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Federal judge throws out GM's racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler

  DETROIT — A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a racketeering lawsuit General Motors had filed against smaller rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, saying the No. 1 U.S. automaker's alleged injuries were not caused by FCA's alleged violations. GM officials said in statement they "strongly disagree" with the order by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman, whom the automaker had sought to have removed from the case, and would appeal. "There is more than enough evidence from the guilty pleas of former FCA executives to conclude that the company engaged in racketeering, our complaint was timely and showed in detail how their multi-million dollar bribes caused direct harm to GM," GM said in a statement. The Detroit company added that Borman's decision "would let wrongdoers off the hook." GM filed the racketeering lawsuit against FCA last November, alleging its rival bribed United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials over many years to corrupt the bargaining process and gain advantages, costing GM billions of dollars. GM was seeking "substantial damages" that one analyst said could have totaled at least $6 billion. FCA had called the case meritless and asked Borman to dismiss it. On Wednesday, Borman dismissed the lawsuit "with prejudice," meaning GM cannot refile the complaint. "The direct victims of defendants' alleged bribery scheme are FCA's workers," Borman wrote of FCA. "GM's high labor costs were not an injury proximately caused by FCA's bribes, and any competitive injury that GM suffered as a result of FCA's advantage in labor costs is an indirect injury." "The dismissal of GM's complaint with prejudice earlier today vindicates our position," FCA said in a statement. On Monday, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied GM's petition to remove Borman from the case, but said the two automakers' chief executives didn't have to meet to try to settle the case as Borman had ordered. In calling for that, Borman had called the lawsuit "a waste of time and resources."   Government/Legal UAW/Unions Chrysler Fiat GM

Chrysler reports $166M net income for Q1, down $307M vs. 2012

Preliminary first-quarter results from 2013 have been announced by Chrysler, and the company is reporting a net income of $166 million on revenue of $15.4 billion. Compared to this period last year, net income is down $307 million and revenue has dropped $1 billion.
Chrysler says that its quarter was negatively affected by the costs associated with launching its 2013 Ram Heavy Duty, 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee and preparation for the return of the all-new 2014 Jeep Cherokee pictured above. The launches should provide a strong second half of 2013, says the automaker. "We remain on track to achieve our business targets, even as the first-quarter results were affected by an aggressive product launch schedule," said Chrysler Group LLC Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne.
On a positive note, the automaker says worldwide vehicle sales are up 8 percent from one year ago, a number pushed by a 12 percent bump in U.S. retail sales. In addition, domestic market share has risen slightly, up to 11.4 percent from 11.2 percent last year. Read more in the official statement below.

Henrik Fisker interview, and driving the Polestar 2 | Autoblog Podcast #643

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. They've been driving the updated 2021 Honda Odyssey, the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 and the new Polestar 2 electric sedan. After reviewing those, they talk about how the Chrysler 300 appears to be withering on the vine. Next, they take time to talk to legendary automotive designer and eponymous Chairman & CEO of Fisker Inc., Mr. Henrik Fisker himself, about jeans, horses and, of course, electric cars. Finally, they help a listener pick a $100,000 supercar in the "Spend My Money" segment. Autoblog Podcast #643 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving 2021 Honda Odyssey 2020 Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 2020 Polestar 2 Chrysler 300 soldiers on for 2021 with pared-down range, higher price Henrik Fisker interview Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: