AUTO

Imagine it is thirty years in the future, 2029, and you are driving in a hard top convertible made in 2009. It has had three owners, and sports a healthy six-figures on the odometer.

Ford Motor Co posted its best October sales and market share in a dozen years in its main 19 European markets on Wednesday, but warned that European countries and the EU needed to take further action to bolster auto demand in the region next year.

A group of private equity firms is expected to progress to the second round of the sale of second-hand car dealership British Car Auctions, people familiar with the matter said.

Honda Motor Co is not betting on an immediate recovery in traditional markets and will focus on bright spots China and India, although it will not build an ultra low-cost car to take on Tata Motor's Nano.

Dutch market regulator AFM has fined GMAC Nederland NV, the local unit of bailed-out U.S. auto and home lender GMAC Financial Services, for not meeting rules on tighter standards for consumer credit and lending.

General Motors Co Chairman Ed Whitacre on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to give the automaker less restrictive pay caps and said it was too early to discuss the timing for the automaker to become a public company again.

The board of General Motors Co has approved a plan to produce a plug-in hybrid for the luxury Cadillac brand that will adapt technology developed for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt, according to people briefed on the decision.

Russia's government would consider any offer from Renault to increase its 25 percent stake in carmaker AvtoVAZ, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Merkel urged General Motors to quickly present a restructuring plan for its European unit Opel and said the U.S. automaker should not count on governments to shoulder most of the overhaul costs.

The state parent of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co has agreed to take over major auto assets from aircraft maker Aviation Industry Corp of China, heeding Beijing's calls to speed up restructuring in the fragmented auto industry.

Renault, Nissan Motor Co and their Indian partner will launch an ultra low-cost car in India in 2012 that will cost less than Tata Motor's Nano, the world's cheapest car.

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz premium auto division expects year-on-year U.S. sales growth in the next few months and the potential to increase its U.S. market share next year, U.S. Chief Executive Ernst Lieb said on Monday.

BMW forecast global sales would keep rising, letting it defend its role as the world's top premium carmaker, after sales volume edged up 2 percent in October to 115,252 units.

Energy firm Petro-Diamond Risk Management Ltd said on Monday it will close its global derivatives operations, looking to end its role as market maker in the volatile oil trade hedging business.

China's passenger cars sales in October surged 75.8 percent from a year earlier, official data showed, extending the explosive growth in recent months as government incentive policies continued to lure customers.

Volkswagen's premium carmaker Audi (NSUG.DE) tweaked its 2009 sales target higher by some 5,000 units to 925,000 vehicles, it said on Monday after revealing volumes edged 0.4 percent up in October.

General Motors Co said on Monday its China vehicle sales in October more than doubled from a year earlier, continuing a string of monthly sales records since the start of the year due to Beijing's stimulus policies.

The global car market has bottomed and is on track for 60 million units sales this year and next, Carlos Ghosn, who heads Japan's Nissan Motor Co and France's Renault SA, said on Sunday.

Over 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported sudden, spontaneous acceleration of their vehicles since 2001, including crashes blamed for 19 deaths, far more than earlier disclosed, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Manfred Wennemer resigned from his post as one of the five board members of the Opel Trust on Saturday in protest against the constant interference by politicians in Germany surrounding planned sale of Opel.

General Motors Chief Executive Fritz Henderson was due in Germany on Monday to start talks aimed at soothing workers' tempers over the carmaker's plan to reorganize European arm Opel on its own.

Opel's top German labor leader said on Sunday he was willing to hold negotiations over a restructuring of the European carmaker under its parent General Motors so long as it gains greater independence.

General Motors Co will probably stick to a plan to cut costs at Opel by 30 percent after deciding to restructure the European subsidiary itself rather than sell it, Bob Lutz, a GM executive set to become Opel's chairman, was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Volkswagen's premium brand Audi expects its vehicle sales to fall less than previously thought to over 920,000 vehicles this year, Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer told a German newspaper.

Workers at an India auto-parts maker have ended a six-week strike, which had hit supplies to General Motors and Ford and caused the shutdown of some North American plants, an official at the Indian firm said.

GM cited improving business conditions and the strategic importance of Opel, its European backbone, which also provides technology the group uses around the world.

The surprise decision by General Motors Co to drop a plan supported by Chief Executive Fritz Henderson to sell the company's Opel unit has raised new questions about the standing of the veteran GM insider after just six months on the job.

Chrysler's new boss offered an ambitious outlook for the automaker on Wednesday, saying it would more than double sales, roll out a dozen new models built on Fiat platforms and pay back debt to U.S. taxpayers over the next five years.

Ford Motor Co will continue meeting informally with United Auto Workers leaders to discuss labor issues following the rejection of concessions by U.S. rank-and-file workers, a top executive said on Wednesday.