Daily Edition: Mar. 8, 2006

By High Gear Media Staff

High Gear Media Staff

  BIO

High Gear Media is a vertical content company publishing more premium automotive pages than anyone in the world through websites targeting key buyer... More

LATEST ARTICLE
The Cost of Car Insurance
Liability insurance is like Mafia protection. It's a pain in the neck, it's expensive and you'd... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 3807ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 0COMMENTS POSTED

1,906 views Mar 8, 2006

GM Shifting Pension Plans

General Motors will be changing the way it allocates money to employee retirement benefits, away from defined-benefit plans to plans that depend on bigger employee contributions. The AP reports that GM's new plan will freeze accrued pension benefits for about 40,000 current employees on January 1, leaving currently retired employee benefits intact. After Jan. 1, employees hired before 2001 will retain pension plans that will pay out a reduced amount from today's levels. Those hired after Jan. 1, 2001, will be moved to a defined contribution plan that will allow employees to cash out when they reach retirement age. GM also will change its matching plan to half of employee contributions up to four percent. The changes could reduce GM's pension liabilities at the end of the year by about $1.6 billion.

Wagoner Rumors Start to Swirl by Joseph Szczesny (3/6/2006)
Will GM lose its CEO to financial churn?

DC Has New Latin Region HQ

DaimlerChrysler AG has created a new regional headquarters inMexico City that will take over responsibility for marketing vehicles built by both the Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz groups throughout Latin American and the Caribbean.

The new headquarters will have responsibility for 30 countries including Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela. Until now the management of DaimlerChrysler operations in Latin America and Caribbean region was divided between Auburn Hills and Stuttgart and smaller offices in Chile, DaimlerChrysler officials said.

Chrysler Group sales in Latin America increased 48 percent in 2005, and new small and mid-size vehicles will reach the markets during 2006 and 2007 as part of the DaimlerChrysler's ongoing effort to increase the group's sales outside the U.S. "Latin America is a critical region for our operations, and the new organization in Mexico will allow us to capitalize on existing synergies, increase efficiency, and improve our reach and service to our customers," said Thomas Hausch, Executive Director for International Sales and Marketing, Chrysler Group.

Klaus Maier, executive vice president Mercedes Car Group sales and marketing, also said the new structure of DaimlerChrysler Latina demonstrates the increasing collaboration between Mercedes Car Group and Chrysler Group. "It will help us to further enhance the presence of Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, and smart in the region," he added. -Joe Szczesny

Spy Shots: '08 Chrysler Minivans by KGP Photography (3/6/2006)
More upright and more international, by design.

Volkswagen AG Posts Upbeat Earnings

Volkswagen posted year-end 2005 earnings of $1.3 billion, a 61-percent gain from the year before, while revenues were up 7.1 percent to $114 billion.

But behind that rosy news was calamity at the German automaker. CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, who is under pressure from supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piech and the labor unions, said this about the union's opposition to his plan to cut 20,000 jobs from VW's rolls and move some production to Eastern Europe: "There is no alternative for our group," Pischetsrieder told a press conference in the northern German city of Wolfsburg where the group is based. "Volkswagen has to build cars more cheaply."