auto industry

DETROIT - Auto industry sales continued to show improvement in October, posting an 8% gain, led by utility vehicles and pickup trucks.

It doesn’t take much to bring an automotive assembly line to a halt, according to John Mendel, CEO of Honda’s U.S. subsidiary, even “something as small as a speedometer needle.”

The Japanese auto industry remained largely hobbled Thursday, nearly a week after the country's worst-ever earthquake laid waste to its industrial northeast, although some manufacturers announced plans to resume limited operations.

Toyota Motor Corp. is aiming for an auto industry first by reaching annual sales of 10 million vehicles by 2015 even as it acknowledges that overly rapid growth was at the root of its recall fiasco.

It's not news that Americans' waistlines are much bigger than they used to be. What should or should not be done about it remains a continual subject of debate.

But in the meantime, extra-large Americans get up and go to work like anyone else and they need vehicles to get them there and back.

Is the auto industry paying attention?

Toyota's Prius hybrid ranked as Japan's top-selling car in 2010 with annual sales hitting an all-time high, bucking the fallout from a series of massive global recalls, an auto industry group said Tuesday.

Auto sales rose in the United States last year for the first time since the recession. They're still far from what they were just a few years ago — but that's just fine with the downsized auto industry, which can post profits even if they sell millions fewer cars and trucks.

The waning days of 2010 offer an opportunity to look back on what might charitably be described as a “learning experience” for much of the auto industry.

The GM you knew last year, at the core of the auto-industry meltdown doesn’t exist anymore. In it’s place is a much more trim and nimble GM that is poised for success.

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The month of October is just about a wrap, and it’s shaping up to be a good one for the auto industry.