General Motors Co., which had pledged to deliver a turnaround plan for its Opel/Vauxhall unit by mid-December, now says it probably won’t unveil the plan until next month.

GM Europe President Nick Reilly, who announced the delay in a company blog posting, said last week that the plan was at least 90% complete. He wrote yesterday that “more work needs to be done.”

Reilly says the restructuring, “one of the largest, most complex industrial reorganizations” in European manufacturing in years, should not be rushed. He says Opel is having “constructive discussions” with labor representatives and government officials.

The company has been in talks with its unions about concessions to save €265 million ($390 million) per year. Opel has said it may shed 8,300 jobs and close an assembly plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Presenting the plan to European governments is a key step in lining up the €2.7 billion in financing Opel is seeking from countries that host Opel or Vauxhall plants.

New York City-based private equity firm Patriarch Partners LLC has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Dura Automotive Systems Inc. for $125 million, Automotive News reports.

The newspaper, which cites an unidentified source, says the companies hope to close the deal by year-end. The new owner plans to keep Dura CEO Tim Leuliette and his management team, AN says. California-based hedge fund Pacificor LLC has owned about 40% of the Rochester, Mich.-based maker of auto trim and control systems since Dura emerged from bankruptcy in June 2008.

Patriarch, which specializes in buying distressed companies, plans to merge its cluster of small auto parts makers, Global Automotive Systems, into Dura to create a company with nearly $2 billion in sales, AN says.

A federal bankruptcy judge has given Visteon Corp. permission to stop paying healthcare and life insurance benefits to about 7,600 current and former workers, Bloomberg News reports.

The judge agreed at a hearing yesterday that the company can no longer afford to pay the benefits, which cost about $31 million this year. He said a group of about 110 workers are entitled to continue receiving the benefits because of a contract, according to the news service. Visteon, which filed for Chapter 11 in May, expects the wind-down of benefits to take months.

The company plans to file its reorganization plan in court by the end of next week. The plan proposes giving its lenders the “great majority” of the company, Bloomberg says. Visteon has been negotiating with lenders to devise a plan they will accept.

Toyota Motor Corp. says it will add a second shift at its Woodstock, Ont., assembly plant in March to boost production of the RAV4 small crossover vehicle to 150,000 units.

This month the company plans to begin hiring the additional 800 workers it will need there. Plans to add the second shift last year were put on hold as the economy and the auto market worsened.

Toyota says say the move reflects reviving U.S. auto demand, notably a 24% increase in RAV4 sales last month. Analysts say another factor is the strong yen, which makes it cheaper to produce vehicles in the U.S. Automotive News says Toyota is running all its North American plants on overtime to meet stronger demand.

Just over 60% of the vehicles Toyota sells in the U.S. are built in North America. The company is looking for ways to increase that percentage. But plans to open a new assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss., to build Prius hybrid sedans are still on indefinite hold.

The Detroit Three automakers are urging the U.S. trade representative to protest Japan’s new scrappage scheme, complaining it discriminates against U.S. brands.

Japan is offering a $2,800 tax break to consumers who scrap a vehicle that is at least 13 years old to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient model. The plan also includes an $1,100 incentive for buying such vehicles without a trade-in.

U.S. automakers say that 87% of Japan-made vehicles are eligible, but all U.S. vehicles are ineligible because of import rules. Under regular conditions, fewer than 5% of vehicles sold in Japan are import brands.

The U.S. “cash-for-clunkers” program that ran this summer was open to all makes. Japanese brands accounted for nearly half of the 677,000 vehicles sold under the program.

Chinese car and battery maker BYD Co. is expected to make Los Angeles the first U.S. market in which it will sell the e6 electric sedan late next year, says The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper cites Henry Li, a BYD senior director, who adds that no final decision has been made yet. He says BYD’s initial sales will be to fleets. The company vaulted to prominence last year when Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy Holding Co. bought a 9.9% stake for $230 million.

But a commentary in the Journal’s Asia edition says BYD faces major obstacles. The company has yet to sell an electric or hybrid vehicle anywhere. Although BYD claims its F3DM plug-in hybrid went on sale a year ago in China, the authors say none has appeared in dealerships. The five-seat e6 was originally due in the U.S. this year. But the vehicle hasn’t yet passed Chinese safety tests, not to mention tougher U.S. tests.

The opinion piece says BYD cuts costs by assembling lithium-ion cells with manual labor instead of robots, which results in spotty quality. The company scraps as many as 30% of the cells it makes, according to German consulting firm Roland Berger.

The U.S. trade deficit shrank 7.6% from September to October to $32.9 billion as the weak dollar boosted exports 2.6%, the Dept. of Commerce reports.

Imports increased 0.4% when demand for oil slid 12% to the lowest daily level in nearly 10 years. Imports of autos and parts increased 3% to $16.8 billion, and exports rose 6% to $7.9 billion.

The U.S. trade gap with China widened to $22.7 billion in October, according to the Commerce Dept.