Detroit's Week That Was: GM's "small car" set for Michigan

GM's Orion Township assembly plant in Michigan will begin building the company's "small cars" sometime in 2011. Dubbed B-Segment and C-Segment platforms, the actual models to come off the Orion line have yet to be named. Currently Orion assembles the Chevy Malibu and the Pontiac G6. Stampings will come from Pontiac, Mich.

Both plants will shut down this year as scheduled and will begin retooling in 2010. The new plan will save 1,200 jobs in Orion and another 200 in Pontiac.

Orion won out over GM plants in Janesville, Wisc. - already closed - and Spring Hill, Tenn., which is scheduled to go on standby this November.


GMAC Sends Some Chrysler Dealers Packing

GMAC Financial Services has suspended floorplan financing for 30 days to approximately 85 Chrysler dealers, suggesting the need for capital injection perhaps from new investors. The lender is requiring those dealerships to prove creditworthiness in order get back on the GMAC roles.


Chrysler Suing TRW Over Parts Supply

Chrysler Group LLC has filed a suit in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan against supplier TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. for potential non-delivery of parts to plants scheduled to resume production the first of next week. The plants have been idle since Chrysler's bankruptcy filing April 30, and TRW's existing contract was transferred to the new Chrysler Group.

TRW is claiming the $27.2 million - called "cure amounts" - the automaker owed them before the bankruptcy declaration is short of the actual amount owed them.

Despite the squabble over the cure amounts, TRW has agreed to put the need parts in the pipeline in order for the Chrysler plants to open Monday as scheduled. Chrysler as yet has not withdrawn the lawsuit.


GM DIPing Into Loan Account

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court gave final approval Thursday for GM to borrow up to $33.3 billion total from the governments of the U.S., Canada and Ontario Province. An interim debtor-in-possession or DIP loan of $15 billion was granted by the court on June 2. Now GM will be able to tap the remaining $18.3 billion as it comes out of bankruptcy.