By John Pearley Huffman For a broad swath of American consumers, Honda is the maker of unpretentious good stuff at accessible prices. Usually without flashy or distinctive styling, Honda’s products can be said to define the leading edge of ordinary. The company was the brainchild of Soichiro Honda, the eldest son of a Japanese blacksmith.

It seems an unusual time for any car business to expand, but Priority Automotive is doing just that.

By Ken Thomas WASHINGTON  Car shoppers could take advantage of government incentives worth up to $4,500 this summer to send their old gas guzzler to the scrap heap in favor of a more fuel-efficient new vehicle.

By BREE FOWLER and DAN STRUMPF NEW YORK General Motors Corp. took a key step toward its downsizing on Tuesday, striking a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand, while also revealing that it has potential buyers for its Saturn and Saab brands.

By Philip Walzer and Michael White President Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. government would guarantee warranties on General Motors cars in its new role as majority owner of the automaker. That's good enough for Waymond Wade Jr.

Mark Tysinger sometimes feels as if he's living a fairy tale, though he's not happy about this ending.

Don Hall, president and CEO of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, was speaking recently to a politician about the closing of auto dealerships when he realized that the politician had little idea about how the industry works.

MOYOCK In a body shop at Moyock Muscle, Paul Kitchen and J.R. McLain placed a new fiberglass grill to the front of a 1934 Ford coupe before marking where to drill bolt holes. Kitchen then grabbed an air drill and, in a succession of quick high-pitched whines, put holes in the Ford's body. He and McLain are not far from finishing its restoration.

If any local General Motors Corp. dealerships received letters Friday telling them that the automaker plans to cut their franchises, they aren't talking about it. Among 26 dealerships in and around Hampton Roads, seven said they hadn't received letters from GM and believed they had survived this round of the manufacturer's cuts. At least 10 didn't return telephone messages Friday.

Around 1 p.m. Thursday, when N. Proctor Peebles III saw the envelope on his desk, he knew the business his father started 60 years ago was coming to an end.