General Motors CEO Dan Akerson and his wife Karin didn't give each other gifts for their 40th wedding anniversary. Instead, they gave Habitat for Humanity $1 million to help build and rehabilitate homes in Detroit.

Ford said it will put $2 billion into the U.S. pension plan, make $350,000 in benefit payments and put the remaining $1.45 billion into other plans across the globe. As of Dec. 31, the U.S. plan was $9.4 billion short of its obligations, while global plans, which include the U.S., were short by $15.4 billion, the report said.

R.L. Polk reported Tuesday that in the third quarter of 2011 consumers who bought their vehicles new kept them an average of 71 months, or nearly six years. The Southfield-based research firm also reported vehicles originally bought used climbed to an all-time high of 50 months.

The Dearborn-based automaker will increase each board member's annual retainer to $250,000, a 25 percent increase from 2011.

(Editor's note: This story is written by Kelly Burris, a patent attorney and shareholder in the Ann Arbor office of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, a national intellectual property law firm.) What do California lawmakers have against the Detroit auto industry anyway? Suppose you slap down a couple grand to lease a brand spanking new 2012 Cadillac ATS for three ...

Auto industry veteran and Ann Arbor area resident Bob Lutz, a former vice chairman of General Motors, said today in Ann Arbor that clean energy technologies must become financially viable without government support.

General Motors Co. says it plans to freeze its U.S. pension plan for longtime white-collar workers and give all salaried employees annual bonuses instead of pay raises in an effort to hold down expenses.

The Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in Superior Township is analyzing the performance of Kia's new motorsports vehicles as the automaker joins the U.S. auto racing circuit, according to Automotive News.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today defended the controversial New York Times op-ed he wrote in 2008 — titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" — by saying President Barack Obama inappropriately protected unions during the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.