RSS FeedDiane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway took a new 10-million share stake in automaker General Motors in the first quarter of 2012. The Buffett investment comes as the Detroit automaker continues to rebound from bankruptcy three years ago. GM reported a first quarter net income of $1 billion, fueled by U.S. vehicle sales. The Oracle of Omaha also revealed Tuesday in a regulatory filing that he had increased his stake in Wal-Mart by nearly 8 million shares. His holdings in the retailer now amount to 46.7 million shares. Buffett’s increased stake in Wal-Mart was made before allegations became public that Wal-Mart executives used bribes to [...] Continue Reading…
Buffett takes a stake in GM
May 17th, 2012 
admin VW, Chrysler see profits jump while Fiat posts losses
April 27th, 2012 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The global auto market continues to recover with carmaker giants Volkswagen, Chrysler and Fiat all reporting higher profits during the first quarter of the year. VW and Chrysler also reported higher sales, while Fiat said its sales in Europe were no better than last year. Volkswagen AG (VOW) led the pack on profits. It announced its net profit had nearly doubled to $4.2 billion compared to the same period last year. Chrysler Group LLC, which is now controlled by Italy’s Fiat, reported its net profits were the best in 13 years at $473 million. Italian carmaker Fiat SpA (F) credited those strong profits from [...] Continue Reading…
BMW says sales in China helped it hit new record
April 17th, 2012 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) – German luxury automaker BMW AG set sales records for the first three months of the year, reaching the landmark of selling more cars in China than in the United States for the first time. Sales rose by 11.2 percent for the first quarter, compared to the same period last year. BMW sold 425,528 vehicles. The company said it sold 80,014 cars in China, up by 37 percent from a year ago. In addition, BMW said that domestic sales were up by 12 percent in March. Also in March, BMW reported car sales rose by 41 percent in China, while sales only rose by 13 percent in the [...] Continue Reading…
Jaguar to build F-Type sports car in Britain
April 7th, 2012 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Birmingham, United Kingdom (AHN) – Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover announced Thursday that it would build its new Jaguar F-Type sports car in Britain. The vehicle, a two-seat convertible, is the successor to the classic Jaguar E-Type, which ended production in 1975. JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, plans to build the new car at its Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham. The planned sales launch is mid-2013. The automaker says it will base the F-type on the company’s C-X16 concept, which it unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show last year. JLR will reveal the design later this year and says it will be a successor to its E-type [...] Continue Reading…
Brake light, airbag issues prompt recall of 700,000 Toyota cars
March 8th, 2012 admin Windsor Genova – AHN News News Writer
Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) – Some 700,000 Toyota sedans and pickups in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are being recalled by the Japanese automaker to replace a faulty brake light switch and fix an airbag issue. In an announcement on Wednesday, Toyota Motor Corp. said the recall covers 495,470 Tacoma pickup trucks made between 2005 and 2009, 70,500 Camry and 116,000 2009-2011 Venza vehicles. The numbers include 16,000 trucks in Canada and 13,000 in Mexico. For the Tacoma, friction between the spiral cable and the retainer in the steering wheel spiral cable assembly may occur and could damage the electrical connection for the driver’s airbag module preventing it from deploying [...] Continue Reading…
Volkswagen announces its annual profits doubled
February 27th, 2012 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) – Volkswagen AG saw its profits more than double to $21.2 billion last year compared to $9.7 billion the year before, the company reported Friday. In addition, the automaker’s operating profit soared by 58 percent to $15.1 billion, while its revenue rose by 26 percent to $213.7 billion. The carmaker delivered more than 8.2 million vehicles, an increase of nearly 15 percent from the 2010. Volkswagen says it plans to become the world’s largest carmaker, in terms of both sales and profits, by 2018. To get there, company officials say they plan to spend $83 billion on building new plants and on conducting research and development to [...] Continue Reading…
Chrysler posts $225 million profit
February 7th, 2012 admin Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
Detriot, MI, United States (AHN) – Chrysler reported a $225 million profit on Wednesday. The company capped its first profitable year since its government bailout and bankruptcy in 2009. The fourth quarter results were fueled by $15.1 billion in revenue, a 41 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. For the full year, the struggling automaker on the way to a dramatic turnaround, reported net income of $183 million, compared with a $652 million loss in 2010. Annual revenue for 2011 rose 31 percent to $55 billion. Giving gas to the turnaround was surging sales of its Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles. Worldwide sales of its cars and trucks [...] Continue Reading…
GM back on top as world’s biggest automaker
January 28th, 2012 admin Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Even if you prefer Ford, BMW, Mercedes or Volkswagen, if you are an American taxpayer, you are cheering the news. General Motors, one-third of whose shares are owned by U.S. taxpayers, sold 9,025,942 vehicles in 2011, up 7.6 percent from 2010. The number was good enough to place GM on top as the world’s largest automaker. GM beat out Volkswagen, which sold just over 8 million cars in 2011. Toyota, which took the top spot from GM in 2009, has yet to report figures, but its production was severely hampered by the tsunami in Japan and the massive floods in Thailand. Even more impressive, [...] Continue Reading…
VW sells record 5.1 million cars in 2011
January 8th, 2012 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Wolfsburg, Germany (AHN) – Volkswagen AG announced it had record sales of 5.1 million cars and sport-utility vehicles worldwide in 2011. Sales were up worldwide by 13.1 percent in 2011 from 2010, company officials said. Volkswagen is Europe’s largest carmaker. Although much of its growth came from gains in China, India, Russia and the United States, its two largest markets were Europe and China. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based automaker sold 1.72 million vehicles in each of those markets. However, company officials said they expected challenges in the market environment for 2012. VW officials credited new versions of some models, such as the Passat, Jetta and Beetle for helping to boost [...] Continue Reading…
Honda widens recall for airbag problem
December 9th, 2011 admin Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Torrence, CA, United States (AHN) – Japanese automaker Honda has expanded its previously announced recall of vehicles with dangerous air bags to include almost 900,000 vehicles. The recall affects only vehicles sold in the United States and includes model years 2001 to 2003 of the affected cars. The recalled vehicles now include certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, 2001 to 2003 Civic, 2001 to 2003 Odyssey, 2002 and 2003 CR-V, 2003 Pilot, 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2 CL models, Honda officials said in a statement. Honda first said the driver’s airbag inflator needed to be replaced because it had a risk of deploying with too much pressure [...] Continue Reading…
