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The clouds have been lifting for  U.S. car makers.

With car sales and America's economy picking up, there are some who are looking further down the road.

They have been wondering  if deeper, bigger challenges lie ahead for the companies who put the world on wheels.

One of those wondering is automotive writer Micki Maynard. She recently published a couple of pieces in Forbes Magazine exploring what she calls "The Secret Fear of the World's Biggest Auto Companies".

Micki Maynard spoke with us to explain exactly what is the "Secret Fear" of the World's Biggest Auto Companies.

To hear the full story click the audio link above.

General Motors hopes to rid itself of the 'Government Motors' stigma over the next year or so. After announcing a big sell-off at the end of 2012, the U.S. Treasury has been quietly working on selling off the rest of its stake in GM.

But the government still wants a say in what the company pays its top executives.

The Detroit Free Press' Todd Spangler and Nathan Bomey reported early this morning that GM wants to give Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson a $2.1 million raise:

General Motors is proposing an $11.1-million compensation package for Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson this year, $2.1 million more than it paid him in 2012, according to documents obtained Monday by the Free Press.

But those reports have since been denied by General Motors, here's Bomey's report from later this morning:

U.S. safety regulators will investigate problems with stalling or surging engines, in about 725,000 Ford cars and SUVs.

The probe includes affects Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs from the 2009 through 2011 model years.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Ford have received almost 1,500 complaints about the problem.

Meanwhile, regulators are considering whether to investigate a complaint from an auto lab in Virginia, that the steering can fail on the Toyota Prius.

A probe would affect the Prius gas-electric hybrids from the 2004 through 2009 model years.

Car companies like Ford Motor Company aren't above using gimmicks if it will get reporters to notice something they're doing.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

This one worked.

General Motors made nearly $5 billion in 2012.

That's down a lot from 2011, when the company made $7.6 billion.

But GM CEO Dan Akerson says it was a strong year for the company nonetheless.

He says G-M "planted the seeds of growth in every region of the world."

The Detroit automaker reduced its pension obligations, bought an international finance division, and put new cars in the pipeline for 2013 and beyond.

J.D. Power reports that average vehicle dependability was better than any year since the study began in 1989.

The study looks at problems reported for three-year-old vehicles.  So, the 2013 study looks at vehicles purchased in 2010.

On average, there were 126 problems reported for every 100 vehicles - or, put another way, not much more than one problem per vehicle.

Lexus once again led the pack, improving from 86 problems per 100 last year, to 71 this year.

Porsche followed with 94, and Lincoln was third best, with 112.

Ford Motor Company set an all-time record for hybrid sales in December, selling nearly 8,000.  About half were C-Max sales, and about half, the hybrid version of the Fusion.

The company also beat its previous January record for hybrid sales by more than 500%.

Granted, the total number of hybrid sales for the company isn't much compared to its higher-volume sellers.  Ford sold more than 19,000 non-hybrid Fusions in January, dwarfing the hybrid Fusion sales of 3,043.