(April 6, 2010) General Motors will expand use of “enhanced smart pedal” technology globally to all passenger cars with automatic transmissions and electronic throttle control, providing an additional safeguard to enhance customer confidence.

Also known as brake override, the change involves modifying existing electronic controls to reduce power to the engine in cases where the brake and accelerator pedal are being depressed at the same time. The global rollout will be completed by the end of 2012.

(April 5, 2010) General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told participants at the recent J.D. Power and Associates International Automotive Roundtable in Orlando, Fla., that diesels likely will have a small and not a major place in the U.S. market, and pointed out that automakers selling diesels here currently are operating on waivers, especially since the Tier II Bin 5 environmental requirements are so strict.

(April 3, 2010) Toyota and Ford  posted big U.S. sales gains in March as industry wide incentives and improving consumer confidence brought buyers back to showrooms.

Total U.S. sales advanced 24 percent from the depressed levels of March 2009. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 11.7 million was lower than analysts' forecasts but still marked the year's strongest.

(April 3, 2010) Lexus -- the leading luxury-auto brand in the United States for the past decade -- used a 42 percent gain in March to inch ahead of rival Mercedes-Benz after the first quarter, according to Bloomberg News.

Lexus sold 20,219 vehicles last month and 49,523 for the year's first three months. Mercedes reported sales of 20,023 cars and SUVs for March, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, and 49,229 for the quarter. The Mercedes tallies exclude Sprinter vans formerly sold by Dodge -- 1,337 of them in the first quarter.