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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors is recalling a total of 243,403 of its popular large crossover SUVs for a problem that could damage the rear seatbelt buckles. Most of the recalled vehicles are in the United States.

In some of the vehicles, the seatbelt buckle can be damaged when the second row seat is returned to its normal position after being folded down.

If this happens the seatbelt may not latch completely even when it seems to be securely buckled. The seat belt also may not latch or unlatch or may seem to be jammed, GM said.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors announced Friday that the automaker has raised its planned production of the Chevrolet Volt electric car to 45,000 in 2012.

Originally the automaker planned to produce 30,000 Volts in its second year of production.

The announcement coincided with a visit by President Barack Obama to the Detroit auto plant where early production of the car has already begun.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors announced Tuesday that it intends to become the first major automaker to design and manufacture electric motors for cars in the United States.

Electric motors are used in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles as well as fully electric-powered vehicles.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — About 900 General Motors and Chrysler dealerships that got the ax as the Detroit giants went through bankruptcy have filed notice that they will appeal their shutdown, according to the American Arbitration Association.

The nearly 3,000 dealerships the auto manufacturers scrapped have until Monday to file with the AAA for an independent arbitration of their case. But applications from dealers are still rolling in, so it’s hard to tell what the final count will be, said India Johnson, senior vice president of AAA.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — GMAC Financial Services will receive a third round of bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury Department and the government will have a controlling stake in the company, according to a government report Wednesday.

The troubled auto and mortgage lender will collect $3.8 billion of additional aid on top of the nearly $13.5 billion already received since December 2008, the Treasury said in a statement Wednesday.

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General Motors Co. CEO Frederick “Fritz” Henderson stepped down Tuesday after the board determined that the company wasn’t changing quickly enough.

Chairman Ed Whitacre Jr. said at a hastily called news conference that he will serve as interim CEO, and an international search for a new CEO and president is planned.

Whitacre thanked Henderson for his work during a period of challenge and change, but said it is time to accelerate the pace of rebuilding the largest U.S. automaker.

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WASHINGTON – General Motors Co. will begin paying back $6.7 billion in U.S. government loans by the end of 2009 and could pay off that full amount by 2011, four years ahead of schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The government debt represents about 13 percent of the $52 billion that U.S. taxpayers have invested in General Motors, the majority of which was exchanged for a 61 percent ownership stake in the company.

GM will announce the repayment plan Monday when it releases its preliminary third-quarter earnings results, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan ahead of the announcement.

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(Fortune) — Without any experience in automaking or government, Steven Rattner left his Wall Street perch to wade into the largest restructuring in American history. The scale and speed of the rescue raised many questions, inspiring Rattner to write this account of a defining moment in capitalism.

Rattner, who led the group that did the hands-on work, believes passionately that the decision to intervene represented not “creeping socialism,” as some feared, but a critical part of the effort to prevent economic collapse. In an excerpt from this Fortune exclusive, Rattner gives a behind-the- scenes look at the ouster of GM’s Rick Wagoner:

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If you think General Motors should bring in some “new blood” to shake up its hidebound corporate culture, CEO Fritz Henderson agrees with you. He just has one problem.

“I would say, in regard to the ability to attract from the outside, we do need to get final confirmation on how we pay people,” Henderson said during a recent interview in the carmaker’s New York City offices.

Since its government-backed restructuring, GM has not been able to get pay packages for the company’s top 25 employees approved from the Treasury Department.

In order to make GM more competitive, industry analysts and even the Treasury Department say that the company needs to change its rigid corporate culture.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors moved a step closer to selling its Hummer brand Friday when it announced that it had signed a definitive agreement with a Chinese manufacturer.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. and GM said in June that they had reached a preliminary agreement and expected to close by the end of September.

It appeared the deal may be in trouble after the companies missed that target last week. Friday’s announcement provides assurances that the agreement has not come undone.

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DETROIT (Reuters) — General Motors Co. said Tuesday that it would add shifts at three U.S. assembly plants, restoring 2,400 jobs, as it shutters other facilities or prepares them for new products.

The addition of shifts at plants in Kansas, Indiana and Michigan comes at a time when U.S. auto industry sales are thought to have hit bottom and manufacturers are raising production to restore depleted vehicle inventories.

U.S. dealer inventories were trimmed sharply after the federal government’s “cash for clunkers” program lifted sales in July and August with incentives of up to $4,500 to turn in gas-guzzling vehicles and buy new more fuel-efficient models.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Buy a new General Motors car. Don’t like it? Return it and get your money back.

General Motors, in a bid to appeal to consumers upset about decades of poor quality and the carmaker’s government bailout, is launching an unusual program: money-back guarantees.

Between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30, buyers will be able to return Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC products within 60 days if they don’t like them, the automaker announced Thursday.

Such programs are commonplace in other businesses, but not for cars.

For one thing, cars cost, on average, about $25,000 and they lose a lot of value as soon as they leave a dealer lot.