Cars.com News Briefs: March 30, 2012

Here's what we have our eye on today: Chrysler follows up its Clint Eastwood "Halftime in America" Super Bowl spot with four new ads. At 60 seconds apiece, all four follow the same "hope and encouragement" theme, Advertising Age reports. Each one caters to a specific Chrysler brand. View them all here, and look for them during this weekend's NCAA semifinals, the American Country Music Awards and AMC's "Mad Men." Chrysler says it scripted and filmed the spots alongside the Super Bowl commercial. Ford raised CEO Alan Mulally's compensation to $29.5 million in 2011, including company stock, salary and bonuses, Automotive News reports. The vast majority is in stock. It represents an 11% increase over Mulally's compensation in 2010. Last year, Ford filed its biggest earnings since 1999 — with $8.8 billion in operating profits — and promised $6,200 profit-sharing checks to its hourly union workers this year. Mercedes-Benz says it will need fewer hours to build its cars thanks to global restructuring, according to Automotive  News. Part of that restructuring means the automaker will cut its vehicle platforms in half but double the cars it builds to 30. By 2015, Mercedes hopes to build each car in 30 hours, down from 45 hours in 2008. from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

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