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General Motors honcho, Rick Wagoner, is holding a 9AM (EST) news conference tomorrow at which he will make an announcement (or announcements?) on what changes the automaker will make as it adjusts to current market conditions. GM's press release has no details beyond that. So, what are we going to hear? The fact that GM is being so nebulous leads us to believe that this will be a significant announcement. Is a brand getting killed? Could we hear of a particular vehicle line getting scrapped? Are there going to be more closings? Will we hear that something new is getting greenlit, like the Chevy Beat? This should be very interesting, and we'll have the news for you tomorrow as soon as it happens.

So, what do you think the big presser's about? Weigh in below and see how right (or wrong) you are tomorrow.

[Source: GM]

Bob Lutz has staked a fair amount of his and GM's reputation on the Volt. Even though he has said since the beginning that the Volt needs battery technology that isn't ready for the mass market yet, he also said that the Volt would go on sale by the end of 2010.

Rick Wagoner, though, in a 50-minute Q&A session with journos and bloggers, said that the Volt launch date is "fluid." Citing, again, the lack of battery technology that the Volt would need, he said, "We continue to put massive resources into production as soon as possible. 2010 would be great, but (we) can't guarantee that at this time. We'll keep you posted regularly on our progress."

GM critics -- like the Toyota rep who called the Volt "vaporware" -- will take this as a sign that GM is waffling. GM supporters will say, correctly, that this doesn't mean the Volt won't come out in 2010 -- it simply isn't assured. We would love to see the Volt appear tomorrow. Short of that, we'd love to see GM get the batteries it needs to deliver the Volt on time.

[Source: Detroit News]

Rick Wagoner had good news to report at GM's shareholder meeting, held yesterday: progress is being made, and the company is on track to shed $2.2 billion in expenses this year. He also said that GM is still in talks with Proton, but that it's "more a possibility for us than a probability." What remain as hot button topics for the year are settling negotiations with the UAW and Delphi to get Delphi out of Chapter 11, and reducing healthcare costs, which amounted to $4.8 billion last year.

Shareholders' proposals, however, didn't fare so well: all ten were voted down. These included setting goals to reduce emissions and improve GM fleet fuel economy, making 75% of an executive's stock options tied to performance, and making an executive repay a bonus if earnings restatements showed they actually hadn't met the claimed benchmark.

[Source: Auto Industry News]

No one knows yet what Cerberus is going to do with Chrysler. However, the possibilities probably include quite a few things that wouldn't be normally expected in the car business -- such as GMAC and Chrysler Financial working closely together.

Cerberus hasn't made any mention of such, yet -- that comes from GM CEO Rick Wagoner in his first public comments since Cerberus was announced as the winning Chrysler bidder. Cerberus bought 51% of GMAC last year, and now runs Chrysler Financial. Wagoner's comments, however, were very open and non-committal -- specifically, he said "I think it's possible you could see opportunities for Cerberus-owned Chrysler Financial and Cerberus-owned GMAC to seek out opportunities to work together." GM isn't looking for such a tie-up, it is simply open to "potential synergies" should such cooperation be shown to be in everyone's interests. He did appear sure that such a proposal -- for working together -- would be coming in time. If Cerberus did combine the two, it would rule the auto loan market, taking the number one spot from Ford Motor Credit.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]

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General Motors released an image today of GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, Vice-Chairmen Bob Lutz and Fritz Henderson standing in front of a production clay model of the 2009 Camaro being chiseled. The official caption of the pic refers to the car as a "production clay model", although from what we can see through the pleated pants of these three GM execs, the front end looks exactly the same as the Camaro Concept that first debuted at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show.

What's more interesting, perhaps, is the fuzzy background showing this design studio's wall on which hangs a concept rendering of what appears to be a new Chevy vehicle. Josh Oliver from TheGMSource.com surmises that it's a new rear-wheel drive coupe, possibly a new Monte Carlo or Chevelle. We're not sure from the available evidence that such a claim can be made with any degree of certainty, but it is clear the car on the wall is one we haven't been officially introduced to yet. Any thoughts on its identity? Impala, perhaps? Drop your guess in the comments.

[Source: GM via The GM Source]

When possible, we like to cross-reference stories with other news sources before we report on them, and we've found this to be even more important when the topic at hand is hard data. When we came across a Reuters' story proclaiming that GM CEO Rick Wagoner was taking a 25-percent pay cut beginning in March of this year, a quick search of Google News revealed that, depending on the source, there could be a $370,000 discrepancy – and a possible raise for Wagoner.

[Sources: Bloomberg, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, GM, Reuters]

GM's 2006 was so much better than 2005, news agencies in Detroit and around the country were wondering if it would hurt the General in UAW discussions in September. GM did improve greatly in 2006, but the fact remains that they still lost money. That's one big reason General Motors will not be paying out bonuses to its top 20 executive decision-makers. CEO Rick Wagoner, vice chairman Bob Lutz, and company are now at two consecutive years since their last bonus, but somehow we doubt they'll be hurting for cash anytime soon.

[Source: Automotive News (subscription req'd)]

We were all ready to start this week anew, leaving behind the reports of a supposed sale of Chrysler to General Motors. But alas, that ain't going to happen.

Both the Detroit News and Automotive News came out with stories this morning making it clear that talks between the two automakers are serious and have been going on for some time.

The initial reports about GM sharing its GMT900 truck platform may or may not have been true, but according to Autonews, what's being discussed would go well beyond simply exchanging some engineering for cash.

The high-level talks have been taking place over the course of the past two months, beginning in December, with Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman sitting down with Dr. Z from DCX. The two automaker's CFOs have met on at least four separate occasions to discuss the buyout/merger/absorption, but naturally, both companies have declined to comment.

The Detroit News had some particularly interesting tidbits, including the idea that if GM were to purchase Chrysler, it would no longer exist as a company unto itself. All of Chrysler's brands and products would just become part of GM's overall organization. As an example, Jeep, one of DCX's most valuable brands, might be partnered with HUMMER as the General's off-road arm.

The risk versus reward for GM is tipped further towards disaster than success, with massive cannibalization of products, excessive debt, mismanaged product lines (within both automakers) and we haven't even gotten into the UAW and the catastrophic amount of layoffs that could would take place.

Since we can't encapsulate every morsel of information here, we'd encourage you to read through the Detroit News piece and, if you have a subscription, check out the Automotive News article on the same topic.

[Sources: Detroit News, Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

Take this for what it is, a rumor about which General Motors and DaimlerChrysler have refused to comment. According to a report today in German magazine Manager Magazin, DaimlerChrysler is in talks to sell its Chrysler Group division to GM. The magazine cites sources within DaimlerChrysler as saying that talks are in full swing but at an early stage. Dieter Zietsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler, refused to comment on the report when asked at this morning's press conference where the company's Recovery and Transformation plan, a.k.a. Project X, was announced.

So neither side is talking about whether such talks exist, which leads one to speculate that there's some truth to these rumors. GM, however, would not seem to be in a position to purchase a rival domestic automaker with numerous competing products considering that it's just beginning to emerge from its own turnaround and restructuring plan. What's more, we can't imagine the complexities GM would encounter trying to absorb Chrysler's union workforce.

We bet DaimlerChrysler and GM are talking about something, but wouldn't put money on the subject being the wholesale purchase of the Chrysler Group.

Thanks to all who tipped on this!

[Source: Yahoo.biz]

Charlie Gibson and the crew from ABC's World News Tonight will be rolling into Motown next this week to tape the show from Detroit tonight and Tuesday. Clearly the state of the auto industry in the U.S. is national news, and where better to report on it than the epicenter of Detroit? Both Ford CEO Alan Mulally and GM CEO Rick Wagoner will be on the show Monday, hopefully together, which will make for some very interesting dinner conversation when the show airs at 6:30PM. Gibson will be broadcasting the show from Ford's Rouge assembly plant, which is a historic landmark in the history of the auto industry. For those who live in Detroit, Gibson will also moderate a "town hall meeting on the state of the automotive industry" live on WXYZ, an ABC affiliate station in Detroit. It'd be cool if someone tech savvy in Detroit could TiVo that bad boy and throw it up on YouTube or Netscape, as we'd be interested to hear what unscripted people have to say.

[Source: Mediabistro via Jalopnik]