George Foreman’s Daughter in Trouble for Mixing Driving, Cake

When people think of the children of former heavyweight boxing champion turned grill impresario George Foreman, they probably think of his five sons – all named George. But he also has five daughters, including 33-year-old Freeda Foreman, a former women’s boxer. But KTRK-TV in Houston is reporting that Freeda is getting notoriety – for all the wrong reasons.

Freeda Foreman is accused of causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages after she drove her car into a Houston business. The cause of the accident? According to Guy Stidham, the owner of the Two Guys Auto Restoration shop that Foreman allegedly crashed into, a police officer told him that she was distracted because she was “eating cake” when she lost control of the car.

Stidham claims that despite being assured that the damage to his business would be taken care of, the Foremans are now refusing to answer his phone calls.

“I asked if she had insurance and he said, ‘You’ll be taken care of because it’s George Foreman’s daughter,'” said Stidham.

GMAC ousts CEO de Molina

Although there are glimmers of hope in the auto industry, Alvaro de Molina apparently won’t be around to see if the optimism is justified. The Wall Street Journal reported that de Molina was ousted on Monday as CEO of GMAC Financial Services – the major auto lender recently supported by federal bailout money – after just 19 months on the job.

Even though GMAC has received $12.5 billion in taxpayer money (giving the government a 35.4 percent stake in the company), Treasury spokesperson Andrew Williams said that the federal government played no role in the decision to let de Molina go and that it was “100 percent a GMAC decision.”

GMAC announced that de Molina would be replaced by Michael A. Carpenter, a GMAC director who previously led Citigroup Inc.’s global investment bank.

Auto leasing programs on the comeback

Bloomberg reports that auto leasing programs are starting over again as consumers are beginning to look for cheap ways to drive expensive cars. The story reports that both General Motors and Chrysler have restarted their previously-discontinued GMAC Financial Services leasing program, which had been stopped after demand for leasing fell in 2008. In addition, Ford and Toyota are both planning extended marketing pushes and promotions for their existing marketing programs.

“Leasing is really a critical piece of the business because people who lease have much higher loyalty to your brand,” Jim Farley, Ford’s group vice president of marketing, said in an interview. “This is something the dealers have been asking for for a long time.”

“Leasing is coming back,” Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer of researcher Edmunds.com of Santa Monica, California, said in an interview yesterday. He predicts the practice will soon account for 20 percent of U.S. auto sales, more than doubling from the first half of 2009. Increased used-car values are “making leasing more attractive,” he said.

Auto supplier consolidation seen in 2010

According to Reuters, panelists at the Reuters Auto Summit in Detroit this week agreed that the excess capacity seen by the major auto suppliers will lead to increased consolidation within the market in 2010.

“There are too many suppliers,” Earl Hesterberg, chief executive of auto retailer Group One said at the summit. “The longer this market stays at 10, 11 even 12 million units, it will put financial pressure on suppliers and drive consolidation.”

Panelists also agreed that the U.S. Government stopped a possible “tsunami” by providing government-assisted bankruptcy protection for General Motors and Chrysler. However, industry experts predict that companies that have been barely able to stay afloat in 2009 might be unable to sustain themselves in 2010 and become targets for consolidation.

Chrylser CEO hopes for profitability by 2011

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As part of a day-long presentation designed to announce the company’s turnaround plan, Chrysler Group LLC CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the company hopes to return to profitability by 2011 and pay back the billions of dollars in loans received from the U.S. Government as part of its bailout plan.

“Today is the first day of a new Chrysler. We have laid out our plans and we have become publicly accountable for the delivery,” said Marchionne.

According to the company’s own projections, Chrysler is looking to make yearly revenue gains of 20% starting this year, leading to the company breaking even in 2011. Some industry analysts question if Chrysler will meet these lofty goals since the company does not have any new models planned to be released within the next year.

Ford Reports Near $1 Billion Net Income Last Quarter

Price reductions on models such as the Ford Taurus helped Ford to major Q3 sales.

Price reductions on models such as the Ford Taurus helped Ford to major Q3 sales.

Bloomberg reports today that Ford has posted a surprising third quarter 2009 net income of $997 million – the company’s first operating profit since early 2008 – on the back of higher sales spurred by competitive pricing. The move bolsters confidence in Ford, which was the only of the “Big Three” automakers not to receive government protection in 2009. In fact, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said that he anticipates Ford will be “solidly profitable” in 2011.

“Ford is a company that’s well into a turnaround,” said Bernie McGinn, president of McGinn Investment Management of Alexandria, Virginia, which owns about 320,000 Ford shares. “They did it by themselves and didn’t take government money. That gives people a good gut feeling and they’re being rewarded for that.”

With price cuts on models such as the Ford Taurus and Ford F-150, the company’s U.S. market share increased to 15.8 percent for the first nine months, compared with 14.8 percent from a year earlier, according to researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.