DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co GM.UL is determined to pay back taxpayers as quickly as possible, but the process could take “several years,” GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson said on Thursday.

Paying back the government all at once would be “unrealistic,” Akerson said in his first meeting with reporters since becoming CEO two weeks ago.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp will offer a plug-in version of its Prius positioned to be the cheapest green car of its kind by 2012 and could have two electric cars in the U.S. market by that time, executives said on Monday.

In addition, Toyota plans to add six hybrid vehicles to its global lineup by 2012, an increase that would give it a total of 20 models that use batteries and regenerative braking to extend fuel economy like its market-leading Prius.

DETROIT, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has
discovered and fixed a bug in the software that reads data from
crash recorders and informed U.S. safety regulators of the
problem in June, executives said on Monday.

The disclosure comes as the world’s largest automaker
battles to distance itself from a series of recalls this year
that damaged its reputation for quality and raised concern
about reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Automakers posted their weakest U.S. August sales in 27 years, underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the recovery in the world’s largest economy.

Sales dropped 21 percent from the government incentive-fueled boom a year ago. Monthly auto sales data represents one of the first and broadest-based snapshots of consumer demand.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Automakers posted their weakest U.S. August sales in 27 years, underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the recovery in the world’s largest economy.

Sales dropped 21 percent from the government incentive-fueled boom a year ago. Monthly auto sales data represents one of the first and broadest-based snapshots of consumer demand.

DETROIT/PARIS (Reuters) – Auto sales in the United States and Europe slumped in August, reflecting the end of government subsidies that had propped up demand and underscoring uncertainty about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

The monthly auto sales figures reflect one of the first and broadest-based snapshots of consumer demand.

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co is unlikely to file for its initial public offering on Tuesday, three people familiar with the situation said.

Even as recently as Tuesday morning the filing had been expected on Tuesday, a fourth person with knowledge of the preparations said.

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co Chief Executive Ed Whitacre resigned on Thursday in an abrupt move that renewed questions about leadership at the automaker as it readied a stock offering critical to paying back its controversial U.S. government bailout.

Dan Akerson, 61, a veteran private equity investor little known in auto circles, replaces Whitacre, 68, as of September. Akerson had been appointed by the Obama administration as one of the directors meant to safeguard the government’s $50 billion financing to restructure GM.

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co posted its biggest quarterly profit in six years on Thursday, a day ahead of an expected IPO filing that would open the gates for the U.S. government to slash its stake in the automaker.

The top U.S. automaker reported second-quarter net earnings of $1.3 billion, compared with $865 million in the first quarter. The second-quarter profit was the largest since 2004.

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co GM.UL is preparing to report second-quarter results that will show a substantial gain over the first quarter in a report it will use to bolster its bid to return to capital markets and pay back taxpayers, two people familiar with the matter said.

GM, now 61 percent-owned by the U.S. government, is counting on the momentum from its quarterly results to help it clinch a $5 billion bank credit facility as it prepares a stock offering expected to be the largest ever for the U.S. market.