New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway took a new 10-million share stake in automaker General Motors in the first quarter of 2012.

The Buffett investment comes as the Detroit automaker continues to rebound from bankruptcy three years ago. GM reported a first quarter net income of $1 billion, fueled by U.S. vehicle sales.

The Oracle of Omaha also revealed Tuesday in a regulatory filing that he had increased his stake in Wal-Mart by nearly 8 million shares. His holdings in the retailer now amount to 46.7 million shares.

Buffett’s increased stake in Wal-Mart was made before allegations became public that Wal-Mart executives used bribes to speed the retailers’s expansion in Mexico. Buffett told shareholders earlier this month that the scandal did not alter his views on Wal-Mart’s value or its earning power.

Also revealed in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing was that the Berkshire conglomerate boosted its investments in DirecTV, Liberty Media, DaVita Inc. and the Bank of New York Mellon.

Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings in Intel, Kraft Foods, Dollar General, Procter & Gamble and Verisk Analytics.

Its stake in IBM, first reported in the fall of 2011, grew to 64.4 million shares.

Berkshire’s investments are closely watched and dissected by investors and analysts because of guru Buffett’s long and fabled success as an investor and manager.

Aside from investments, Berkshire owns some 80 subsidiaries ranging from clothing, furniture and jewelry companies to insurance and utility businesses.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The global auto market continues to recover with carmaker giants Volkswagen, Chrysler and Fiat all reporting higher profits during the first quarter of the year. VW and Chrysler also reported higher sales, while Fiat said its sales in Europe were no better than last year.

Volkswagen AG (VOW) led the pack on profits. It announced its net profit had nearly doubled to $4.2 billion compared to the same period last year.

Chrysler Group LLC, which is now controlled by Italy’s Fiat, reported its net profits were the best in 13 years at $473 million.

Italian carmaker Fiat SpA (F) credited those strong profits from the Chrysler division with helping to boost the net profits for the entire Fiat group 10-fold to $501 million, compared to a year earlier. Fiat owns a 58.5 percent stake in Chrysler.

VW credited sales in Russia for helping to boost its bottom line. Sales there increased by 77 percent to 66,000 vehicles.

Chrysler reported a 39 percent increase in first quarter sales and credited its growing market share in the U.S. for contributing to that growth. The automaker saw its U.S. market share rise to 11.5 percent from 9.4 percent for the same period last year.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – German automaker Audi bought Italian motorcycle maker Ducati known for its luxury two-wheelers ridden by famous figures, including Brad Pitt.

Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi will buy Italian motorcycle maker Ducati Motor Holding SpAg for $1.1 billion, which includes $203 million in debt.

Bologna, Italy-based Ducati manufactures about 40,000 bikes per year.

The luxury motorcycles carry a price tag of around $28,000, depending on model.

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Birmingham, United Kingdom (AHN) – Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover announced Thursday that it would build its new Jaguar F-Type sports car in Britain.

The vehicle, a two-seat convertible, is the successor to the classic Jaguar E-Type, which ended production in 1975.

JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, plans to build the new car at its Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham. The planned sales launch is mid-2013.

The automaker says it will base the F-type on the company’s C-X16 concept, which it unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show last year.

JLR will reveal the design later this year and says it will be a successor to its E-type in the value the brand represents, rather than the way it looks. Company officials said that the F-type will be a sports car for its era, just as the D-type, D-type and E-type Jaguars were. The vehicle will have a gasoline engine.

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Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) – Some 700,000 Toyota sedans and pickups in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are being recalled by the Japanese automaker to replace a faulty brake light switch and fix an airbag issue.

In an announcement on Wednesday, Toyota Motor Corp. said the recall covers 495,470 Tacoma pickup trucks made between 2005 and 2009, 70,500 Camry and 116,000 2009-2011 Venza vehicles. The numbers include 16,000 trucks in Canada and 13,000 in Mexico.

For the Tacoma, friction between the spiral cable and the retainer in the steering wheel spiral cable assembly may occur and could damage the electrical connection for the driver’s airbag module preventing it from deploying during a crash.

A flaw in the brake light switch could prevent the Camry and Venza from starting or shifting out of park, so this part will be replaced. Toyota is already obtaining replacement parts.

There were no reports of accidents related to the faulty brake light switch and airbag issue. However, the carmaker received 162 complaints on the Tacoma problem since 2005.

In February 2010, Toyota also recalled 8,000 units of 2010 Tacomas and 7,314 2010 Camrys for safety inspection. The defect in the 4WD trucks was a cracked front drive shaft that may eventually lead to the separation of the drive shaft at the joint portion while the 4-cylinder models of Camry’s left rear brake tube could puncture leading to reduced braking ability.

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Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) – Volkswagen AG saw its profits more than double to $21.2 billion last year compared to $9.7 billion the year before, the company reported Friday.

In addition, the automaker’s operating profit soared by 58 percent to $15.1 billion, while its revenue rose by 26 percent to $213.7 billion.

The carmaker delivered more than 8.2 million vehicles, an increase of nearly 15 percent from the 2010.

Volkswagen says it plans to become the world’s largest carmaker, in terms of both sales and profits, by 2018.

To get there, company officials say they plan to spend $83 billion on building new plants and on conducting research and development to develop new models over the next five years. In addition, it plans to hire 50,000 more workers over the next six years.

Moreover, the company has developed a new platform to serve as the base for its small and large cars to streamline the process.

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Detriot, MI, United States (AHN) – Chrysler reported a $225 million profit on Wednesday. The company capped its first profitable year since its government bailout and bankruptcy in 2009.

The fourth quarter results were fueled by $15.1 billion in revenue, a 41 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

For the full year, the struggling automaker on the way to a dramatic turnaround, reported net income of $183 million, compared with a $652 million loss in 2010. Annual revenue for 2011 rose 31 percent to $55 billion.

Giving gas to the turnaround was surging sales of its Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles. Worldwide sales of its cars and trucks increased 22 percent to 1.85 million vehicles in 2011.

Even better and more encouraging was that Chrysler guided higher for 2012, a move that suggests its turnaround has wheels.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Even if you prefer Ford, BMW, Mercedes or Volkswagen, if you are an American taxpayer, you are cheering the news.

General Motors, one-third of whose shares are owned by U.S. taxpayers, sold 9,025,942 vehicles in 2011, up 7.6 percent from 2010. The number was good enough to place GM on top as the world’s largest automaker.

GM beat out Volkswagen, which sold just over 8 million cars in 2011. Toyota, which took the top spot from GM in 2009, has yet to report figures, but its production was severely hampered by the tsunami in Japan and the massive floods in Thailand.

Even more impressive, and better, is that General Motors is now making money and showing a profit, unlike in years when GM reigned king of automakers, but was an unprofitable leader.

In the first nine months of 2011, GM earned $8.47 billion, compared to the $6.17 billion earned in the same time period in 2010.

Driving the recovery for GM was its Chevrolet brand, helped by its popular Cruze compact car.

GM received a $50 billion bailout from the U.S. government two years ago. Shares of GM have lagged since its IPO, when shares were priced at $33. They are currently trading 26 percent lower, near $25 per share. Shares of GM would have to reach $53 per share before the U.S. government could sell just to break even.

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Wolfsburg, Germany (AHN) – Volkswagen AG announced it had record sales of 5.1 million cars and sport-utility vehicles worldwide in 2011.

Sales were up worldwide by 13.1 percent in 2011 from 2010, company officials said.

Volkswagen is Europe’s largest carmaker.

Although much of its growth came from gains in China, India, Russia and the United States, its two largest markets were Europe and China. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based automaker sold 1.72 million vehicles in each of those markets.

However, company officials said they expected challenges in the market environment for 2012.

VW officials credited new versions of some models, such as the Passat, Jetta and Beetle for helping to boost sales in “difficult market conditions.”

The only region that didn’t record strong growth was South America, where sales increased by only 2.2 percent.

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Ferrari’s new hard top convertible sets a new standard for convertibles vs. coupes.  Although most auto aficionado’s typically prefer coupes over convertibles for their styling, lighter body weigths, acceleration, and faster speeds, Ferrari has once again raised the bar!  If your pockets are deep enough, a convertible has been born that meets all critics toughest standards!

Alonso test drives the 458 Spider on our “FEATURED VIDEO!”