If GM cannot convince enough bondholders to participate in the exchange and GM is forced into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy before that deadline, the automaker said it is unlikely it will make the $1 billion payment.

Volkswagen may have passed Toyota to be the world's largest automaker in sales last quarter, because of higher demand in its main markets, Reuters reported Friday, citing partial company data.

Peterbilt Motors Company announced the temporary closure of its Madison facility, which has been on a work stoppage due to union contract negotiations. Larry Vessels, the plant manager for the Denton, Texas-based heavy truck manufacturer, said due to a failure to reach an agreement with United Auto Workers, the facility has not been producing since June of last year.

Truck tank and trailer manufacturer Beall Corporation has hired Rusty Watson as Southern Regional Sales Manager to establish a distributor network and call on major fleets from Texas to Florida, according to Dan Jarboe, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Sales at Beall. Watson has been in the trucking/transportation industry for more than 17 years and was previously with Fontaine Trailer Company. A graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, he will be based out Nashville.

"Does Spring Hill have something to worry about? Yeah," said James Rubenstein, a geography professor at Miami University in Ohio who specializes in auto plant site selection. "If you look at a map, the farther away from Michigan, the more vulnerable" a plant is.