North America’s largest auto finance company and General Motors finance arm, GMAC is tightening its financial policies including both leases and loans, in response to the tough U.S. auto market.

GM consumers with lower credit, now will have to opt for less expensive vehicles. Otherwise, if they opt for expensive ones, they need to pay higher down payments than the past. The dealers will take care of size of the down payment and employment status of the consumers before the approval of a lease or loan. (more…)

The U.S. automakers’ inability to finance leases, coupled with high gasoline prices and weak economy, some of the automakers have been taking serious stake in their lease business. Last week, Chrysler LLC announced that its finance arm will stop issuing new car and truck leases to customers by the end of this month.

Now Ford Motor Co. is planning to raise leasing prices on some of models, as the residual value of these particular vehicles is falling so fast. As a result the automaker’s finance arm recorded “extreme losses.” (more…)

Reports say that Chrysler LLC’s Vice President of Electrical/Electronics Engineering Core, William Mattingly will leave the company and will join one of the leading auto suppliers, Lear Corporation.

Mattingly will join the Lear Corp.’s electronics division under Ray Scott. Scott is the president of Lear’s electronics division.

Lear is one of the world’s largest suppliers of automotive interior systems and components. It provides complete seating systems, electronic products and electrical distribution systems. Lear’s world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a specialized team of more than 90,000 efficient employees at 215 facilities in total 34 countries. (more…)

The chief designer for the Ford Flex crossover car, Richard Gresens has left Ford Motor Co., but reason behind this remains unclear.

Although some sources assume that Gresens’ departure was related to company’s effort to cut salaried jobs. Ford has been in the process of reducing salary- related costs by 15 percent in North America by August 1. Sources say Gresens could have found himself a casualty of Ford’s recent restructuring effort.

Ford spokeswoman, Charlotte Fisher confirmed the news but declined to comment on the reason for Gresens’ step-out as well as layoff. (more…)

In response to tight credit and the plunging resale prices for the gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, Chrysler LLC will stop issuing new car and truck leases to its consumers through its financial arm, Chrysler Financial by the end of this month. The company has made such a move because of the weak U.S. economic conditions, that have made leasing more expensive than buying for both consumers and the company.

In the U.S., automakers have offered leases as a way of getting customers into new vehicles with attractive monthly payments. And the consumers rent those vehicles for just two or three years. After the leases expire, automakers sell them at used-car auctions at profits. But, in the recent scenario, as the value for the gas-thirsty trucks and SUVs plummets, leaving automakers with vehicles with poor value at auction once the leases expire, has ultimately compelled manufacturers like Chrysler to stitch off its lease business. (more…)

One of the world’s largest automakers, Ford Motor Co. posted the biggest quarterly loss in its history in the second quarter of 2008. The automaker lost $8.7 billion, as the buying trends shifted from
gas- guzzling trucks and SUVs towards fuel- efficient smaller vehicles and hybrids.

Ford took a huge charge for reducing the value of various troubled assets in the second quarter. The net loss includes a pre-tax special charge of $8 billion, of which $5.3 billion was for Ford North America alone. The North America unit posted a $1.3 billion pre-tax loss in the quarter, as compared to a $270 million loss during the same period in 2007. The Volvo unit lost $120 million, compared to a loss of $91 million a year ago. (more…)

It seems that General Motors Corp. has recovered from its 50 years of lows in the U.S. stock market,  accounted earlier this month, as the automaker reported the global sales figures this week. Shares of General Motors on Wednesday had traded about $16 per share for the first time in more than a month.

Wednesday morning GM shares hit as high as $16.43 a share, up almost $1.75, before closing at $14.58 a share, up 1.82 percent in mid- afternoon. On July 15, the automaker’s stock hit as low as $8.81 a share. (more…)

Chrysler LLC announced that it will cut about 1,000 salaried jobs by the end of September as part of its restructuring plans to survive the critical downturn in the U.S. automotive industry. Along with the 1,000 jobs, Chrysler is supposed to cut its contract work force as well.

The company has already sent a memo to employees regarding the details of reduction. The executive vice president for human resources and communications, Nancy Rae wrote in the memo, “To respond to the current market conditions, an incremental manpower reduction of 1,000 salaried employees by September 30, 2008, will be required.” (more…)

After two leading Japanese automakers, Toyota and Honda, another Japanese company, Nissan Motor Co. plans to make production cuts in trucks and minivans and will focus more on fuel- efficient passenger cars. The automaker is threatened by the higher gasoline prices and consumer demand shift from larger vehicles to smaller cars.

Like most of the companies in the automotive industry, Nissan will shift more of its North American production to smaller cars with four- cylinder engines, while cutting back on truck production and minivans. (more…)

The Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co. announced that it will cut production of some of the light trucks and crossover vehicles in coming days in the U.S. Hurt by the sky-high price of gasoline and consumer demand shift from larger vehicles, the automaker decided to cut the production of both the Odyssey minivan and Pilot by 10,000 units at its Lincoln assembly plant in Alabama.

The production cut will take place from August through October. In order to match production with consumer demand, Honda will close the Lincoln plant for two days on August and will cut second shift production at the plant every Friday in August through October. In the first half of this year, Honda built a total of 158,316 Odysseys and Pilots, down 2.4 percent from the same period in 2007. (more…)