes deal to take bulk of Chrysler's assets Italy's Fiat is the new owner of most of Chrysler's assets, closing a deal Wednesday that saves the troubled U.S. automaker from liquidation and places a new company in the hands of Fiat's CEO. The deal creates a leaner company known as Chrysler Group LLC, which is not in bankruptcy protection and is free of billions of debt, 789 underperforming dealerships and burdensome labor costs that hobbled the...

Laurel Dodge sold its last Chrysler brand car, an Avenger, on Monday, and general manager Elias Kymingham got word a day later that incorporation papers to change the name of the dealership had been processed. It's the end of an era for Laurel Dodge, which has been doing business with Chrysler since the 1960s. The dealership was among 789, including 15 in Maryland, that lost franchise agreements with Chrysler as the financially troubled carmaker looks to cut costs and restructure into a smaller, more efficient company.

WASHINGTON - -In a surprise move, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a temporary delay Monday in the bankruptcy sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat, saying it needed more time to decide on complaints that the government-engineered deal is unfair to some bondholders. The one-line order from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg raised the possibility that the court could halt the sale and force the Chrysler deal to be renegotiated. Such a move could complicate the much larger General Motors bankruptcy.

GM bankruptcy likely as bondholders balk at deal DETROIT -: General Motors bondholders felt they deserved something like a 58 percent stake in the company in exchange for their billions of dollars in debt. What they were offered wasn't even close. As a result, the largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history is now all but certain. The bondholder rejection virtually ensures GM will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within days. The government, which has already extended nearly $20 billion in loans to GM, ordered the company to come up with a plan that 90 percent of its bondholders would agree to. But the government allowed it to offer only 10 percent of the company's stock.

The major automobile makers posted further sales declines in April on Friday, punctuating a brutal week for an industry that saw one of its largest companies plunge into bankruptcy and signs that a similar fate awaits its biggest U.S. player. Chrysler, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday and signed a deal to hand over its management to Fiat, reported Friday that its U.S. vehicle sales plunged 48 percent in April from a year ago. The Auburn Hills, Mich., company sold 76,682 cars, truck and SUVs during the period, a number depressed by a large reduction in fleet sales to rental car companies and government agencies as Chrysler attempts to focus on the consumer market.

WASHINGTON -President Obama's decision to save Chrysler by pushing it into bankruptcy Thursday puts the company in risky, uncharted territory for a major U.S. automaker and could portend a similar outcome for General Motors Corp. as it races to meet its own government restructuring deadline. The administration is betting Chrysler's future on its ability to emerge quickly from what can be a complex and unpredictable legal process. Obama also is tying the company's fate to Fiat, a foreign owner who may not fathom American car buyers.

WASHINGTON -As time for a deal wound down Wednesday, the Obama administration finalized a plan to send Chrysler into bankruptcy, replace chief executive Robert Nardelli and pump billions of dollars more into the effort, all in hopes the company can emerge from court proceedings as a re-energized competitor in the global economy. The government's attempt to save the automaker amounts to another extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy, but what would happen by Thursday's deadline for making a deal wasn't clear.

WASHINGTON - Chrysler's path to recovery cleared a major roadblock ahead of Thursday night's government-imposed deadline when the struggling automaker's largest bondholders agreed Tuesday to significantly reduce its debt. That deal and the expectation that the United Auto Workers will ratify a labor pact Wednesday increase the likelihood that Italian automaker Fiat will buy Chrysler and save it from financial collapse. But even if Fiat takes over, Chrysler might still enter government-backed bankruptcy to resolve some of its toughest outstanding issues, including a sharp reduction of its 3,300 U.S. dealers.

Noting the increasingly dire economy, General Motors and Chrysler asked the federal government yesterday to lend them $14 billion above and beyond what they had previously sought, raising the possibility that the automakers could continue to seek federal bailout aid for years to come. In viability plans submitted late yesterday to the Treasury Department, the automakers outlined a series of cost-saving cuts and structural overhauls they hoped to enact but hinged their success on gaining access to considerably larger amounts of taxpayer-funded bailout loans.