European governments have come together to try to develop a rescue concept for Opel that would not be bound by national borders, it emerged on Friday night.
Carmaker Volkswagen is hoping record profits will help it overtake loss-stricken US giant General Motors and Japan's Toyota within nine years, its management revealed on Thursday.
<b>In a dark day for German auto workers, it was announced on Wednesday that tyre giant Continental is to close a factory with the loss of 780 jobs, while Daimler is to put a further 18,000 of its workers on shorter hours.</b>
An 62-year-old Braunschweig driver was stopped after circling a roundabout more than 50 times to “break in” her new vehicle, police in the German state of Lower Saxony reported on Monday.
<b>In the latest dispatch of <b>Portnoy’s Stammtisch</b>, The Local’s column about life in Germany, Portnoy explains why carmaker Opel deserves to be bailed out – but other Teutonic firms don’t.</b>
<b>Those who buy new cars with long delivery times can still take advantage of Germany's auto “scrap premium,” or <i>Abwrackprämie</i> by reserving the subsidy before the alloted government funds run out, the Economy Ministry said on Monday.</b>
<b>Thanks to a government programme designed to stimulate new car sales and deeper discounts, one in seven Germans plans to buy a new car this year, <i>Bild am Sonntag</i> reported.</b>
<b>German carmaker Opel is reportedly threatening to close three of its plants in Europe and sack 11,000 people as it teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.</b>
<b>The discount supermarket chain Lidl is known for offering rock-bottom prices on everything from pickles to bedroom furniture. Starting Monday, Lidl will see if its low-price formula work selling cars.</b>
<b>Reportedly furious over a half-baked rescue plan from carmaker Opel, the German government on Friday said any decision for a state bailout could take weeks. But has GM already given Opel patents to the US Treasury Department as collateral?</b>
<b>German officials have changed the rules for the popular new auto “scrap premium,” or <i>Abwrackprämie</i>, because of fraud, an Economy Ministry spokesperson told The Local on Wednesday.</b>
The head of the European division of stricken US carmaker General Motors, Carl-Peter Forster, told daily <i>Bild</i> on Wednesday that its German unit Opel will likely have to lay off 3,500 workers.
German new car sales leapt by 22 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, mainly owing to a bonus offered to those who turned in old cars, while exports slumped, figures released Tuesday by the sector federation VDA showed.
General Motors's fight to stay alive is creating a storm in Germany, with the fate of Opel putting Chancellor Angela Merkel between a rock and a hard place six months before elections.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, threw down the gauntlet to rivals on Monday, saying 2008 profit had gained 15 percent and predicting it would gain market share during the global auto sector crisis.
Opel lobbied German authorities on Monday for state aid, arguing the struggling car maker could stand on its own feet despite the problems of its US parent company General Motors.
The new “scrap bonus” - or <i>Abwrackprämie</i> - which gives Germans €2,500 to scrap their old cars and buy a new one - is inspiring other industries to make similar offers to boost business, according to daily <i>Der Tagesspiegel</i>.
The <i>Abwrackprämie</i> – a €2,500-premium for junking an old cars to buy a new one – has created record-level discounts at German car dealerships of nearly 50 percent, daily <i>Bild</i> reported on Monday.
The German industrialist family Schaeffler, creator of the eponymous auto parts group, collaborated with the World War II Nazi regime in Poland, according to a report in <i>Cicero</i> magazine.
Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher has paid €875 towards the €10 million ($12.7 million) transfer deal to bring Germany striker Lukas Podolski from Bayern Munich back to Cologne.
German authorities closed several motorways in the state of Bavaria on Tuesday after heavy snow increased the danger of avalanches, auto club ADAC reported.
The German government is set to give auto maker Opel credit to survive the global slump and financial distress at Opel's US parent, General Motors (GM), a press report said on Tuesday.
