Headlines for Friday, December 28, 2012

Names, faces and brands that left the stage in 2012

Industry sales continued to rebound, VW completed its acquisition of Porsche, and Honda and Toyota staged impressive comebacks. Names and faces came and went, as well, in 2012. A look back at some of the notable bold-faced names and brands that left the automotive scene in 2012: Read More »

Kia appoints ex-Audi designer Schreyer first non-Korean president

Kia promoted its chief designer Peter Schreyer to the role of president, the first foreigner to attain the position at the company, as the South Korean automaker seeks to elevate its global profile. Read More »

First Shift: 2012's movers, shakers

From an 'out of the box' thinker at Ford, to the woman some say could run GM: 10 execs who changed the industry in 2012. Read More »

Toyota wins preliminary approval of $1.1 billion settlement

Toyota and lawyers suing the company won preliminary court approval of a $1.1. billion settlement of claims that recalls for unintended acceleration hurt the value of U.S. customers' vehicles. The terms of the settlement filed Dec. 26 are "fair, reasonable and adequate," U.S. Read More »

Fisker sues XL over hybrid cars wrecked by Superstorm Sandy

Fisker Automotive has sued XL Group Plc after being denied insurance coverage over flooding from Superstorm Sandy that destroyed 338 of its Karma plug-in hybrids, worth about $33 million, at a Port Newark, N.J., shipping facility. Read More »

Toyota poised to put major legal troubles in rearview mirror

Toyota eliminated a huge obstacle with a U.S. settlement over unintended acceleration in its cars and trucks, leaving it to fight smaller cases that will be harder for plaintiffs to prove and less likely to damage the company's growing sales. Read More »

Porsche faces more VW lawsuits after court win

Porsche shares surged on Friday after it won a dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit by 26 hedge funds but analysts warned the German company's triumph in court hinged on a legal formality rather than the substance of the case. Read More »

Shutdown of eastern U.S. ports averted as dockworkers reach tentative deal

Dockworkers and their employers reached a tentative agreement on royalty payments, averting a strike that would have shut down eastern U.S. ports, possibly disrupting auto parts shipments, for the first time in 35 years. Read More »

Auto sales to end year on upswing

U.S. auto sales are expected to show a rise of 9 percent for December, capping off the best year for the industry since 2007, fueled by easier access to credit, rising home prices and pent-up demand. Read More »

Lynn Hickey, former Oklahoma City Dodge dealer, dies

Lynn Hickey, former owner of Lynn Hickey Dodge in Oklahoma City, died Dec. 14. He was 74. Hickey started his automotive career washing cars at a Ford dealership. In 1970, he opened the Dodge store. Read More »

Tower International sells Korean parts operations

U.S. automobile parts maker Tower International Inc. sold its South Korean operations to Seco, a privately owned Korean auto parts supplier, for about $47 million in cash. Read More »

New Datsuns will share platform with Lada

Nissan's new low-cost Datsun cars will be based on a Lada, executive vice president Colin Dodge said. "Datsuns will be built off the new Lada Kalina platform," Dodge, who is Nissan's top executive for Europe. Read More »

On the mpg front, 2012 had some fizzle

This was supposed to be a big year in the push for better auto fuel economy. Electric vehicles and hybrids were supposed to make giant strides in 2012. Read More »