After months of fluctuating sales, the auto industry offered signs of recovery from its yearlong slump, as most automakers reported yesterday higher levels of U.S. sales in October. GM, the largest U.S. automaker, reported its first monthly sales gain in almost two years, while Hyundai and Subaru were huge winners thanks for their popular models and fuel-efficient sedans. Other top automakers—Toyota, Ford, Nissan—also posted higher sales.

GM reported its first monthly gain in U.S. sales in almost two years while Toyota and Ford also improved, a sign the auto industry it starting to crawl back from a yearlong slump.

The shockingly poor financial management of General Motors and Chrysler weakened their case for a government bailout, but officials feared letting the automakers collapse would severely harm the U.S. economy, the former head of the Obama administration’s auto task force says.

Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once epitomized America’s love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy-equipment maker. General Motors Co. and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. finally signed the much-anticipated deal for GM to sell the brand yesterday. Tengzhong will get an 80 percent stake in the company, while Hong Kong investor Suolang Duoji, who indirectly owns a big stake in Tengzhong through an investment company, will receive a 20 percent stake.

WASHINGTON—The government has compensated dealers for 70 percent of the cars sold under the popular Cash for Clunkers program and they should be fully paid by the end of September, the transportation secretary said yesterday. Secretary Ray LaHood told the National Automobile Dealers Association that 478,000 of the nearly 700,000 car vouchers have been paid, or about $2.4 billion.

Looking to regain consumers’ trust, General Motors Co. said yesterday that new-car buyers will be able to return their vehicles within two months of purchase for a full refund, part of a long-awaited new marketing campaign for the biggest American automaker. The effort is part of a campaign that will start next week seeking to make connections again with American consumers who may be leery of the company since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

Whether it’s a matter of ignorance or greed, people are still buying General Motors stock, even though the company and the government have warned that the shares will someday be worthless. Investors are picking up millions of shares every day, thinking they’ll profit from what is really a hodgepodge of outdated factories and a pile of debt left behind when the new General Motors Co. exited bankruptcy court protection.

Shoppers are snapping up cars and trucks so quickly that General Motors Co. is boosting production for the rest of the year to keep up with demand driven by “cash for clunkers.“ It’s another sign that automakers believe consumers are returning to showrooms after a yearlong slump. Ford Motor Co. last week moved to increase its output, and other automakers took similar action earlier this month. GM said yesterday that it would add 60,000 vehicles to its production schedule in the third and fourth quarters and bring back 1,350 laid-off workers. The company now plans to make 535,000 cars and trucks in July-September.

After a lot of heartbreak, the nation’s automakers aren’t looking to commit. They’re taking small, tentative steps to raise production to meet the revived demand for new cars and trucks sparked by the Cash for Clunkers program. Carmakers are offering overtime or Saturday shifts at slack plants, but they aren’t willing to go as far as opening shuttered factories, concerned that demand may ebb when the program ends.

The Chevy Volt will pack a powerful sticker shock of $40,000. GM promises 230 mpg in city driving in its bid to offer the first mainstream car with plug-in technology.

Hundreds of General Motors’ California dealers will let consumers haggle over the prices of new cars and trucks through the eBay online marketplace under a trial that begins today. About 225 of California’s 250 GM dealers are set to take part in the program. They will be selling Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac vehicles on co-branded Web sites through eBay Inc.‘s online auto marketplace, eBay Motors, until Sept. 8. The cars will also be searchable through eBay Motors and eBay’s main site.

Hundreds of General Motors’ California dealers will let consumers haggle over the prices of new cars and trucks through the eBay online marketplace under a trial program.

DETROIT—The new General Motors still faces some of the same troubles that haunted the old one. So how does a company that has not made money since 2004 get back to turning a profit? The top five things GM needs to do to be successful: Win back customers by making reliable cars: GM has the image of building shoddy cars. GM neglected its cars in favor of higher-profit trucks and SUVs until five years ago, and the stigma remains.

General Motors completed an unusually quick exit from bankruptcy protection yesterday with ambitions of making money and building cars people are eager to buy. Once the world’s largest and most powerful automaker, the new GM is now leaner, cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans.

61 percent:
U.S. government
  17.5 percent: United Auto Workers union through its retiree health-care trust
  11.7 percent:
Canadian government
  9.8 percent: bondholders from the old company