Chairman Ed Whitacre is exhorting executives at General Motors Co. to try harder to improve quality, reliability and customer satisfaction.

Mark Reuss, head of global vehicle engineering, tells reporters Whitacre has asked engineering executives to interview each customer who returns a vehicle under GM’s 60-day money-back guarantee program. Reuss says the company previously lacked that kind of attention to customer satisfaction.

GM says only 193 buyers have returned their vehicles since the promotion was launched in mid-September, and more than 90% exchanged them for another GM model.

Reuss admits that reliability has been the “Achilles heel of GM” for his entire 26 years at the company. He says he was very disappointed by GM’s poor showing in the annual reliability survey that Consumer Reports released late last month. Only one of 48 GM models rated above average. Until recently, GM argued that its quality lag was mainly a matter of perception.

Volkswagen AG says its supervisory board has approved implementation contracts for the company’s acquisition of Porsche AG.

The agreements spell out binding provisions for the organizational, structural and legal details of the deal to which the two companies agreed in August. The board of Porsche Automobile Holding SE, which owns the sports car maker, is scheduled to meet today to discuss the contracts.

The move brings VW a step closer to buying a 49.9% Porsche stake for €3.9 billion ($5.8 billion) by year-end. The company will ask shareholders on Dec. 3 to approve a preferred stock sale to raise as much as €8.5 billion ($12.7 billion) to finance the deal. VW plans to merge with the parent company Porsche SE in 2011.

VW CEO Martin Winterkorn will become Porsche CEO and CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch will join Porsche’s supervisory board.

As many as 145 of Chrysler Group LLC’s 2,370 U.S. dealers could be forced out of business unless they can line up inventory financing from GMAC Financial Services Inc. or another lender by Saturday.

Chrysler already shed 789 U.S. dealerships during bankruptcy this summer. GMAC says it believes it can help arrange loans for all or most of the dealers.

GMAC took over from Chrysler Financial in April as preferred lender to Chrysler customers and dealers. At the time, the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury agreed to guarantee GMAC loans to Chrysler dealers for six months.

GMAC has been reviewing applications from nearly 1,500 Chrysler dealers who want their loans continued. The company says most have been approved. But GMAC has rejected 83 dealerships, and an additional 60 are still under consideration for financing.

Some dealers are in a bind because GMAC is asking them for collateral in the form of land, buildings and other assets, on which Chrysler Financial already has a lien.

The U.S. index of leading economic indicators increased 0.3% from September to October to the highest level since September 2007, says the New York City-based Conference Board.

Last month marked the seventh consecutive month-over-month increase in the index, which is considered a gauge of economic activity for the next three to six months.

The research group’s gauge of current conditions was unchanged. The board predicts continued slow economic growth in the first half of next year.

Forecasters predict the annual rate of light vehicle sales will improve year over year in November, although they disagree on how large the increase will be.

J.D. Power and Associates and online auto data provider Edmunds.com predict annualized sales rates of 10.2 million and 10.3 million units, respectively, compared with 10.1 million a year ago. Analysts say the number of vehicles sold could be lower than a year earlier because this month has two fewer selling days than November 2008.

General Motors Co. forecasts an industry sales pace of 10.8 million units this month and expects its own volume to grow 10%-15% from a year earlier. Ford Motor Co. said last week it expects this month’s sales to at least match October’s 10.5 million-unit pace.

Harley-Davidson Inc. says it has retained investment bank BNP Paribas to assist in the sale of its Italian high-performance motorcycle maker MV Agusta.

Last month the Milwaukee, Wis.-based company announced it would divest Agusta and discontinue the Buell sport bike product line to focus on its iconic namesake brand. Harley-Davidson, which bought Agusta for $108 million in August 2008 to expand its presence in Europe, hopes to sell the unit in five to eight months.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. says it has sold its 1.7% stake in parts maker Hyundai Mobis for $200 million to comply with anti-trust rules.

The automaker obtained Mobis shares in June when the supplier merged with affiliate Hyundai Autonet, in which Hyundai held a 16.8% stake. Mobis raised its stake in Hyundai in August to 20.8% from 15%. As a result of the crossholding, anti-trust regulators required one of the companies to divest its holding by next month. Hyundai affiliate Kia Motors Corp. still owns a 16.9% Mobis stake.

Mitsubishi Motor Corp. is recalling nearly 29,400 Lancer and Lancer Evolution compact cars sold or registered in 22 cold-weather states to replace airbag sensors that are prone to corrosion by road salt.

The MMC recall involves vehicles from the 2008-2009 model years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a rusty sensor could cause a short circuit that might delay deployment of the airbags in a collision. Dealers will install new corrosion-resistant sensors.

Separately, Chrysler Group LLC is recalling 85,000 Dodge Nitro compact SUVs from the 2007 model year to upgrade the windshield wiper module. NHTSA says the intermittent wiper mode can malfunction under heavy usage, thus rendering the wiper system inoperable.

BMW AG says it will offer an ultra-luxury version of its Mini Cooper subcompact decked out with upscale interior trim and other special features made to order by its Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unit.

BMW says the car will debut in the 2011 model year and might be available in the U.S. in limited numbers. High-end Minis were popular in the 1960s, when coachbuilders produced them for celebrities such as actor Peter Sellers and the Beatles. Mini said in May it was considering a high-end special edition car without mentioning Rolls-Royce.

Supplier Remy International Inc. has hired Fred Knechtel, CFO of the Stanley Bostitch unit of Stanley Works, as CFO.

He succeeds Doug Laux, who is leaving to pursue other endeavors. Pendleton, Ind.-based Remy makes starters, alternators and electric motors for hybrid vehicles.