Geneva  - Niche car producers stole the limelight at the Geneva Motor Show with such high-end sports car makers as Maserati, Lamborghini and Aston Martin apparently unaffected by the global financial crisis.

"There is a small section of customers who neither look at money nor carbon dioxide emissions," says market analyst Nick Margetts of Jato Dynamics.

If sales show a downward trend, these manufacturers use another trick.

For Tata's small car Nano, loan can be availed at an interest rate of 14 to 14.75 per cent from the State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest bank, as per some unofficial reports.

The bank would cover 70 per cent of the price of the car for five year tenure. Recently, general managers of all branches of SBI discussed the finance matters with company's officials in a bid to provide car finance in easy and hassle free manner, targeting common man in the rural segment of country.

Washington - The auto industry and US government are working to avoid bankruptcy for General Motors (GM) and keep the US auto industry afloat, officials said Tuesday.

Steven Rattner, chief adviser to the Department of the Treasury's auto industry task force, said the Obama administration was "open minded" about giving more aid to GM and Chrysler, and planned to use "all the resources" of the US government to avoid bankruptcy.

Washington - German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg met with top managers of General Motors Corp on the future of the US carmaker's German subsidiary Opel.

No details were released from late Monday's talks in Washington, which lasted more than two hours.

GM chief executive Rick Wagoner was the top participant from the struggling US carmaker.

Brussels - European Union member states which host subsidiaries to General Motors on Friday closed ranks to protect jobs on their territory after talks with the firm, vowing to coordinate all their actions rather than going it alone.

The ministers of 12 EU member states linked to GM and its subsidiaries "agreed to ensure that no national measures should be taken without prior information and coordination with other involved countries," a statement from the EU's executive, the European Commission, which hosted the talks, said.

Brussels  - The European Union's executive body on Friday hosted high-level talks between representatives of General Motors (GM) and politicians from EU states where GM has subsidiaries, in a bid to defuse the growing crisis over GM's financial troubles.

"First of all, we expect an update from GM representatives on their current plans. Secondly, we want the chance to sit down and discuss the situation with the other (EU) countries involved," Germany's junior economics minister, Jochen Homann, told reporters as he arrived at the talks.