According to the report, temporary shocks to the economy, such as rising gas prices, supply shock from Japan and inclement weather, have dissipated, but the impact on consumer confidence is likely to stifle economic growth over the next several quarters, reported F&I and Showroom magazine.

“Financial markets suffered a crisis of confidence this summer, the fallout from which will impact the economic recovery,” said Craig Alexander, TD chief economist and author of the report. “A more robust pace of economic growth will require tackling the legacy issues of the financial crisis still burdening the recovery.”

The report comes about two weeks after TD Bank reported that its indirect lending segment increased $2.7 billion during the second quarter, a 25 percent jump company officials partially attributed to the acquisition of Chrysler Financial. The company also reported that revenue for the quarter increased by $192 million, primarily due to a greater number of calendar days in the current quarter, volume growth and stronger insurance revenue. Additionally, business loans and acceptances volume increased $4.1 billion, or 13 percent.

TD Economics also reported that lower levels of consumer confidence coupled with political events in the United States and Europe over the summer has created a more difficult forecasting environment. Business and household confidence are experiencing pressure from a number of areas, including the downbeat mortgage market, ongoing risk aversion and balance sheet repair among financial institutions and households.

The reported noted, however, that current economic challenges doesn’t mean the U.S. economy will fall into another recession, as the credit environment is showing signs of improvement, particularly for commercial and industrial loans. Additionally, the economy is benefiting from a rebound in exports and auto production.

Still, none of these positive signs are taking hold in large proportions and, as a result, real GDP growth is likely to move at a pace of just 1.6 percent in 2011 and improve slightly to 1.7 percent in 2012 and to 2.6 percent in 2013, according to the report. The dysfunctional housing market and long-term unemployment are two key issues that are an impediment to a speedier recovery.

“As long as these structural issues persist, it will be difficult for the economy to deliver a stronger recovery,” Alexander said.

Mortgage lending plays a central role in generating credit within the financial system and has failed to show improvement, the report noted. About seven out of 10 households own residential real estate and mortgage debt accounts for three-fourths of all household liabilities. As home prices have fallen 30 percent from their peak, depleted equity has eroded wealth and limited access to credit.

“As a result, consumer spending and credit growth are likely to remain constrained until home prices stabilize,” Alexander said. “Unfortunately, this won’t occur until progress is made in drawing down the huge stock of foreclosed properties gumming up the market.”

TD Economics estimates that at the current clearing rate of around 1.5 million distressed sales per year, it would take four to five years to clear the inventory overhang.

Labor market issues also are hindering a speedier recovery, with the swelling ranks of long-term unemployed being a key factor differentiating this recovery from past ones. Before the downturn, the average duration of unemployment never exceeded 20 weeks but has since been recorded at 40 weeks as recently as July.

“Skills atrophy over time, and a person who has gone without work for over a year will face more difficulty finding employment in their area of expertise,” Alexander said. “Getting chronically unemployed workers working again will require more aggressive action than in previous economic cycles.”

If President Obama’s $447 billion plan is put in place, TD Economics predicts that it would boost the economic growth forecast by around 0.8 percentage points in 2012 and add around 800,000 jobs to U.S. payrolls. The lift to economic jobs and employment growth would be temporary though, as the expiration of the new fiscal stimulus would act as a greater drag on economic growth beyond 2013.

“While the American Jobs Act would help shore up job growth, it is unlikely to be a game-changer,” Alexander said. “Currently, we haven’t included these estimates into our forecast, as we wait for clarity on the degree to which policies will be enacted.”

The bottom line is that U.S. recovery will proceed, but it is unrealistic to expect a decent pick-up in momentum in the face of unresolved structural challenges, according to the report.

“The forecasting environment is riddled with uncertainties related to political unknowns, both domestically and internationally,” Alexander said. “TD Economics forecasts another two years of modest growth corresponding with an unemployment rate that is expected to hover around nine percent through 2012 and drop to 8.6 percent by 2013.”

Marchionne, who also is CEO if Italy’s Fiat SpA, will get 361,446 shares for his service as a director on the Chrysler Group LLC board, reported Msnbc.com.

He’ll get the shares after Chrysler repays to the government, or on June 10, 2012, whichever is later, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As of Dec. 31, the shares were valued by the company at $7.95 each.

Chrysler nearly ran out of cash and needed a $12.5 billion U.S. government bailout to make it through a 2009 filing for bankruptcy protection. The company still owes the government $5.8 billion.

Chrysler’s eight other directors, including Chairman Robert Kidder, will get the same number of shares as Marchionne, in three annual increments that started in June of 2010 and run through June of 2012.

The value of the shares is likely to be much higher than $7.95 each when the company sells stock to the public, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter of this year. The filing said Chrysler has 1 million shares outstanding, so at $7.95, the company’s total market value would be only $7.95 million. By comparison, General Motors Co. shares closed Friday at $33.25, giving the company a market value of $49.88 billion.

Chrysler said it started filing financial disclosure forms with U.S. regulators as part of a 2009 agreement when the company emerged from bankruptcy protection.

Friday’s filing comes ahead of the planned stock sale, although Chrysler said in a statement that it was not related to an IPO.

The form filed Friday registers Chrysler’s stock with the SEC. Of the company’s 1 million shares, the largest holder is a United Auto Workers health care trust for retirees at 63.5 percent. Italy’s Fiat SpA, which is managing Chrysler, owns 25 percent, while the U.S. government holds 9.2 percent and the Canadian government owns 2.3 percent.

Chrysler said it now will file reports with the SEC on its business and financial conditions “disclosing material events as they emerge.”

Chrysler nearly ran out of cash and had to be rescued from liquidation with bailouts from the U.S. and Canadian governments. The governments got their stakes in the company in exchange for part of the money they provided.

In the 2009 bankruptcy, Chrysler pared its debt and labor costs so it can make money at a relatively low sales level. But the company has yet to post a net profit since emerging from bankruptcy protection, although it cut its losses last year to $652 million and promised to make $200 million to $500 million in 2011. The company lost about $8 billion in 2009.

Chrysler could repay its government loans by the end of March. Marchionne has said he hopes to refinance them with private lenders to get a lower interest rate. Chrysler now pays 11 to 12 percent interest on the $5.8 billion owed to the U.S. and $1.3 billion owed to Canada. The U.S. government originally provided $12.5 billion in bailout financing, while Canada provided $2.4 billion.

Marchionne, 58, gets no pay for his work at Chrysler CEO, which often includes long days and travel between Italy and the United States.

Friday’s filing also details Chrysler’s business plans, most of which have been disclosed previously by the company.

It said the company is remains vulnerable to rising gasoline prices because its vehicle lineup is still weighted toward larger vehicles. Chrysler introduced 16 new or revamped models last year but still has few fuel-efficient models.

The company also disclosed that it spent $1.5 billion on research and development last year, compared with about $1.1 billion in 2009 and $1.525 billion in 2008.

But Chrysler, which reports fourth quarter earnings on January 31, has made it clear the same Department of Energy loans GM has spurned are crucial to its turnaround.

In 2009, both GM and Chrysler applied for loans through a Energy Department program designed to spur the development of more fuel efficient cars.

Chrysler’s $3 billion loan application is still pending, denying the automaker a chance to refinance its pricey bailout loans before an expected initial public offering this year.

“It just underlines the special challenges for Chrysler,” Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research, said of GM’s decision to withdraw its application.

“They’ve got another really tough year and they need the money.”

Adding to Chrysler’s challenges is the fact the federal loan approval process appears to have bogged down over collateral that could be pledged by Chrysler.

Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who expected the money by the end of 2010, said last week he still expected Chrysler would receive the loans.

“Am I concerned with the fact that this thing is taking longer than I thought? The answer is absolutely yes,” Marchionne told reporters.

He added that a “tripartite” discussion between Treasury, the Department of Energy and Chrysler would be needed to sort out the issue.

‘BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL’

At the height of the financial crisis, U.S. government officials hotly debated whether Chrysler was worth saving. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and is now managed by Italy’s Fiat SpA (FIA.MI).

Chrysler’s latest vehicles, such as its 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, have been well received, but its 2010 lineup ranks last in terms of fuel economy among major automakers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“They’re way behind the eight ball and technology keeps changing,” said Patrick O’Keefe, a financial transactions consultant in the auto industry with O’Keefe and Associates. “It’s hard to play catch up.”

Now it is looking like the obituaries were premature. After stabilizing sales in the United States last year, Chrysler is in the midst of a product blitz that company executives and industry analysts say should help it pay off its government loans and re-emerge as a public company this year, reported The New York Times.

Chrysler’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, said Monday that the company was gaining traction with new products after subsisting on older models in the aftermath of its government-financed bankruptcy in 2009.

“I haven’t gotten any questions yet today like, ‘Will you be here next year?’ ” Mr. Marchionne said on the opening day of media previews at the North American International Auto Show here. “There were some severe doubts that we could execute what we promised.”

It has been a difficult road back so far for the company, which has lagged General Motorsand Ford in its comeback. But the addition of several new and revamped models helped increase Chrysler’s sales in the United States by 16 percent in 2010, and now the company appears to be positioned to gain market share for the first time in several years.

Chrysler still trails G.M. and Ford, both of which are expected to report substantial profits for 2010 later this month. But it has gotten a big boost from the introduction of the redesigned version of its Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility.

Industry analysts had been skeptical that the S.U.V. would do well in a market more and more dominated by lighter-weight crossover vehicles. Sales of the Grand Cherokee, however, increased 68 percent last year and helped the overall Jeep brand improve sales by 25 percent. On Monday, the company also unveiled a new version of its flagship sedan, the Chrysler 300. It is an unapologetically large car that Mr. Marchionne predicted would appeal to consumers not interested in downsizing.

With its big grille and spacious interior, the 300 stands out from the compact and hybrid cars that most automakers are highlighting in Detroit. At a base price around $30,000 and with fuel economy estimated at 27 miles per gallon on the highway, the car is a critical building block in restoring Chrysler’s reputation.

“I think this company is slowly proving it can come back,” said David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “They have been helped quite a bit by relatively stable fuel prices.”

Most of Chrysler’s new vehicles have been produced in collaboration with its Italian partner, Fiat. The Obama administration gave Fiat a 20 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for providing new technology to the company, and set benchmarks for it to increase its ownership position.

On Monday, Fiat increased its stake to 25 percent because it had met the guideline of producing a new fuel-efficient engine in the United States. Fiat can raise its ownership to 35 percent by building a new small car in the United States and increasing its international sales.

Mr. Marchionne said Fiat might raise its stake as high as 51 percent once Chrysler repays the $7.1 billion in loans it still owes to the United States and Canadian governments.

He said Chrysler was planning to pay off the loans this year and then pursue an initial public stock offering to reduce the majority ownership position of the United Automobile Workers health care trust — currently 63 percent — and smaller stakes held by the American and Canadian governments.

“We are going to repay one hundred cents on every dollar of loans we received,” said Mr. Marchionne. He said it was unlikely that Chrysler would attempt a stock offering until its loans were repaid.

“I think it would be advantageous for us to repay it all before we do an I.P.O.,” he said.

Chrysler has yet to post a quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy, but Mr. Marchionne indicated that it was getting close. “We should see in the first or second quarter how far we’ve come,” he said.

Chrysler’s long-term outlook is heavily dependent on a series of smaller, fuel-efficient models it will get from Fiat, the first of which is the tiny Fiat 500 micro-car that is to arrive in this country later this year.

But in the interim, Chrysler is hewing to its previously successful formula of stylish, affordable cars and rugged sport utility vehicles — albeit with better mileage than previous products.

Mr. Marchionne said there was no question the company would meet the new federal fuel economy guidelines of 36 miles per gallon, which go into effect in 2016.

But he said that most of Chrysler’s fuel-economy improvements would come from improving its internal combustion engines rather than introducing a large number of electric or hybrid vehicles.

“The downsizing of our engines is continuing,” he said.

Still, Chrysler is the most vulnerable of the Detroit auto companies to a rise in fuel prices. About 80 percent of its sales in the United States are light trucks rather than cars, and that won’t change until the Fiat-based models go on sale. But even its competitors are impressed by the early stages of its turnaround.

“You have to give them credit for the product freshening they’ve done this year,” said James Farley, Ford’s head of global sales and marketing. “You have to respect that they are executing their plan.”

The arrival of the new Chrysler 300 is a big turning point for the company. The statuesque sedan is the linchpin of the brand’s promise of “affordable luxury” and aggressive styling. Mr. Marchionne said the car’s size and fuel economy would not deter consumers looking for stylish alternatives to an S.U.V. or crossover vehicle.

“You want a full-size car, this is the best fuel economy you can get,” he said. “If you want 37 miles per gallon, go get a Fiat 500.”

Fiat said in a statement that it had raised its ownership in Chrysler to 25 percent from 20 percent at no financial cost under the terms of a deal that had been negotiated with the U.S. Treasury as part of Chrysler’s bailout, reported Automotive News.

The announcement, which came as Chrysler showed off new and revamped vehicles at the Detroit auto show, increases the likelihood that Fiat will own a majority of Chrysler by the end of the year.

Marchionne said he and other Chrysler executives would begin more intensive meetings with Wall Street bankers in the current quarter to prepare for an IPO expected by the end of the year.

Refinancing a priority

The immediate priority will be to develop a plan to refinance Chrysler’s bailout debt to the U.S. Treasury, Marchionne said.

“We have spent some time with the financial institutions the last two or three months and we are going to get into a much deeper discussion in the first quarter of 2011 as to how to get that done,” Marchionne told Reuters Insider.

“I am expecting that by the second quarter of this year we will have a plan that we can announce,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show.

Marchionne said it was possible that a Chrysler IPO could come before the fourth quarter, but that would depend in part on the strength of the stock market. “I think we need to do some more work before we open our trap,” he said.

Marchionne said he hoped that Fiat’s progress in restructuring Chrysler since it took control of the automaker in 2009 would silence the skeptics and win over potential investors and creditors.

Chrysler used the Detroit auto show — the industry’s largest trade show — to showcase a redesigned and re-engineered version of its 300 sedan as well as a revamped mid-size sedan now known as the 200 and a refreshed version of its minivan.

“I think we’ve proved over the last 19 months what this group can do. A lot of people were incredibly skeptical about our ability to launch all of these products within a short period of time,” Marchionne said.

Winning approval

Fiat was given management control of Chrysler and an initial 20 percent stake with the opportunity to raise its holdings to 35 percent by meeting certain performance targets set by the Obama administration.

By winning approval to build a Fiat-designed, fuel-efficient engine at a Chrysler plant in Dundee, Mich., the Italian automaker was cleared to raise its stake in Chrysler to 25 percent.

If Fiat helps Chrysler increase sales outside North America and builds a vehicle in the United States that achieves 40 miles-per-gallon in fuel efficiency, the Italian automaker can raise its stake in Chrysler to 35 percent.

Fiat recently spun off its truck and tractor division now known as Fiat Industrial. That spin-off was seen as clearing the way for the creation of a bigger trans-Atlantic auto group led by Marchionne.

Chrysler executives said they hope the second-generation 300, which had been developed in part before the automaker’s bankruptcy, would win back luxury consumers who would not have considered its vehicles in recent years.

The first-generation 300 was a smash debut for Chrysler five years ago but the automaker was criticized for not investing enough in refinements to keep it competitive with newer full-size sedans from rivals like the Taurus from Ford Motor Co.

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker operated by Fiat SpA, may repay its U.S. and Canadian government loans before 2013, allowing the Italian automaker to take a 51 percent stake, the companies’ top executive said.

“It’s one of the options that we’re looking at,” Sergio Marchionne, who is chief executive officer of both Chrysler and Fiat, said yesterday. “It’s not required to go public.”

Fiat, which holds 20 percent of Chrysler, aims to increase that stake to 35 percent next year by achieving milestones outlined in the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker’s restructuring last year, Bloomberg reported. Marchionne said on Sept. 16 that he will probably take Chrysler public in the second half of 2011.

The CEO has also said he wants to improve Chrysler’s capital structure before the initial public offering and that it may include refinancing the automaker’s U.S. and Canadian government loans, which have effective interest rates as high as 20 percent. Interest payments have kept the company from posting a net income, he has said.

Fiat rose as much as 41 euro cents, or 3 percent, to 13.98 euros and was up 2.7 percent as of 11:57 a.m. in Milan trading. The stock has gained 36 percent this year, valuing the Turin, Italy-based carmaker at 16.7 billion euros ($22 billion).

$7.46 Billion Owed

The face value of Chrysler’s debts to the U.S. and Canadian governments is about $7.46 billion. Some of Chrysler’s government loans mature by the end of next year while the majority mature in 2017, according to the U.S. company’s third- quarter financial statement.

Repaying those loans would allow Fiat to exercise an option to buy an additional 16 percent of Chrysler’s equity and raise its position to a 51 percent majority. Fiat may save as much as $2 billion by doing so before holding an IPO of Chrysler stock, Barclays Capital said last week in a research report whose lead author was Kristina Church, an industry analyst.

Fiat can’t raise its position beyond 35 percent until 2013, the Italian manufacturer has said.

It may be possible for Fiat to take advantage of the 16 percent option before 2013 if it pays off the government loans first, Church said in the note, co-written with Brian Johnson, another Barclays analyst. Fiat executives have been traveling across Europe to promote the spinoff of the Fiat Industrial SpA heavy-truck and tractor business.

‘We’ll See’

Asked if Fiat wants to use the 16 percent option in advance of a Chrysler IPO, Marchionne said: “We’ll see.”

The reduction of Chrysler’s interest cost and creating a stable capital base are more important than increasing Fiat’s ownership stake, Marchionne told reporters yesterday while visiting a Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

“My option is not going to die tomorrow,” he said.

Prices for the Chrysler stake are based on multiples of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda.

“Fiat has the option to acquire another 16 percent of Chrysler for a multiple, if it is pre-IPO, that does not exceed Fiat’s own multiple — which, after the spin-out and a potential sale of Ferrari, is likely to be well below that of” U.S. peers such as Ford Motor Co., Church said.

Her report goes on to say that if Fiat were “to wait until after an IPO to exercise its 16 percent option, it would likely pay a higher multiple than its own multiple.”

IPO’s Timing

Fiat has leverage to encourage such a scenario through its ability to delay the Chrysler IPO until after January 2013, Church said.

“If any of the non-Fiat stakeholders want to see an IPO prior to 2013, Fiat could require them to consent to a refinancing and repayment of the government loans to allow Fiat to exercise its option,” Church said.

Chrysler’s majority shareholder is the United Auto Workers union trust for retiree health care.

Marchionne is spinning off Fiat Industrial to focus on carmaking and the Chrysler turnaround after the U.S. automaker’s bankruptcy reorganization last year.

Fiat may sell its auto-parts division Magneti Marelli SpA and a stake in Ferrari SpA before consolidating with Chrysler, analysts, including Erich Hauser of Credit Suisse, have said Marchionne told them.

Sterling Heights Investment

Marchionne spoke yesterday at an event celebrating the production of the new Chrysler 200 and refreshed Dodge Avenger midsize sedans. Chrysler invested $850 million in the Sterling Heights plant for a new paint shop, machinery and other equipment, a decision that reversed a plan to close the factory. A second shift is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2011.

The plant will get new midsize cars in 2013, Marchionne said. The company hadn’t specified the vehicle type before.

He also said Chrysler’s assembly plant in Detroit, which makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee, will begin building a Maserati sport-utility vehicle in 2012.

Most of the jobs — 1.14 million — were saved in 2009 during the worst of the industry’s severe downturn, reported The Detroit News. Another 314,400 jobs were saved this year, the center said in a statement Wednesday.

“The government intervention prevented additional personal income losses totaling $71.9 billion for 2009 and $24.6 billion for 2010.”

The government will recoup some of the $82 billion spent on the bailout when General Motors Co. launches an initial public stock offering.

The government took a 61 percent stake in GM in exchange for the financial aid.

Former White House car czar Steven Rattner said Monday the failure of GM and Chrysler might have been catastrophic for the entire industry.

A failure of one or two of Detroit’s Big Three might have driven many suppliers out of business, putting at risk healthier companies like Ford Motor Co. and the foreign transplants.

In terms of the jobs saved, “we never tried to calculate the number,” Rattner told the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.

“But I’ve thought about it since then and I think we could have seen 2 million or more jobs lost in this country in an instant — many of them here, but not all of them here.”

Weeks before General Motors Co. is set to launch a public offering, auto czar Ron Bloom strongly defended the government’s rescue of the auto industry.

The bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and auto finance companies will be “at a cost that will almost certainly be a small faction of even the most optimistic predictions,” Bloom told an audience at George Washington University Law School today.

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department narrowed its predicted loss on the bailout to $17 billion, down from an initial projected loss of $44 billion in 2009. Bloom didn’t specify how he much he thought taxpayers might lose.

He praised the efforts that GM and Chrysler have made to date.

“The talented and energetic directors and management teams at GM and Chrysler in full partnership with the UAW have already made a huge amount of progress,” Bloom said.

Bloom, who is overseeing the government’s 61 percent stake in GM and will help decide how much the government will offer for sale, didn’t comment on the IPO.

Bloom, a former investment banker and adviser to the United Steelworkers union, offered an unstinting defense of the government’s auto bailout, saying the administration “had accomplished everything we set out to do.”

He said GM and Chrysler – and their unions – shared in the blame for the automakers’ near collapse in 2008.

“The companies and their unions cannot be absolved of all responsibility for their part in this great American tragedy,” Bloom said. “The companies allowed themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security and the unions went along for the ride,” he said.

Bloom said both sides weren’t facing the problems in the runup to the companies’ requests for bailouts.

“Neither party was willing to face the seismic economic shifts that were occurring all around them,” Bloom said.

But he said what finally turned around Detroit automakers was the threat of collapse.

“As Samuel Johnson famously said ‘Nothing focuses the mind like an imminent hanging.’ And GM and Chrysler could clearly see the noose,” Bloom said.

Bloom noted the auto rescue’s intense unpopularity – “everybody still thinks it was a bad idea” – but said they had saved GM and Chrysler because it was right.

“Over time – knock wood – people will appreciate that GM and Chrysler have in fact fundamentally changed and we’ve saved a million jobs,” Bloom said. “This will be recorded as an important moment when the government did the right thing.”

He also explained why he thought Ford Motor Co. didn’t need a federal bailout. He noted that Ford had borrowed $23.4 billion in late 2006 to guard against a rainy day – a move he partially attributed to good luck.

He said if GM and Chrysler had failed it would have forced Ford into bankruptcy because of the collapse of the supply base that all three companies use.

He said Ford is still doing better than its domestic rivals.

“(Ford) is a little bit further along. They got the memo a little sooner. They did have some luck. They’ve had a huge amount of hard work and they did it in the best way imaginable benefitting from what we did,” Bloom said, calling Ford “a spectacular company.”

In the end, the administration didn’t just save two auto companies – but a whole sector of the economy.

“The reality is we saved the automobile industry – and everbody who’s connected to that industry benefitted,” Bloom said.

GM reduced costs and liabilities during its 2009 bankruptcy proceedings, allowing the company to make a profit when fewer U.S. vehicles are sold, Rattner said today on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday with Tom Keene.”

“This industry has been restructured to make money,” Rattner said. At 15 million vehicles a year, “they will be gushing profits.”

The auto industry is recovering a bit slower than expected and eventually will return to a pace of 15 million a year, Rattner said. U.S. carmakers in September sold vehicles at a rate of 11.8 million, up from 9.4 million a year earlier, according to researcher Autodata Corp. on Oct. 1.

A pace of 15 million vehicles is needed “simply to accommodate new drivers and the aging of the fleet,” Rattner said. “It will happen, it’s only a question of when.”

Rattner, 58, led President Barack Obama’s auto task force from February 2009 until July last year, after GM emerged from a bankruptcy backed by $50 billion in government aid. He has since written a memoir called “Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.”

GM’s unwanted businesses in bankruptcy, known as Old GM, today won conditional approval for the largest manufacturing reorganization in history, as a judge said the rights to a potential $1.5 billion in lawsuit proceeds would be determined later.

Rattner said today the slumping global economy will test U.S. companies and create a challenge for the auto industry.

“In the short term, I think we have a cyclical recovery, certainly the auto sector and elsewhere, but the global competition is not getting easier,” Rattner said. “It’s getting harder.”

The Michigan Auto Theft Prevention Authority said the 2000 Dodge Caravan minivan was the most stolen vehicle among nearly 30,000 stolen statewide in 2009. In fact, five of the 10 most-stolen vehicles statewide last year were Caravans, and nine of the 10 most-stolen vehicles in the state were Chrysler products.

The only other automaker in the top 10 was Ford; the 1997 Taurus was in 10th place.

Given the state’s auto heritage, “the top stolen vehicles in Michigan are always domestic cars,” said Terri Miller, executive director of Livonia-based Help Eliminate Auto Theft, which provides rewards for tips that help bust car thieves and chop shops when people call 800-242-4328 or report online at www.1800242HEAT.com.

Chrysler models from the late 1990s and early 2000s are particularly targeted because they’re known as “easy to steal,” and weren’t built with security equipment such as engine immobilizers, Miller said.

Black was the most popular color of the vehicles stolen last year. Mondays were the busiest days for thefts and July was the busiest month, according to the report.

Nationwide, foreign automakers lead the most-stolen list, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, with the 1994 Honda Accord favored most by thieves.

Dan Vartanian, executive director of the prevention authority, said annual vehicle thefts in Michigan fell by 16% in 2009, part of a 59% decline that’s been going on since 1986.

Vehicles are taken most often for joyriding, for parts and for black-market export overseas, he said.

Vartanian said too many motorists make their vehicles easy prey by leaving vehicles parked with windows down or with keys still in the ignition. He said alarms, engine disablers, steering wheel locks and etching vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, onto vehicle windows are the best deterrents.