General Motors Corp chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner will step down immediately at the request of the White House, and new directors will make up the majority of GM’s board in a major management shake-up of the US’s largest carmaker, GM confirmed today.

Car giant General Motors was warned its future is in “substantial doubt” by auditors, it emerged today.

America’s sinking car industry has told the government it needed even more help to survive than originally thought.

Top executives of the big three American carmakers will ask the US Congress for more than $34bn (€26.1bn) in loans today as two of them battle to survive beyond the end of the month.

General Motors, the largest US car manufacturer, warned today that it may run out of money by the end of the year after piling up billions in third-quarter losses and burning through cash at an alarming rate. Ford sustained heavy losses, too.

Wall Street advanced sharply today, with solid preliminary results from IBM encouraging investors to go back into the stock market after last week’s rout.

Potential Opel owners are to be offered three-day test drives before they buy so then can “experience a car first-hand”.

A strike which has halted production at an Opel car plant in Germany entered its third day today.

General Motors announced a major overhaul of its European operations today, designed to streamline the company by bringing its struggling units Opel, Vauxhall and Saab under a single management structure.