General Motors Co. is in talks with Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV, the sole remaining contender to buy the Saab Automobile unit, says GM CEO Ed Whitacre.

Whitacre says he hopes to reach a deal with Spyker by year-end. GM has said it will close Saab if it hasn’t found a buyer by then. A sale also depends on obtaining €400 million ($582 million) of loan guarantees from the Swedish government.

Reports say Spyker emerged as the frontrunner in the second round of bidding that began last month after the collapse of a deal to sell Saab to a group led by another supercar maker, Sweden’s Koenigsegg AB.

Spyker strikes some analysts as an unlikely buyer. The company, which sold about 40 cars last year, lost $36 million on sales of $11 million in 2008 and lost $13 million in the first half of 2009. The company hasn’t explained how it would finance an acquisition, but does say that Russian bank Convers Group-Stryker’s controlling 30% owner-is participating in the bid.

Convers is controlled by Russian oligarch Alexander Antonov, a banker who survived an assassination attempt in Moscow last spring after being shot seven times. Russian authorities suspected the attack was related to his financial dealings. His son Vladimir is Spyker’s chairman.

Separately, Sweden’s Dagens Industri reports that Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. has already paid GM $197 million for some Saab assets, including the technology and tooling for the outgoing 9-5 midsize sedan. The companies announced the deal earlier this week without disclosing the price. The business daily cites an unidentified source involved in the deal, who adds that the cash will keep Saab running for three months.

Volkswagen AG is prepared to launch a bid for the 70% of MAN SE that it doesn’t already own, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The Munich newspaper cites an unidentified executive. VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech has been trying for several years to engineer a three-way merger of MAN, Sweden’s Scania AB and VW’s own commercial truck unit. VW holds a controlling stake in Scania, and MAN holds an additional 17.4%.

Analysts say the departures last month of three top MAN executives eases the way for a takeover. The move would be VW’s third acquisition of the month after it bought 49.9% of Porsche AG and 20% of Suzuki Motor Corp.

U.S. wholesale prices increased an unexpected 1.8% from October to November, propelled by a 7% rise in energy costs, the Dept. of Labor reports. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.5%.

Economists expect the Federal Reserve to leave key interest rates unchanged when it meets today. But they worry that inflation fears could prompt the central bank to reconsider its pledge to keep rates low for an “extended period.” But Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that excess capacity and high unemployment should keep inflation contained.

Separately, the Fed reported that industrial production increased 0.8% from October to November, fostering hopes that the economic recovery is gaining traction.

CEO Ed Whitacre has spelled out General Motors Co.’s mission: to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles. “I don’t know what (the mission statement) was before,” he says, “but it was a lot longer and more complicated.”

Whitacre tells reporters he gives the Obama administration an A-plus for letting the board run GM without interfering. Appointed chairman by the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, Whitacre says he speaks to officials there about once a week.

Separately, the Associated Press reports that when Whitacre first met with top GM executives last summer, he told them he didn’t know how to be a chairman without also being CEO. The news service cites an unidentified person who attended the meeting, who says the chairman described himself as “a guy that likes to be in charge.”

Sales of light vehicles are likely to increase to 12.4 million units in the U.S. next year, up from an estimated 10.3 million this year, according to the Ann Arbor, Mich-based Center for Automotive Research. Demand slid to 13.2 million vehicles last year from 16.6 million in 2007.

CAR Chief Economist Sean McAlinden contends there is now enormous pent-up demand. He notes the sales rate has fallen to 42 vehicles per 1,000 adults vs. 66 per 1,000 in the 1992 recession. Even so, he predicts sales will remain soft through next spring before picking up.

McAlinden doesn’t expect sales to top 16.2 million vehicles in the coming decade. He says volume that exceeded 17 million units in the early 2000s was a “bubble.”

CSM Worldwide Inc. says it expects 2010 sales of 11.8 million units. But the firm warns that demand could be held down by a double-dip recession, a deeper housing slump or tighter consumer credit.

Automakers sold 1.18 million passenger vehicles in eastern and western Europe last month, up from 933,500 units a year earlier when the financial crisis began to rattle consumers, says European automakers trade group ACEA.

Demand soared across western Europe as governments renewed scrappage schemes. Major markets reported large increases, including France (+48%), Germany (+20%), Italy (+31%), Spain (+37%) and the U.K. (+58%). But in eastern Europe, volume fell 17%, with nearly all countries reporting double-digit declines.

Among major automakers, big gainers included Renault (+47%), PSA (+39%), Toyota (+34%), Fiat (+28%), General Motors (+24%) and Ford (+23%). Luxury carmakers posted more modest increases, including gains of 10% and 9% at BMW and Daimler, respectively.

Chrysler Group LLC has adopted a policy that prohibits employees from sending text messages while driving company-owned vehicles or using handheld devices paid for by the company, effective immediately.

Recent studies have shown that texting while driving is far more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving or even driving while intoxicated. The company also says it will offer text-to-voice message reading systems in some of its 2011 models.

Ford Motor Co. says it remains committed to a long-term partnership to former affiliate Mazda Motor Corp., reports The Detroit News.

The newspaper, citing interviews with several senior Ford executives, says the companies are likely to focus more on joint development of vehicle subsystems and technology, while doing less platform-sharing.

Ford told Bloomberg News two weeks ago it planned to develop future small vehicles on its own platforms. Late last year Ford reduced its stake in Mazda to 13.8% from a controlling 33.4%.

General Motors Co. plans to repay $8 billion of Canadian and U.S. loans by no later than June 30, 2010-five years ahead of schedule, says CEO Ed Whitacre.

The company has said it will pay the first $1.2 billion installment on its $6.7 billion U.S. term loan on Dec. 31. GM hadn’t previously set a goal for full repayment of the loans, which mature in July 2015. Analysts note that paying back the loans could lift federal restrictions on executive pay that are hampering GM’s search for a new CEO.

In a round-table session with reporters yesterday, Whitacre also confirmed reports that the board clashed with former CEO Fritz Henderson about his plans to sell GM’s Opel/Vauxhall unit. Directors ultimately decided last month to keep the business. Whitacre adds that the board wanted to go in “a different direction” than Henderson did, resulting in a mutual agreement to part ways.

Whitacre says he does not yet have a list of CEO candidates, but he hopes to find a “motivating, inspirational” leader. He won’t rule out promoting an insider, but analysts consider that option unlikely. He says auto experience “would be nice but is not a requirement.”

Whitacre says the next CEO will need to be driven by more than money. Although he initially refused the chairman’s job earlier this year, Whitacre says he succumbed to an appeal to help save an American industrial giant. He also says he has told GM’s board he doesn’t want the CEO job long term.

Nearly one in five cars buyers who avoid a particular model cite concern that the company or the brand might fail, according to a new report from J.D. Power and Associates.

That reason ranks fourth after styling, price and perceived reliability in the Westlake Village, Calif.-based firm’s 2009 Avoider Study. Power says new-vehicle buyers want to know the manufacturer will be around to back up its products if anything goes wrong.

The firm says the top five brands consumers are shunning are Chrysler, Dodge, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn. Bankruptcy filings and federal bailout loans at Chrysler and General Motors earlier this year appear to be deterring some buyers, Power says. It also notes that GM plans to sell Hummer and close Pontiac and Saturn.

Power says the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands appear to be benefiting from their parent company’s avoidance of Chapter 11 and federal bailout funds.

Although import brands have gained three points of U.S. market share this year, “Buy American” sentiment is growing, according to the report. It says that among buyers of domestic brands who avoid imports, six in 10 now say they are deliberately avoiding the make because it is foreign, up from 46% in 2008.

The remnants of Chrysler Group LLC that remain in Chapter 11 filed a reorganization plan yesterday in federal bankruptcy court that says it will not repay $3.7 billion in bridge loans the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury made in January.

The new Chrysler agreed earlier to assume responsibility for the remaining $500 million of the bridge loan.

According to the court filing, “old Chrysler” plans to repay $21 million of secured claims in full. The company says recovery on other unsecured claims is “undetermined” because those creditors are suing former Chrysler parent Daimler AG for about $25 billion in payments.

The company has asked for a hearing on the plan on Jan. 21 and a confirmation hearing on March 16.

The supervisory board of General Motors Co.’s Adam Opel GmbH has elected GM Treasurer Walter Borst to the additional post of Opel chairman as the unit reconstitutes its leadership and prepares a major restructuring.

Borst was Opel’s CFO from October 2000 to January 2003 and previously held several other European finance posts. He was named to Opel’s 19-member supervisory board early this month as part of a shakeup that began after GM decided in November not to sell the unit.

Borst succeeds Carl-Peter Forster, who resigned as Opel chairman and CEO and president of GM Europe after the sale collapsed. GM named international chief Nick Reilly as Opel CEO and head of GME shortly after. Reilly is drawing up a plan for Opel to reduce capacity by as much as 25% and shed 8,300 jobs.

Klaus Franz, the union leader who is Opel’s vice chairman, hailed Borst as an executive who will be able to bridge the gap between GM and Opel. Franz has been highly critical of many GM managers and called for Opel leaders who can stand up to the parent company. He also has endorsed Reilly’s appointment as CEO.