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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.

Supermarkets launch new petrol price war

British supermarkets have launched a new fuel price war which will see petrol prices dip down below the 130 pence per litre mark. Sainsbury’s was first to move, by cutting a huge 6p per litre off the price of unleaded – taking prices down to 129.9p. How to find the cheapest fuel in your area Petrol: don’t waste time and money shopping around Asda quickly followed up by saying nobody will pay more than 128.7p for a litre of petrol.

Fiat plans new high-performance Abarth models

Abarth Abarth, the tuning company owned by Fiat, is looking to grow the number of models it offers including a hot version of the 500L supermini, MSN Cars can reveal. Speaking exclusively to MSN Cars, Marco Magnanini, the European boss of Abarth, hinted that other models from Fiat could be given the Abarth treatment. When quizzed about the possibility of an Abarth 500L, he said: “The 500 family will offer us options.