WASHINGTON -- Volkswagen plans to refit more than a quarter million 2009-12 diesel cars to prevent North American customers from mistakenly pumping gasoline into the fuel tanks. The service action covers 209,500 cars in the United States and 51,600 in Canada. Affected models are the TDI versions of

FOSHAN, China -- Italian supplier Magneti Marelli has opened a plant in the southern China city of Foshan to produce rear lights, headlamps and other lighting components. The supplier, which also has a lighting factory in Wuhu plus an randd center in Shanghai, aims to secure a 10 percent share of

SEOUL (Bloomberg) -- South Korea has become a growth market for BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi as lower tariffs make their cars cheaper and local buyers abandon a decades-long preference for domestic brands. Foreign brands have seen their share of South Korea's market for premium vehicles surge to 41

DETROIT -- Chrysler-Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has issued a written apology to an Italian-American anti-bias organization for saying at the Detroit auto show that an Alfa Romeo needed a "wop" engine. Marchionne, an Italian-born Canadian citizen, issued the apology this month to the Italian American

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- In October 2004, then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rolled up to a pioneering fueling station at Los Angeles International Airport in a hydrogen-powered metallic blue Hummer loaned to him by General Motors. The "California Hydrogen Highway," Schwarzenegger's vision

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Tesla Motors Inc. may repay its U.S. Department of Energy loan as early as Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said in a message on Twitter on Monday. Musk, a billionaire who owns 27.5 percent of Tesla, added that the company would move another announcement about its charging station ...

Experian has named John Gray president of its automotive business unit, effective immediately, with responsibility for the strategic direction, leadership and overall growth of the business. Gray, 56, joined the company in 2006 as vice president of sales and client services. He was promoted to ...

AutoNation Inc.'s lead-referral subsidiary today unveiled an online service that lets consumers search dealership Web sites for new and used vehicles based on monthly payments. When a consumer chooses the desired payment a sales lead is sent to the dealership. The service, Shop-By-Payment, is ...

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. -- Mini is owned by BMW, but there's a broad gulf between the prestigious luxury marque and the funky small-car brand. Mini USA is housed in a corner of the three-story BMW of North America headquarters here. BMW has uncluttered cubicles occupied by employees in upscale ...

MILAN (Bloomberg) -- Italian supplier Sogefi sold $115 million in bonds to U.S. investors in a private placement and is planning to sell another 25 million-euro ($32 million) note, a person familiar with the transaction said. Sogefi, which is controlled by the De Benedetti family's CIR holding ...

DETROIT -- As a banking adviser to General Motors when he was at Morgan Stanley, Dan Ammann got an upfront view of GM's spiral into bankruptcy in 2009 and subsequent restructuring. Now, more than two years into his job as CFO, Ammann acknowledges that he had only a faint idea at the time of how ...

HAMBURG, Germany -- With a technology-rich S-class redesign arriving this fall and several derivatives to be added by 2015, Mercedes-Benz aims to boost stalled sales of its flagship. Still, Mercedes executives do not expect the new S class unveiled here last week to approach the peak volume of the

KAMINOKAWA, Japan -- Nissan Motor Co.'s Infiniti marque plans to add a halo nameplate above its Q70 flagship sedan and expand its crossover offerings, President Johan de Nysschen said. The moves are part of Infiniti's drive to cover 90 percent of all global premium segments by the end of the ...

Can Shaquille O'Neal really fit into a Buick LaCrosse? During a recent episode of the "Inside the NBA" postgame show on the TNT network, analyst Charles Barkley kidded the 7-foot-1-inch Shaq about his LaCrosse ads by saying O'Neal had to be rubbed down with Gold Bond Lotion to slide in. Gold Bond

In an age when auto dealers are plunging into digital tools for marketing, store management and customer retention, Chicago's Rizza Cars has become a star practitioner. The six-store retailer with Ford, Lincoln, Acura, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Kia and Porsche brands is a case study of a traditional ...

TOKYO -- Mazda Motor Corp.'s CEO designate, Masamichi Kogai, had a big hand in creating the more stable, profitable carmaker he inherits. But formidable challenges lie ahead. The manufacturing and purchasing specialist spent the last four years overhauling the export-reliant carmaker's ...

Mark Reuss, president of General Motors North America, says GM is staying vigilant on the June launch of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-sized pickups, its most important rollout since the company's 2009 bankruptcy. He says GM is closely monitoring suppliers to avoid bottlenecks that ...

It takes something special to get Hayden Elder's attention now that he has run a Chrysler dealership in Texas for decades. But software installed at Elder Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in the past month has turned his head. The dealership sold 14 new vehicles in April to previous customers identified by

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda restructured the company's management this year to give more authority and autonomy to local regions. Nowhere was this more evident than in North America, where Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., was placed in charge of all Toyota sales and ...

MARYSVILLE, Ohio -- Honda officials hope the revived Acura NSX, an advanced hybrid sports car scheduled to arrive in 2015, will strengthen Acura's luxury footing. "We have a very clear understanding of the high customer expectations luxury buyers around the world have for a supercar, and our ...

Friction is enemy No. 1 for powertrain engineers striving to meet rising fuel-economy standards. "As engines get smaller, eliminating friction becomes even more important," says Dave Lancaster, a General Motors technical fellow who works at the automaker's powertrain engineering operations in ...

Are General Motors and Chrysler Group playing hardball with suppliers again? The latest automaker-supplier relations study by the consultant firm Planning Perspectives Inc. was troubling. The big jump in their scores in last year's study appeared to show that GM and Chrysler had learned a hard ...