Chevrolets are rarely seen on the streets of Paris. But General Motors (GM) has chosen the Paris Motor Show, which opens to the public on Oct. 4, to launch one of the most important new Chevy models in years.

The Cruze, a compact sedan set to go on sale in Europe next March and in the U.S. in 2010, will be Chevrolet’s first global small car. With its sleek, arched roofline and high-tech interior, “it’s one of the global Chevrolet products that are the future of where this brand is going to be,” says Wayne Brannon, Chevy’s European chief.

Toyota, the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler each said Wednesday that their sales in the United States fell more than 30 percent in September, as volatility in the financial markets compounded what already had been a miserable year for the auto industry.

But sales were better than expected at General Motors, which reported a 16 percent decline and estimated that its market share rose to the highest level in more than three years.

The Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid entered the market in 2008 as direct competition to the Toyota Camry Hybrid. The Malibu Hybrid is a stylish five-door mid-size sedan—but as a mild hybrid, the fuel economy compared with the gas-powered Malibu was a very modest 2-mpg jump to 24 in the city and 32 on the highway.

For 2009, the Malibu Hybrid is rated at 26 city and 34 highway—meaning a much healthier 4-mpg boost over the base-level Malibu. The difference in the lowest end MSRP between the two vehicles remained the same. The conventional Malibu starts at $20,745, while the Chevy Malibu Hybrid starts at $24,695. In other words, the cost per mpg improvement was cut in half.

Fitch Ratings on Monday cut its issuer default rating on General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) further into ‘junk’ territory, citing concerns about the auto company’s liquidity position and ability to raise fresh funds.

General Motors said that it intended to draw down the remaining 3.5 billion dollars of its 4.5-billion-dollar secured revolving credit facility to maintain what the auto giant described as “high level of financial flexibility” at a time when the financial markets are uncertain.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and their suppliers may get $25 billion in government loans to speed development of fuel-efficient vehicles this year and have to wait until next year for another $25 billion, analysts said.

The auto companies probably will be able to win support for $3.75 billion that must be appropriated to cover the costs of issuing the first $25 billion, Clint Currie, a Washington-based transportation analyst at Stanford Group, said in a report today. The odds against funding additional loans for the industry this year are 3-to-1, he said.

Web site The Car Connection on Tuesday managed to get its digital hands on photos of the what is said to be the production version of the Chevy Volt, the much-ballyhooed plug-in hybrid from General Motors.
Production version of the Chevy Volt from General Motors

The photos were made available on GM’s media Web site unintentionally, a company representative told The Detroit News. They were quickly taken down from GM’s site after The Car Connection posted them.

General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and some U.S. auto-parts makers want $50 billion in government-backed loans to build fuel-efficient cars, according to Bloomberg news. They also want fewer restrictions on how they can spend the money.

Before government officials agree to this, they should examine how some of the people running our nation’s car companies have been spending money that makes it into company coffers.

General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) executives said sales of trucks and SUVs in August again made up a bigger share of total sales as gasoline prices continued to fall from record highs in July.

As gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon this summer, buyers switched to more fuel-efficient cars and shunned the trucks and SUVs that have traditionally driven Detroit’s profits. The industry also has been dragged down by declining retail sales for individual dealerships, tied to the weak economy and soft housing market.