Car news

General Motors Co. will build a new Buick midsize car at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, the company announced Wednesday. Production of the 2011 Buick Regal will begin in the first quarter of 2011 at the plant, which has been working overtime to keep up with high demand for the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car. Oshawa is along Lake Ontario just east of Toronto. The Regal, based on the Opel Insignia, is a key product for the brand, which has an average buyer age of 70 and is trying to attract buyers in their 40s and 50s. GM says the Regal will have much ... Read Full Story

A top General Motors executive completed a tour of Opel's four German plants on Wednesday pledging that none would be shut down as the US giant takes the axe to its loss-making unit. The group's interim head in Europe, Nick Reilly, made the promise at Opel's Eisenach plant after earlier giving similar assurances at Ruesselsheim, Bochum and Kaiserslautern, between them home to 25,000 workers, half the European total. "We value our Eisenach operations very highly," Reilly said, calling them a "long term resource for Opel." "It's a highly efficient plant and the people who are working there are very innovative," he said. GM, after ... Read Full Story

Toyota says it will replace or reshape accelerator pedals on 3.8 million vehicles in an attempt to deal with an unintended acceleration problem that has resulted in at least one fatal accident. It's the largest recall in the company's history. Toyota and Lexus vehicles affected by the recall are: • 2007-2010 Camry • 2005-2010 Avalon • 2004-2009 Prius • 2005-2010 Tacoma • 2007-2010 Tundra • 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350 • 2006-2010 Lexus IS 250 and IS350 Toyota also said it will install a brake override system on the Camry, Avalon and Lexus models. The override will shut off all engine power if drivers press ... Read Full Story

STOCKHOLM/WIESBADEN (Reuters) - General Motors <GM.UL> was grappling with the future of two European units on Wednesday, seeking options for Saab after a sale collapsed and preparing to show unions its Opel restructuring plan. The U.S. automaker, which emerged from bankruptcy in July after falling victim to a worldwide auto crisis, had been seeking to sell the two loss-making units. Some analysts say the European market that they operate in is burdened with as much as 20 percent too much production capacity. But on Tuesday GM's deal to sell its Swedish unit Saab to niche luxury carmaker Koenigsegg, backed by China's BAIC, collapsed after ... Read Full Story

Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg said Tuesday it was giving up its bid to acquire Saab Automobile from its US parent company General Motors, saying costly delays made the deal too uncertain. The announcement plunged Saab's future into doubt. "We regret that after six months of intense and goal-oriented work we have come to the painful and difficult conclusion that we are not going to be able to carry out the acquisition of Saab Automobile," the head of the company, Christian von Koenigsegg, said in a statement. Koenigsegg announced in September that it had teamed up with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd (BAIC) to ... Read Full Story