TIMELINE - Global car industry troubles

(Reuters) - General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner resigned under pressure from President Barack Obama's administration on Sunday.

In France, PSA Peugeot Citroen also ousted Chief Executive Christian Streiff and replaced him with Philippe Varin, who will take up the position on June 1.

Here is a timeline of the ups and downs in the auto industry during the financial crisis:

October 23/24, 2008 - General Motors and Chrysler, which at the time are discussing a merger, pledge to cut jobs and close plants as the downturn in auto sales deepens.

-- In France, Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen slash their 2008 profitability outlooks and pledge to make major production cuts to combat the crisis.

October 28 - Honda warns that full-year profits will miss targets because of falling sales and a strong yen.

December 4 - The heads of GM, Ford and Chrysler travel from Detroit to Washington in hybrid vehicles packed with action plans a month after being mocked for coming to earlier congressional hearings on private jets without detailed plans to revitalise their companies.

-- They agree to work for $1 a year if lawmakers approve their bids for emergency government aid totalling $34 billion (24 billion pounds).

December 6 - Fiat head Sergio Marchionne predicts only six volume carmakers will remain post-crisis.

December 19 - The U.S. announces a $17.4 billion lifeline to Detroit carmakers from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief (TARP) programme. GM is to receive $13.4 billion and Chrysler $4 billion. Ford says it does not need a loan.

December 20 - Canada pledges C$4 billion (2.3 billion pounds) in emergency loans to the Canadian arms of GM and Chrysler.

January 13, 2009 - Germany unveils a 1.5 billion euro (1.4 billion pound) aid package, including 2,500 euro incentives for new car purchases.

January 14 - China halves sales tax on cars with small engines and offers one-off payments for owners trading in high-emission vehicles for cleaner ones.

January 20 - Fiat and Chrysler strike a deal in which the Italian manufacturer gets a 35 percent stake in exchange for access to technology and overseas markets.

January 27 - Britain says it will guarantee up to 2.3 billion pounds of loans for research into environmentally friendly technologies.

February 6 - Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, says it is on track to post an operating loss of some 450 billion yen ($4.95 billion) for the year to end-March, the first group operating loss in its 70-year history.

February 6 - Italy unveils a $1.7 billion package of measures to help its car sector, including a scrapping incentive.

February 9 - France pledges over 7 billion euros of support for its car industry but President Nicolas Sarkozy insists that carmakers must protect French jobs.

February 13 - Spain approves a 4 billion euro package that includes 1.2 billion euros in state credit for car purchases during 2009 and 2010 and aid to help car part makers upgrade plants.

February 17 - GM and Chrysler request nearly $22 billion in additional U.S. government loans as they submit plans with the new Obama administration on how they could restructure.

February 20 - The Canadian units of GM and Chrysler say they are seeking as much as C$10 billion in aid from the Canadian and Ontario governments.

March 16 - Steve Rattner, adviser to President Obama's autos task force, says the panel is committed to meeting a March 31 deadline for deciding whether GM and Chrysler can be restructured successfully.

March 19 - The U.S. Treasury pledges $5 billion to aid auto suppliers crucial to the survival of the industry.

March 22 - Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments PJSC takes a 9.1 percent stake in ailing German car giant Daimler worth 1.95 billion euros.

March 22 - Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany is not aiming to take a stake in Opel, but may give the GM unit aid to help it survive.

March 23 - Tata Motors launches the Nano, slated to be the world's cheapest car at less than $2,000. Only about 50,000 cars will be available in the first year.

March 29 - GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner resigns under pressure from the Obama administration two days before a March 31 deadline to prove it can become viable and worthy of new federal assistance.

-- The board of Peugeot Citroen fires Chief Executive Christian Streiff after the carmaker last month posted a 343 million euro net loss and says it expects to stay in the red until 2010. Streiff will be replaced on June 1 by Philippe Varin.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)