“Germans relieved by GM decision on Opel - Philiy.com” plus 4 more

Germans relieved by GM decision on Opel - Philiy.com
Balkamp to close - Greenwood Commonwealth
Kuwait to host international automobiles fair - Zawya.com
Rat rod stars at car show - Union
Firm sees potential in the midst of struggles - Detroit Free Press

Germans relieved by GM decision on Opel - Philiy.com

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:01 AM PDT

RÜSSELSHEIM, Germany - The furor over General Motors Corp. may have died down in the United States since the company emerged from bankruptcy in July. But here and all over Germany, GM - backed by $50 billion in U.S. taxpayer money - has persisted as a source of high drama.

This city of 60,000 near Frankfurt is home to Adam Opel GmbH, GM's biggest European subsidiary, which was saved from bankruptcy by a $2.2 billion loan from the German government in late May.

The country was on pins and needles over who would take over the automaker: a Canadian-Russian partnership backed by German politicians and labor leaders, or a Belgian holding company preferred by GM.

But it did not stop there. In recent weeks, speculation mounted that GM had decided against selling Opel because it was too worried about Russians gaining access to the fuel-efficient technologies its German engineers had developed here.

"Germans are angry and annoyed. One day it's this, one day it's that," Jakob Müller said Wednesday, standing outside Opel's downtown headquarters. Müller has no connection to Opel, but like most Germans is quick with a strong opinion on the subject.

The prospect of remaining in GM's control was nothing less than a frightful fairy tale to Klaus Franz, a labor leader who rounded up political support for the bid by Magna International Inc., a Canadian auto-industry supplier, and Russia's Sberbank.

Franz, chairman of GM's European Employee Forum, described the possibility of GM's changing its mind about the sale and maintaining control of Opel this way:

"The mother was going to let her daughter move out to find happiness with her new boyfriend. Then the mother takes the boyfriend away and turns into a very unpleasant stepmother."

Instead, on Thursday the board of GM emerged as the more benevolent mother: It decided after all in favor of Magna and Sberbank. The person to deliver the news was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said she was "extraordinarily happy" about the decision.

The current plan calls for GM to retain 35 percent of its European operations, which include the Vauxhall car company in Britain. Employees will get 10 percent, and the rest will be split between Magna and Sberbank, GM said.

The tug-of-war over Opel, top news in Germany all summer, was one of the more bizarre scenarios spawned by the global financial crisis: Faced with the collapse of a relatively small car company owned by General Motors since the beginning of the Great Depression, German politicians and labor leaders aligned with a Russian bank and a Canadian auto supplier to haggle with GM, now 61 percent owned by the U.S. government.

Those negotiations were a test of the Obama administration's pledge not to meddle in the management of GM. Top German government officials applied as much pressure as they could on their U.S. counterparts in Washington.

Whether that helped the Germans get their way is not clear. Though many Germans assumed President Obama was calling the shots, U.S. officials insisted over the last month that the decision was being made in Detroit, not the District of Columbia.

For German politicians fighting for attention in a big election year, pushing the sale of Opel to Magna and Sberbank, which pledged to keep German factories open, was a surefire way to keep voters happy.

For Opel workers in Germany, where half of GM's approximately 50,000 European employees are located, the sale offers the chance to get out from under the thumb of what they see as an overbearing parent.

"The Americans kept our hands tied," said Georg Kraus, 57, who has worked at Opel for 39 years and is about to retire. He and other workers said they were convinced Opel would have a bright future if it could get out from under GM.

"It is buzzing here," Kraus said, nodding toward the factory, where a promising new model, Insignia, is produced.

Workers at Opel, which started as a sewing-machine manufacturer in 1862 and switched to building cars in 1899, had been living with painful uncertainty since November. That's when Opel management asked German state and federal governments for loan guarantees to protect it from a GM bankruptcy.

That help, subject to a tough political battle, did not come until late May, just days before GM's bankruptcy filing June 1. In exchange for the $2.2 billion bridge loan, GM turned over 65 percent of Opel to a trust controlled by the company in conjunction with German federal and state governments.

Germany agreed to provide an additional $4.3 billion in financing only if GM sold the operations to Magna and Sberbank.

There were other potential buyers. Fiat Group S.p.A., the Italian automaker that was in the process of taking control of Chrysler L.L.C., threw its hat in the ring, but quickly dropped out. A Belgian holding company with U.S. ties, RHJ International, stayed at the table until the end, but it never was considered a viable option by the German government, which held the purse strings.

Franz, the Opel labor leader, warned of a tough fight ahead for the unions, but he said he was convinced that the deal with Magna was the only one that would give Opel a future.

"If General Motors has 35 percent of a profitable enterprise," he said, "that is much better than having 100 percent of an absolute disaster."

Contact staff writer Harold Brubaker at hbrubaker@phillynews.com.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Balkamp to close - Greenwood Commonwealth

Posted: 10 Sep 2009 11:46 AM PDT

Commonwealth Publishing, Inc. (d/b/a The Greenwood Commonwealth) welcomes reader feedback to its online content, but it is not responsible for the information contained in reader comments. We reserve the right to reject or delete comments at any time.

Comments should not be abusive, libelous or in bad taste. They should not contain vulgar language. We prefer comments that express an opinion rather than ones that deal in personalities.

As a rule, we will not intentionally disclose any personal identification information about you as an individual user (such as, for example, your full name, street address, telephone number, or e-mail address) to any third party without having received your permission. Please note that if you give out personal information online – for example, through a message board or story comment – that information can be collected and used by third parties. Although we strive to protect our users' privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of information you post in these forums. You disclose such information at your own risk.

We have the following exceptions to this disclosure policy: We will release specific information about you or your account to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute or court order. We will also release specific information in special cases, such as if there is an attempted breach of the security of Commonwealth Publishing, Inc., or a physical threat to you or others.

For a fuller explanation of our privacy policy, see our privacy policy.

If a comment is not posted within 24 hours, it probably has been rejected because of the nature of the comment. Try again.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Kuwait to host international automobiles fair - Zawya.com

Posted: 12 Sep 2009 11:39 PM PDT

Zawya Tenders is a Tender Notices service entirely driven by contribution
from issuers in both public and private sectors. It is not an e-tendering service and is entirely FREE.

As an Issuer, you can benefit from posting an unlimited number of Tender
Notices for FREE and reaching out to an online community of bidders.

The service also offers you a tool to track the interest of bidders to your
tenders 'live' online.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Rat rod stars at car show - Union

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:01 AM PDT

It's called a "rat rod." It looks more like a wreck than the wrecker it's tricked out to be.

The rusty old tow truck that's usually parked at Gin's Little Valley Auto Care in Alta Sierra is literally a poster child for this year's Roamin Angels Classic Car Show, said car club president and Alta Sierra resident Ron Cherry.

The rat rod is of three cars featured on the posters for the car show, Cherry added, pointing it out on a flyer for the show.

You can see the rat rod today at the Nevada County Fairgrounds (see box for details). Today is the last day of the show.

Excellent on the inside

The rat rod looks like a rusted-out junker of a 1950s tow truck — but it's got air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, cruise control and all-modern running gear.

The truck is totally street legal, though not for use as a tow truck.

"This thing works," said Duke Klement, Gin's shop foreman and co-chairman of this year's Roamin Angels show.

"It's not beautiful," agreed Cherry.

Those are the basic criteria of a rat rod: Not pretty but mechanically excellent.

Rat rods are popular with younger classic car hobbyists, Cherry and Klement said.

Restoring an old car to modified, mechanical precision is expensive enough; a flashy paint job can exceed the cost of the entire rod, they explained.

From the frame up

"It was nothing but a frame" when potential Nevada Union high-school dropout J.T. Smith first saw the truck a year ago.

Things turned completely around for him last year, when his 49er ROP (Regional Occupational Program) automotive teacher Joe Silva at NU recommended he become a protg of Klement, Virginia "Gin" Van Fossen and the Roamin Angels, Smith said.

The rat rod became Smith's senior project. While his fellow ROP students mostly worked at NU's ROP automotive shop all week, Smith left school at noon and worked till 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday all year.

Under the exacting guidance of Klement, a fourth-generation mechanic, Smith learned arc and TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding, and how to cut glass and fabricate parts. Smith installed an engine and transmission, put a 1950 Mercury cab onto the frame, and built a flatbed with an 18,000-pound hand-cranked winch on the back — creating a rat rod out of scrounged, fabricated and donated materials.

ROP teacher Silva and the rat rod project kept Smith in school, Smith said.

"They gave me a reason to show up to school every day."

Smith, 17, graduated from Nevada Union in June 2009 and is studying automotive technology at Universal Technical Institute in Sacramento, where he now lives.

He said the ROP and Roamin Angel training "has given me a leg up on the other students" at UTI.

"A family tradition"

Smith was hardly the first high school student to work and learn the automotive trade at Gin's Little Valley Auto Care.

"It's something my family has always done," said Virginia Van Fossen, manager of the shop, which has been open since 1939.

"I truly believe in mentoring kids," said Van Fossen who also is a member of the Roamin Angels.

While the rat rod tow truck will star at the car show today, it will be back at Gin's on Monday.

"We've got a long ways to go," said Klement, who owns the truck and will mentor another student this year on further restoration work.

For one thing, the rat rod doesn't have a radio yet.

(Tom Durkin is a freelance writer based in Nevada City. For comments on this article, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4230.)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Firm sees potential in the midst of struggles - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:22 AM PDT

Even as the shakeout in the auto industry forces many companies to exit the business, foreign firms and others are finding new opportunities amid the wreckage.

That's what happened to Chinese auto supplier SG Technologies Inc.

In December, the company pounced on the chance to purchase a former Dana Corp. facility in Farmington Hills, turning it into SG's new U.S. tech center, said Diana Mao, the supplier's vice president of finance, human resources and investment.

Today, SG's eight employees occupy a small portion of the 112,000-square-foot brick building, which boasts a 200-seat auditorium and numerous laboratories for testing vehicle parts.

But SG plans to add more workers, and Mao said the three-story building will eventually provide office space for some of the supplier's strategic partners, as well as other foreign firms.

SG's parent company, the SG Automotive Group, makes light-duty axles, gears and other auto parts and is also China's largest bus manufacturer, employing 8,300 people.

SG had been renting an office in Troy but was looking for a facility with laboratories. It sought to establish a research and development center in the United States because of the country's talented workers -- and Detroit seemed like the logical choice.

"This area is still very respected. It's the true automotive center," said Mao, SG's first U.S. employee. "We think there is great potential."

SG's engineers in Farmington Hills work on drivelines and other parts projects for both the U.S. and Chinese markets. The building is such a perfect fit for the company's ambitions that SG's engineers got very excited the first time they saw it.

"Risk is also opportunity," Mao said.