Reuters — About 5,000 General Motors salaried workers took buyouts to leave the company, putting the company well on the way to hitting a US$2 billion cost-cutting target, the automaker’s chief financial officer said Tuesday. GM shares were trading down nearly two per cent at midday, even though CFO Paul Jacobson said demand for GM’s

GM buyouts cut 5,000 jobs, CFO says
Not much more room seen to raise prices

GM’s truck production cut signals a turn in U.S. auto sales
Company to idle Indiana plant for two weeks
Detroit | Reuters — New vehicle sales in the United States are expected to increase in February, but the decision by General Motors to cut production of large pickup trucks at a U.S. plant points to new challenges for Detroit’s automakers. The major Detroit pickup truck brands are sitting on growing inventories of unsold vehicles,

Ford, GM upgrade their heavy-duty pickup profit machines
New features aimed at business productivity
Detroit | Reuters — Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday took the wraps off the latest version of its Super Duty pickup, providing a look at how the U.S. automaker will manage one of the biggest challenges confronting Detroit. The problem: How to modernize the largest combustion pickups to keep demand strong and profits flowing, without

GM CEO says ‘we are selling every truck we can build’
Rising fuel prices not seen undermining big truck demand, yet
Detroit | Reuters — General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday the automaker is “selling every truck we can build” and expanding North American truck-building capacity, even as U.S. gasoline prices hit record highs. Barra made her comments during the automaker’s annual shareholder meeting. GM is pursuing a two-track strategy: Investing heavily in electric

Deere tapping into Apple-like tech model to drive revenue
'Hopefully the costs will be paid back in the long run'
Bondurant, Iowa | Reuters — Deere and Co. has sold its tractors and other equipment to farmers for decades, but the world’s largest agriculture machinery manufacturer is tearing a page from the technology world’s playbook — combining cutting-edge hardware with software and subscription models to drive revenue growth. In a world with a dwindling number