Sticker For Cbx250s Cbx 250s Cbx 250 S 1985 85 Red 7d Sl01 on 2040-parts.com

Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Fisker reborn as The New Fisker

The assets of Fisker may now belong to China's auto parts giant Wanxiang, but reports of the brand's demise have been greatly exaggerated. It was earlier believed that along with the technology and the debt that Wanxiang would be taking on, one thing they wouldn't get is the Fisker brand name itself. After all, in the relatively short history of struggling western automotive brands that have been bought up by Chinese automakers, brand names haven't always been part of the deal.

Video: Buick's lead color and trim designer, Heather Scalf on the new Encore SUV

Buick's lead color and trim designer, Heather Scalf, talks us through the Buick Encore's interior as part of General Motors' ‘Faces of GM' series of short videos. The video series, which recently featured CDN and GM's joint interactive design contest, offers an insight into the lives and duties of the team at GM. Unveiled at the 2012 NAIAS, the Encore is a compact SUV that must fit into the Buick house style of mature luxury despite is relatively small size.