The latest auto and employment numbers paint a picture of an economic recovery that remains tepid and potentially fragile.

September was the worst month for U.S. auto sales since February, down 23% from September 2008 and down 41% from the August 2009 outlier.

Many of us had wondered whether the cash-for-clunkers program would simply cause people who would have bought cars in September or October to buy instead in July and August. Now we seem to have an answer, though General Motors Sales Chief Mark LaNeve believes that low inventories also lost the industry 300,000 potential sales for September. If you average the three months of July, August, and September together, the impression is one of improvement since the terrible first quarter that's still left us below 2008:Q3. Inventory rebuilding should give a cyclical boost at some point,

By William Patalon III
Executive Editor
Money Morning/Money Map Report

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Just days after Chrysler LLC said it would be cutting one quarter of its auto dealerships, 1,100 General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) dealerships have reportedly been told not to expect a relationship with the embattled U.S. carmaker after October 2010.

GM dealers targeted for separation were informed by

…

Just days after Chrysler LLC said it would be cutting one quarter of its auto dealerships, 1,100 General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) dealerships have reportedly been told not to expect a relationship with the embattled U.S. carmaker after October 2010.

GM dealers targeted for separation were informed by letter over the weekend, Reuters reported.

The eradication of hundreds of hundreds of American auto dealerships is merely the latest development in the ongoing dismantling of the so-called U.S. “Big Three’’ – a  process that seems likely to leave Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) as the last American automaker standing.

“These companies are making up for now for what they have avoided doing for years, if not decades,” industry analyst John A. Casesa, managing partner of consultantcy Casesa Shapiro Group LLC, told The New York Times. “And if the

The U.S. Treasury has agreed to lend $6 billion to GMAC LLC (GOM), the financing arm of General Motors Corp. (GM), in the latest government effort to keep the biggest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy.

GMAC immediately announced looser credit lending standards that could make approximately 60 million Americans eligible for its car loans and leases. The company also said it would expand further into the retail banking industry with plans to access even more funds from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

GMAC will “continue to pursue” other ways to boost liquidity, including applying for a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guaranty program and attracting retail deposits from consumers, Toni Simonetti a spokeswoman for GMAC told Bloomberg News.

“This is part of our strategy to position GMAC for long-term stability,” said Simonetti. “The reason we’re doing this is so