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As talks between General Motors Corp. and long-time rival Chrysler LLC continued over the weekend, a harsh reality has emerged: Without a merger and possibly an assist from the federal government, two of Detroit's Big Three auto makers could run out of cash within a year.

Though GM and Chrysler dismiss the notion, analysts and investors have begun to question whether one of the companies -- locked out of the credit markets and burning cash rapidly -- might have to seek bankruptcy prot...

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MAJOR car makers are falling over each other with announcements of plans to produce zero-emission hybrid vehicles.

Experts agree that demand for such vehicles is so high that the industry will probably not be able to meet it fully in the coming years.
All the big car makers had an electric-drive vehicle on show including the French, Japanese, German and US manufacturers, at the recent Paris Motor Show. After spending decades in the backyards of hobby mechanics the electric car...

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This year's higher gasoline prices are prompting drivers to switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. The trouble is, some of the money they save may be going to higher insurance premiums.

Small cars generally cost more to insure than larger ones because they're involved in more accidents and incur bigger claims, especially for injuries. That's true regardless of the driver profile, though younger and less-experienced drivers tend to buy smaller, cheaper cars.

A 40-year-old...

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LeaseTrader.com Believes a Combined GM-Chrysler Could Benefit Industry & Consumers

Reinventing an American Icon by Rewriting the Owners Manual

MIAMI, FL, Oct 23, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- LeaseTrader.com, the nationwide online marketplace for Car Lease transfers, believes the much talked about merger between General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC majority owner Cerberus Capital Management LP could be a positive for the automotive market as long as they are committed ...

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MIAMI – (October 22, 2008) – LeaseTrader.com, the company that helps consumers with Car Lease transfers, announces its monthly Top 10 Index for September, with the Toyota Camry as America’s most preferred leased vehicle, according to LeaseTrader user data. LeaseTrader.com publishes a monthly Index of America’s most preferred vehicles for lease transfer. The Index is based on user activity on the Web site, which includes thousands of today’s vehicles in almost eve...

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AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. will post its first decline in annual global sales in a decade this year, hit by slowing demand worldwide amid the financial crisis, a Japanese newspaper predicted Wednesday.

Japan's largest automaker will likely sell 8.3 million units in 2008 on the parent level — excluding subsidiaries and affiliates — down from 8.43 million units in 2007, the Nikkei daily said, citing no sources.

Demand has been weak in the United States, Europe an...

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Many won't survive. Almost 600 of the about 20,000 U.S. new car dealers have shut their doors this year, and an additional 2,000 will close within 18 months, predicts Mark Johnson, president of a Seattle consulting firm that helps auto dealers buy, sell or merge operations.

In September alone, 61 dealers — two a day — closed shop or downsized to used car lots, says the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). Wounded by gas prices that killed sales of their most pro...

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Has the auto industry tanked mainly because consumers can't get credit, or because they just don't
want to buy a vehicle right now? With new marketing campaigns that highlight loan availability, General
Motors and Toyota aren't waiting for the debate to be settled. In radio, newspapers and digital advertising that breaks
today, GM is launching a program called

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With the current credit crunch, lenders are getting pickier about who they finance, and they are requiring larger down payments than they were just weeks ago. So, as consumers usually do, they have found innovative ways to obtain a new vehicle, even in the midst of the tightening credit crunch. One way that is being increasingly utilized is taking over another consumer’s lease.

LeaseTrader, a company that specializes in facilitating such transfers, has seen a 30 percent increase...

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FINANCIAL STRAINS CAUSE CAR SHOPPERS TO BECOME NEAR-SIGHTED

 Unstable Economy Keeps Consumers Away From Long-Term Financial Commitments

MIAMI (October 16, 2008) – The rapidly deteriorating stock market and slowing economy, combined with high gas prices and a weakening job market, are all major reasons why new car sales continue to plummet. The largest factor, however, may be the consumer’s weariness towards s...

TOYOTA CAMRY TOPS LEASETRADER.COM TOP-10 INDEX FOR SEPTEMBER

Index Monitors Most Popular Lease Vehicles in America

MIAMI – (October 20, 2008) – LeaseTrader.com, the company that helps consumers with Car Lease transfers, announces its monthly Top 10 Index for September, with the Toyota Camry as America’s most prefe...

MORE MONEY DOWN CREATES PERFECT STORM FOR AUTO INDUSTRY AND CAR SHOPPERS

LeaseTrader.com Reports Rise in Activity as People Can’t Afford Dealer Down Payments

MIAMI (October 15, 2008) – Consumers are now making larger down payments for vehicles when car shopping because of the tightening credit crunch. Cash-strapped consumers struggling wit...

DETROIT — Negotiators hope to finalize a merger agreement between General Motors (GM) and Chrysler before the presidential election and are lobbying for government financial assistance to help clinch the deal, says a source who has been briefed on the talks.

They are pointing to the impact on the U.S. economy if either company were to fail, compared with the viability of a merged colossus that would control 36% of the U.S. auto market. Those are the chief selling points in askin...

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GMAC LLC, the big home and auto financing company, this week began restricting new loans to the most credit-worthy buyers after an attempt to raise new funds failed. The move threatens to crimpGeneral Motors Corp.'s U.S. sales, forcing the struggling auto maker to push its potential buyers to other lenders.

Like GMAC, GM has struggled to raise $15 billion in cash amid a shutdown in the credit markets. The auto maker hopes to bring in $5 billion through asset sales and secured financin...

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Cash-strapped consumers struggling with the current economic slide are finding it harder to shop for vehicles because of the larger down payments required. LeaseTrader.com says more people are utilizing vehicle lease transfers when car shopping to avoid down payments. In fact, over the last 90 days since the credit situation turned to crisis mode, LeaseTrader.com has seen a 30 percent increase in the number of people flocking to the site to take over a vehicle lease and avoid making a down pa...

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Auto lease companies implement fees or charges for lease contracts. Fees at the beginning of the contract include acquisition fees, license fees, registration, and a security deposit and at the beginning of the lease contract, leasers are subjected to pay a disposition fee and a termination fee in case they choose to end their contract earlier than they should.

Leasing trade is one option for leasers who wish to end their contract early without having to pay those heft termination fee...

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Recently Hot Vehicles Sport Low-Rate Financing, Rebates And Special Leasing Offers

They're this year's hot vehicles. But as the effects of the financial crisis deepen, even small and midsize cars are seeing declining sales -- and that means better deals for prospective buyers.

Manufacturers had generally pulled back on incentives for smaller vehicles this year, after record-high gas prices spiked demand. And the discounts still aren't as juicy or widespread as those on fuel-th...

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DETROIT — October is shaping up to be as miserable a month for automakers as September, according to industry analysts, as lenders tighten financing standards and many consumers steer clear of showrooms because of the weakening economy.

Tom Libby, senior director for industry analysis at J.D. Power & Associates’ Power Information Network, which monitors car sales on a weekly basis, said the first week of October was “very, very weak” for the automakers like...

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Cerberus’s Role Crucial as G.M.-Chrysler Merger Talks Continue

DETROIT — Merger talks are continuing between General Motors and Chrysler as the companies study possible financial terms of a deal that would combine two of the traditional Big Three automakers.

The chief issues under discussion include how much cash Chrysler’s owner, Cerberus Capital Management, would contribute to the merged entity and how much stock it would get in return, according to people ...

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Shares in Detroit's two biggest automakers, beaten down by about half their value last week, rebounded Monday after a weekend of hopeful signs the credit squeeze will begin to ease and of talk about industry consolidation.

General Motors (GM) shares rose 33.1% to close at $6.51 a share, the biggest percentage rise of any stock in the Dow Jones industrial average.

Ford Motor (F) was up 20.1% to close at $2.39 a share. Chrysler is privately held by Cerberus Capital Management.Read More...

Getting rid of a vehicle isn't always as easy as it seems. Problems can include everything from being locked in to an ironclad Car Lease to the inability to sell it for a fair price. Throw in any of the reasons for wanting to dump the car in the first place and what you have is a recipe for a potentially long and frustrating process. Follow along as we explore a few of the options, including some you may not have realized.

Getting out of a Car Lease
Car leases ...

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Former General Motors President Charles "Engine Charlie" Wilson never said, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country" even though the oft-repeated quote has stuck with him since 1953.

During a hearing about his appointment as U.S. defense secretary, Wilson was queried on his integrity by New Jersey Sen. Robert Hendrickson.

Wilson replied that for years he thought, "what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa....

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MIAMI, FL, Oct 13, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Consumers are now making larger down payments for vehicles when car shopping because of the tightening credit crunch. Cash-strapped consumers struggling with the current economic slide are finding it harder to shop for a vehicle because of the larger down payments required.

Industry analysts have pointed to this rising trend in recent media reports. LeaseTrader.com sees a strikingly similar trend since more people ...

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