General Motors Corp. is eliminating more dealers than initially reported and taking a tough stance with the rest of its retailers who must agree to stricter sales and performance targets or be eliminated in bankruptcy court.

Dealers nationwide started receiving letters Thursday that outline higher standards that essentially replace contracts voided when GM filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday. GM initially notified about 1,100 dealerships last month that their franchise agreements would not be renewed next year, but 250 more dealers were added to the list Thursday.
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Dagens Industri the Swedish business magazine reported today that Ford is in talks with an unnamed Chinese car company, whom is believed to be Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. to spin off it’s Volvo division.

What this will bring to the Volvo nameplate, noone knows. Naturally it will seem like it’s cheapening the brand if it gets sold to the Chinese. According to major publications, investor Kirk Kerkorian, would like to see Ford rid itself of Volvo, which it purchased in 1999.

It is said that CEO Mulally has began to consider selling Volvo about a year ago. Several companies have been contacted regarding the offer including BMW and Mazda.

Volvo instead of meeting their targets of selling 200,000 vehicles by 2010, are said to be closer to approaching 90,000 vehicles. Head office is in the midst of asking unprofitable dealers to leave the franchise, thereby cutting about 20% of it’s dealerships in the U.S.

Ford said to cut about 2,000 jobs across the board from the operations of Volvo in midst of it ending it’s quarter with a $151 million loss.