MILAN/DETROIT (Reuters) – Automaker Fiat-Chrysler (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) set out lower but still ambitious targets for 2012, with newly profitable Chrysler Group forecasting an 18 percent jump in U.S. revenue to make up for depressed conditions in Europe.

Chrysler said on Wednesday it swung to a full-year net profit of $183 million in its second year managed by Italy’s Fiat SpA, its first net profit since 1997 and a key milestone after it went bust in 2009 and was bailed out by U.S. and Canadian taxpayers.

DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. automaker Chrysler Group LLC swung to a full-year net income of $183 million on Wednesday, and made the bold prediction that profit would be eight times higher in 2012, on strong sales in its main U.S. market.

In its second full year managed by Italy’s Fiat SpA and its hard-charging chief executive Sergio Marchionne, Chrysler turned a net profit of $183 million, up from a loss of $652 million in 2010. The company set a target for about $1.5 billion in net profit in 2012.

DETROIT, Feb 1 (Reuters) – U.S. automaker Chrysler
Group LLC swung to a full-year net income of $183 million on
Wednesday, and made the bold prediction that profit would be
eight times higher in 2012, on strong sales in its main U.S.
market.

In its second full year managed by Italy’s Fiat SpA
and its hard-charging chief executive Sergio Marchionne,
Chrysler turned a net profit of $183 million, up from a loss of
$652 million in 2010. The company set a target for about $1.5
billion in net profit in 2012.

By Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) – A history of Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could be told with the succession of slogans it has used over the decades – some remembered within the company as rallying cries, some more as punch lines.

Now, six years into a comeback from near collapse, the automaker has a new slogan that underscores confidence that its recovery is almost complete: “Go Further.”

DETROIT, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co chief
financial officer Lewis Booth plans to retire in the first half
of this year, two people familiar with the matter said on
Monday.

Booth, 63, became CFO in 2008 after running Ford’s
operations in Europe and Asia. He joined the board of British
aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc in May last year,
a move that marked a transition to a career beyond the automaker
where he has spent the past three decades.

DETROIT, Jan 8 (Reuters) – The agency that monitors
U.S. vehicle safety is “comfortable” that a proposed fix to the
Chevrolet Volt eliminates the risk of fire days after the
electric car is involved in a crash, a senior official said on
Sunday.

David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, said a solution proposed by
General Motors Co addresses the causes of fires observed
in the Volt in federal safety tests last year.

MILAN/DETROIT (Reuters) – Italy’s Fiat SpA (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has raised its stake in Chrysler Group LLC by 5 percent to 58.5 percent, meeting a final target set by the U.S. government as the two groups move closer to creating one of the world’s leading auto makers.

Fiat has managed Chrysler since a 2009 bailout deal with the U.S. government when it paid around $2 billion for its majority stake and agreed a number of conditions to be met before a full merger could take place.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Automakers expect lower sales growth in the United States in 2012 because the economy remains weak, even though U.S. auto sales in December were strong.

General Motors Co’s (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) U.S. sales in December rose about 5 percent, while sales at Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Chrysler jumped 10 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. new-vehicle sales for December are expected to show continued steady growth, but analysts say much of the gains are linked to buyers who delayed purchases and therefore will not an indicate a strengthening economy.

December’s annualized sales rate is expected to top 13 million vehicles for the fourth straight month as the steady growth of sales continues to belie uncertainty about the overall economy, said J.D. Power and Associates and LMC Automotive.

DETROIT/HAMBURG (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers union is staking its future on the kind of struggle it hasn’t waged since the 1930s: a massive drive to organize hostile factories.

This time, the target is foreign car makers, whose workers have rebuffed the union repeatedly. Specifically, Reuters has learned, the union is going after U.S. plants owned by German manufacturers Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, seen as easier nuts to crack than the Japanese and South Koreans.