Tuning Truck

On numerous occasions, de facto Car Czar Steven Rattner has said that neither he nor the U.S. government wants to be in the auto business--at least not for long. Those sentiments were reaffirmed yesterday when Rattner indicated that the feds are planning to sell off their 60.8% stake in the New GM as soon as possible.

In its race to exit the auto industry, the government probably won't receive a terrifically high return on the loans it has made to

Final details about the federal government's new Cash-for-Clunkers program--clunkily and officially titled the "Car Allowance Rebate System"--won't be released until July 23, but that hasn't stopped Hyundai from getting a jump on the competition. Hoping to ride the wave of great publicity it's received for its Car of the Year award, its successful Assurance Program, and its recent gas-price guarantee, Hyundai has backed its dealers with short-term cash advances so they can begin issuing the

If you happen to have a vehicle that's worth less than $3500 and are interested in purchasing a new vehicle, then the current Cash For Clunkers legislation may help you out. Provided it passes out of Congress and is signed by President Obama.

Assuming that it passes, when you visit a dealership to purchase a new, fuel-efficient vehicle, you'll benefit from the program if your extant vehicles is nearly worthless and gets lousy mileage ... the worse the better. If the new vehicle you

At recent U.S. Senate hearings on the auto bail out, yesterday's testimony by Auto Task Force Ron Bloom leaves one of two impressions; the Feds have good intentions and are heading in the right direction, or the government is clueless and operating in the dark (some would add, "as usual").

Responding to questions about how long the government will own a majority of General Motors, Bloom said "there will be a strategy to get out," saying the government hoped that GM could become a public

Think that the government shouldn't be in the auto business? You're not alone.

We already knew that, but thanks to a survey from Tustin, California research and analysis firm AutoPacific, we can put a number to it: 81 percent agreed that the faster the government gets out of the auto business, the better, and more than half think that GM (54 percent) and Chrysler (58 percent) should have been allowed to fail.

The results are very fresh;

As our own Richard Read reported this morning, there's news from Capitol Hill that the "Cash For Clunkers" legislation is moving forward.

Who could be against a program that speeds up the elimination of bad, evil vehicles, helping bunnies and wild flowers to breath more easily across the globe? As it stands, the idea behind the program would have the Feds (via the taxes paid by working Americans, profitable American companies, and others that get hosed by existing or new taxes) send new

Even with billions in government funds rushing toward Chrysler and GM, it's clear that America's automakers aren't going to have the huge employee bases they once had--at least, not for a good long while. To help the thousands of autoworkers who've lost their jobs as a result of the economic meltdown, the federal government has launched a $7 million program to retrain those workers for new careers in other industries.

The money will be targeted to community