AUTOS
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
VW Softens Tone Toward GM: Under increasing pressure to end a bitter battle with General Motors Corp., Volkswagen AG appeared to back down late last week when its chairman sought a face-to-face meeting with GM Chief Executive Jack Smith. Signaling a cease-fire in this week’s skirmishes with the American car maker and its German subsidiary, Adam Opel AG, VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech invited Smith to discuss allegations that VW’s production chief, Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, stole GM documents when he defected to VW in March. The two men would be in touch by telephone early next week, VW said, but a spokesman declined to say whether a meeting had been arranged.
