Two years following the automaker’s historic bankruptcy, General Motors is once again the world’s car-selling king. GM sold just over nine million vehicles worldwide in 2011. That’s 11% more than Volkswagen, which sold 8.1 million. It also marked a 7.6% gain over 2010. Fueling the surge was Chevrolet, posting sales of four-point-seven-six million vehicles around the world. Gm says more than 15 markets experienced record Chevrolet sales in 2011, with the largest year-over-year increases in Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa and Israel.

The former head of the Obama Administration's Auto Task Force says taxpayers will likely lose $14-billion dollars for saving General Motors, Chrysler And GMAC, now known as Ally Bank.  Steven Rattner spoke to the Detroit Economic Club Thursday. He said the actual loss will depend on what the U.S Treasury will get when they sell their remaining 25% ownership of GM. The automakers stock has fallen 39% since it went on the market in November of 2010. 

General Motors is offering free loaner cars to Chevrolet Wolt owners during an investigation into possible battery fires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there have been two fires during tests of the batteries over the past six months. GM Vice President Mark Ruess says the automaker will cooperate with NHTSA's investigation so, quote, "we all have an understanding about these risks and how they can be avoided in the future."

Former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is coming out of retirement to work for the automaker again. Lutz, who has been offering informal advice to execs since leaving the company last year will now be on the payroll. Effective immediately, Lutz will be hired as a part-time consultant to GM executives.

For the first time in a decade, the number of new car dealers in the United States has risen. Detroit-based Urban Science said it's not a huge increase but there are 66 more new car dealers than a year ago after the first half of this year. The number of dealers is now nearly 18,000, which is still about 2,000 less than in 2008 before General Motors and Chrysler filed bankruptcy. For comparison, the 'Detroit News' reports at the end of World War two the country had 47,000auto dealers.

For the first time, OnStar technology will be available on non-General Motors vehicles. OnStar spokesman Vijay Iyer says that OnStar for My Vehicle is compatible with most vehicles built in the past ten years regardless of make or model. He says it has the same features as the original OnStar, including automatic crash response, turn-by-turn navigation and hands-free-calling. It goes on sale this Sunday at electronics stores across the country. (MRN)