Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury brand slipped 4% in consumer’s eyes to tie with Hyundai and GM’s GMC division at No.4. Nissan, Mazda and Kia followed the Blue Oval brands with a 3% improvement. Nissan pulled equal to the industry average while Mazda and Kia dropped below average.

Nonetheless, the survey leaves little for auto makers to look forward to, as it also forecasts weak consumer spending with growth of no more than 2.3% in the third quarter.

General Motors announced plans yesterday to install 8,700 solar panels on the roof of its White Marsh transmission plant by spring through a partnership with Beltsville’s SunEdison, North America’s largest provider of solar energy services.

The 300,000-square-foot solar project will be one of the biggest on the East Coast, generating enough electricity to power up to 150 households and reducing the plant’s utility bill along with its reliance on Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.

General Motors Corp. today gave the first public peek at the design of the Chevrolet Cruze compact car as it announced plans to invest more than $500 million in the United States to build the vehicle.
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GM plans to officially unveil the Cruze, which is being built on GM’s global compact car architecture, at the Paris auto show next month.

Building small cars in the U.S. has generally been a money-losing venture for General Motors Corp. (GM)

But now the auto maker believes it has found the formula to turn a profit on compact cars, even if those cars are built by union labor in a traditional Rust Belt town.

GM on Thursday will announce a major investment in its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant designed to ready the factory for a next-generation compact car: the Chevrolet Cruze.

In a last-ditch attempt to move inventory from dealers’ lots, GM is launching the 100th Anniversary Sales Event, a promotion offering employee pricing on all remaining 2008 models.

The program, which begins tomorrow and runs through September 2, offers pricing normally reserved for GM employees. All 2008 Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Saturn, Cadillac, Saab, and Hummer models are applicable (excluding medium duty trucks), as are the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt and HHR, Pontiac Vibe and G5, and Cadillac CTS.

Auto makers are angling to carve out their own niches in fuel-efficient design, from expansion of the gasoline-electric hybrid technology already available in the Toyota Prius to the new plug-in hybrid vehicle known as the Volt under development by General Motors Corp.

The Chevrolet Volt will be able to go at least 40 miles on its lithium-ion battery. Above, GM CEO Rick Wagoner rides in a Volt at a Las Vegas trade event last January.

NEW YORK — Lexus once again stands alone atop a closely watched ranking of vehicle dependability after Buick slipped from the No. 1 spot it shared with the Japanese luxury brand last year, J.D. Power and Associates says.

It’s the 14th straight year Toyota Motor Corp.’s high-end brand has held the top position in the annual study, which measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years. Lexus had 120 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 145 last year.

There’s no shortage of opinion makers who think GM should throw Hummer under the bus. Especially now as SUV and full-size pickup sales are “readjusting,” and fuel prices are much higher than we’d like. Add to that the political correctness of bashing anything and everything that isn’t a hybrid or doesn’t get the same fuel economy as any form of crossover vehicle, and you can see why Hummer’s had a bull’s eye on its back for the last 18 months.

Oleg Deripaska, Russia’s richest man, has been in talks with General Motors about purchasing the Hummer brand, the US military’s Humvee inspired gas-guzzler.
The Russian oligarch was in discussions with GM, according to Reuters, though any sort of final deal is a long way off. GM is looking to avert a complete financial catastrophe with Hummer [...]

A 16-year-old boy will be charged as an adult in a crash that killed a woman driving to Sunday school and critically injured her son, Minneapolis police said today.

Don Buddie Austin of Minnesota is charged with one count of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle with death, one count of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle with injury, two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and two counts criminal vehicular operation.