Auto industry's 2007 timeline

Auto industry's 2007 timeline

	Published : Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:27 By : Agencies Print this Story

(AP) - 2007 was a year of major changes for the auto industry. Some key dates:

Jan. 7: General Motors Corp. unveils the Chevrolet Volt, an electric concept car, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and says it could be on the road by 2010.

Jan. 25: Ford Motor Co. reports a $12.7 billion loss in 2006.

Feb. 14: DaimlerChrysler AG says it won't rule out 'any option,' including the sale of Chrysler, and announces a plan to cut 13,000 Chrysler workers.

March 12: Ford announces sale of exotic sports car brand Aston Martin to a consortium of investors for $848 million.

March 14: GM reports a loss of $2 billion in 2006.

April 5: Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. makes a $4.5 billion cash offer for Chrysler.

May 9: Toyota reports a $13.7 billion profit for its fiscal year, up 20 percent from the previous year.

May 14: DaimlerChrysler announces end of nine-year partnership with Chrysler and agrees to sell 80.1 percent of Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $7.4 billion.

May 15: Chrysler reports a $1.98 billion loss in the first quarter.

July 19: Ford takes opening bids for its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover units.

June 29: United Auto Workers members at auto supplier Delphi Corp. approve a contract that cuts wages for many longtime workers but secures thousands of jobs.

July 20: The UAW and Chrysler officially begin negotiations on a new four-year contract. GM and Ford begin talks several days later.

July 26: Ford reports a second-quarter profit of $750 million, its first quarterly profit in two years, but the automaker says it expects big losses in the next two quarters and no return to full-year profitability until 2009.

Aug. 1: GM, Ford and Chrysler's share of the U.S. market drops below 50 percent in July for the first time in history.

Aug. 3: Cerberus takes over a majority share of Chrysler. Bob Nardelli, former CEO of The Home Depot Inc., becomes chairman and CEO of Chrysler.

Aug. 29: In its last earnings report as a public company, Chrysler says it earned $549 million in the second quarter but would have posted a loss were it not for accounting changes.

Sept. 4: Toyota Motor Corp. beats out Ford in August sales, bringing it closer to overtaking Ford as the No. 2 automaker in U.S. sales for 2007.

Sept. 6: Chrysler names Jim Press, the former head of Toyota's North American operations, its vice chairman and president in charge of sales and marketing.

Sept. 13: The UAW names GM the lead company in its 2007 contract negotiations. Ford and Chrysler extend their contracts indefinitely.

Sept. 14: Midnight deadline for UAW and GM to reach a new contract passes without an agreement, but bargaining continues.

Sept. 24: More than 74,000 GM workers strike the automaker after the UAW and GM fail to reach a contract agreement.

Sept. 26: The UAW and GM reach a historic tentative contract agreement, ending a two-day strike. The agreement puts the responsibility for retiree health care into the union's hands and establishes a lower pay scale for thousands of workers.

Oct. 10: The UAW reaches a temporary contract agreement with Chrysler after a six-hour strike. The UAW says 66 percent of production workers at GM voted to ratify the new four-year contract.

Oct. 11: Ford names Toyota executive Jim Farley its new marketing chief.

Oct. 27: The UAW says 56 percent of production workers at Chrysler voted in favor of a new four-year contract with the automaker.

Nov. 1: Chrysler says it will cut between 8,500 and 10,000 hourly jobs and 2,100 salaried jobs through 2008, or about 15 percent of its workforce, in addition to the 13,000 layoffs it announced in February.

Nov. 3: The UAW and Ford reach a temporary labor agreement.

Nov. 7: GM posts a record $39 billion loss for the third quarter due to a charge involving unused tax credits. Toyota reports a profit of $4 billion for the quarter, up 11 percent from the previous year.

Nov. 8: Ford reports a third-quarter loss of $380 million. The automaker says it won't sell its Volvo unit for now.

Nov. 14: The UAW says 81 percent of Ford production workers ratified a new four-year contract with the automaker, ending negotiations between the UAW and the Detroit Three.

Nov. 29: Former GM Chairman and CEO Roger Smith dies at age 82.

Nov. 30: Congressional Democrats reach a compromise on an energy bill that would require automakers to meet an industrywide average of 35 miles per gallon for cars and trucks by 2020, the first increase by Congress in car fuel efficiency in 32 years.

Source: The Associated Press