When Nissan said it would not put up a display at the auto show in Detroit, local dealers decided to do it themselves — until the company intervened.

Toyota Motor will idle its plants in Japan for 11 days in February and March to reduce output in the face of steeply declining global vehicle sales, the company said Tuesday.

The across-the-board decline in car sales is certain to put more pressure on the fragile finances of manufacturers.

2009 Toyota Venza.

WHAT’S THE RUSH? Tom Cucciniello with a 1985 300D Turbodiesel, one of his three Mercedes diesels. None will win a stoplight race.

Three decades ago, General Motors developed a prototype powertrain under the hood of a Cadillac Eldorado.

One milestone of 2008 was the 50th anniversary of the window sticker, the now-ubiquitous price sheet that has helped to make new-car purchases a bit less confounding.

Over the last year many consumers have experienced problems with defunct car dealerships.

Each of the six largest automakers, including foreign and domestic brands, is expected to say that its sales in the United States fell at least 30 percent in December.

A car in Brooklyn with two flats and many more tickets.

In a move to cut costs, the Bloomberg administration has asked city agencies to sell nearly 700 city-owned cars.

The Fusion Hybrid gets 41 miles per gallon in city driving and 36 miles on the highway.

The day after an injection from the government, the financing affiliate of G.M. said it would immediately ease the conditions for borrowers to have access to its loans.

A revamped 7 Series from BMW offers refined, all-around performance.

Relatively few buyers have been swayed by the technical wizardry of the so-called two-mode hybrid from General Motors.

The BMW X6, Ford Flex and Infiniti EX35, all offshoots of existing platforms, seem to present different ways of flirting with the concept of a station wagon.

"If it wasn't for the factory, the average black would not have been able to survive all these years." CLAUDIA PERKINS A daughter of auto industry employees, she has worked in the industry for 33 years

Ssangyong is South Korea’s smallest carmaker, with about 7,100 workers, but its request for aid is seen as a critical test of the government’s willingness to help the auto industry.

The Treasury Department took a stake of $5 billion in GMAC and agreed to lend $1 billion to to help it reorganize itself as a bank holding company.

With production down at Toyota’s truck plant in San Antonio, workers alternate between training classes and the assembly line.

Toyota’s president, Katsuaki Watanabe, center, and other executives at a news conference in Nagoya, Japan, on Monday.

Barack Obama addresses the Detroit Economic Club in May 2007.

Safety advocates say that American consumers are facing greater danger as Chinese manufacturers increase the number of automotive parts they are sending to the United States.

On Monday, BYD Auto of China began selling the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car in the world, beating General Motors and Toyota to market.

The 2009 Pontiac G8.

The V-6 Dodge Challenger has the curves, but not the muscle.

DODGE CHALLENGER A time traveler from the '70s.

HONDA FCX CLARITY Ready when the hydrogen is.

NISSAN GT-R A ballyhooed sports car worth all the fuss.