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Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Kia recalls 7,000 cars

KIA IS recalling more than 7,000 of its UK models due to a possible seatbelt problem. The recall affects 5,787 Sportage models and 1,432 Soul vehicles and concerns a possible fault with the vehicle's seatbelt pre-tensioner. Kia said that although it was not aware of any injuries resulting from this possible fault, discovered as a result of monitoring of customer vehicles, it was concerned that some pre-tensioners might not work properly due to a faulty piston within the mechanism.

Callaway to give 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra a boost

Callaway has just announced the debut of supercharged versions of the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. This news comes only weeks after Callaway made known their intentions to fit market a version of the Silverado with an Eaton TVS supercharger. The Connecticut-based tuner has developed a new supercharger manifold and some other hardware for the new Chevrolet L83 Ecotec engine, which is expected to produce around 455 hp (though these are preliminary figures).