Auto News Roundup 6-25-09: GM gets OK to spend, tests begin on Volt, Toyota and Honda slash production

-- GM gets go-ahead to spend $33.3 billion to pay for its bankruptcy today. Detroit Free Press

-- GM begins testing first preproduction Chevy Volt prototypes. Leftlanenews.com

-- Obama signs "Cash for Clunkers" -- final rules are 30 days out. Leftlanenews.com

-- Car and Driver demonstrates that driving drunk is safer than texting while driving. Jalopnik

-- Toyota production is down 39% and Honda is down 38% as the automakers slash production due to falling car demand. Bloomberg

— Joni Gray

Comments

[kerry bradshaw]

Has anybody noticed that the Cash-For Clunkers program makes zero sense? For $1 billion dollars, they are, in effect ,removing 40K cars from the gas roles.
That's an infinitesimally small number. Even a million couldn't make a detectable effect on gas demand.

[M Binger]

Let,s see, gm We pay GM to build cars, we pay off GM debt, we run off GM creditors, GM burns thru Billions of dollars, and the workers are furlowed, plants are closed. We are going to loose so much money, time and then suffer even more after the next bankrutpcy minus our taxpayers money finally closes these bums GM down, Lots of people are out of jobs, who who would be glad to start a fresh car company, with new interest and designs, but what do we get, same cars, same workers, same managment plus politiciians. Please wake up someone somewhere and puit a stop to this madness.