Toyota isn’t letting a global slowdown get in the way of its plans to grow, reporting a higher-than-expected quarterly profit and raising its full-year forecast.

The Ford Motor Company has been dealt a blow by credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, which has cut the carmaker’s credit rating to junk on doubts that a turnaround plan by chief executive Jim Hackett will generate earnings and cash quickly enough.

Global shares and the price of oil slumped, as President Donald Trump shocked markets by opening a new front in his world trade wars by setting a tariff demand on Mexico.

Let’s recap the travesty that has unfolded over the past couple of days.

It’s one of the biggest bets going in the world of cars: Since May, General Motors (GM) and its Cruise self-driving car unit have landed €4.35bn in investment commitments from Japan’s SoftBank and Honda Motor to develop a robot taxi service that could safely navigate the city streets of San Francisco by the end of next year - putting it ahead Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit, Uber and Lyft.

A shift to self-driving cars will mean rather than depending on other drivers to compensate for our mistakes, we'll depend on engineers to make fewer of them, writes Stephen M Zoepf

General Motors workers went on strike at a Canadian plant for the first time in 21 years over jobs lost to Mexico, with the union’s president calling the situation “the poster child for what’s wrong with Nafta”.

Opel has been having a hard time of it over the last decade or so.

Amongst the business headlines of 2017, the prospect of driverless cars has been a dominant feature, with its promise of an automotive revolution reaching far beyond the most efficient means of getting from A to B.

General Motors and Japan’s Softbank are among the latest investors in Nauto, a Silicon Valley start-up developing software for self-driving vehicles.

The European Union has approved French car maker PSA's acquisition of Opel and British brand Vauxhall from General Motors.

US stocks rose today as banks continued to climb along with interest rates, and energy companies rallied again with oil prices.

Ford plans to cut about 10% of its global salaried workforce while retaining the technology talent it’s recruited to develop driverless and electric cars, according to a person familiar with the strategy.

At least 12 people have been killed following looting and violence in Venezuela's capital amid a spiralling political crisis in the South American country.

French car giant PSA Group is to buy the European operations of General Motors, including Vauxhall in the UK, for €2.2bn.

General Motors has lost money in Europe every year since 1999. After three years at the helm, chief executive Mary Barra has had enough.

Bank stocks have jumped on hopes that bigger profits are ahead and US indexes again pushed to record highs.

General Motors will today announce a huge investment in its factories that will create or keep around 1,000 jobs.

JURGEN KLOPP’s not shy of soundbites; the Liverpool manager is as famed for his quirky quotes off the pitch as he is admired for his tactical acumen on it.

Vauxhall said it has received "no confirmed reports" of fires starting in the heating and ventilation systems of some Corsa models after it was reported there may be a risk.

Volkswagen is to cut 30,000 jobs in a restructuring plan as it tries to recover from a scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

The Arla dairy co-op says it wants up to one billion kg/litres of extra milk over the next year from cows getting feed free from genetic modification, and expects to be able to pay an extra 1c per kg of milk produced.

The US may be the lone bright spot in an otherwise sluggish global economy as American consumers continue to buy expensive new vehicles at record levels.

Ford has announced it plans to invest $1.6bn (€1.4bn) to build more small cars in Mexico, starting in 2018, triggering a fresh blast of criticism from Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

Tesla Motors has previewed its Model 3 sedan, saying more than 130,000 people had ordered the car even though it is more than a year away from production.

European car sales rose 13.7% in November, according to industry data published yesterday, with US brands gaining strongly as Volkswagen continued to pay for its diesel emissions test-rigging scandal.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

As cars increasingly resemble digital devices, a group of technology firms that can send wireless software updates to cars are in hot demand by carmakers scrambling to catch up to Tesla in the arena of over-the-air updates, or OTAs.

I know your man Baz Ashmawy has that whole 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy thing all sewn up with his poor – but game, it has to be said – mother Nancy being asked to undertake all sorts of hazardous adventures for the benefit of television viewers and having the gizzard frightened out of her on the altar of entertainment.

An $18bn (€16bn) liability figure attached itself last Friday to Volkswagen’s diesel disaster.

Archived notes of presentations made to senior executives in the ’70s and early ’80s establish beyond reasonable doubt that Exxon were ahead of the posse, when it came to having an undertanding of climate change, writes Terry Prone

A round-up of all the biggest stories in the motor industry this week

Volkswagen and other major car makers have begun reining in Chinese output, wages and other costs, as executives at the Frankfurt auto show put a brave face on a sharp slowdown in the world’s biggest vehicle market.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) chief Sergio Marchionne reportedly said last weekend that seeking a merger with General Motors was a “high priority” and such a deal would also be the best strategic option for the Detroit rival.

Peugeot-Citroen make the most fuel efficient cars in Europe, as figures confirm Ireland ranks in the top 10 for low fuel emissions.

WE SHOULD count ourselves lucky that Opel is still with us at all. Over the last decade a number of scenarios were proposed during discussions about the future of Opel’s parent, General Motors; one of those was the closure of the European arm.

I remember the not-so-distant past, when Hyundai was an automotive joke. The South Korean outfit endeavoured earnestly, without question, but the results of their labours were awful.

As a motoring hack — or, indeed, a critic of any kind — it is always a tad worrying when you are complimented for being too kind to any given subject. In my case, it gets very worrying indeed when car company executives pally-up to tell you that you’ve really been too kind to their brand in recent times.

While recalls over potential faults in cars are headline news in western nations, drivers in Asia are more vulnerable as the controls are far less stringent, writes Shamim Adam

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of General Motors last year declined by 35% to €510,000 in spite of a jump in revenues.

General Motors was hit with its biggest lawsuit so far over serial recalls, brought on behalf of drivers of 27 million vehicles seeking more than $10bn in compensation for fallen car prices.