JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune Tom Boyd zipped around a North Harbor Drive parking lot on his company's Zuumer three-wheeled electric scooter, which is powered by two batteries. “I like to call it the smart man's Segway,” Boyd said. “It's faster, maneuvers better and costs half as much.”

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Self-described tinkerer and car enthusiast Tom Boyd was a successful salesman with no engineering training 3½ years ago when he came up with an interesting idea for a vehicle steered by its rear wheels. Yesterday, the San Diego inventor zipped around a North Harbor Drive parking lot atop the first incarnation of his concept: the Zuumer electric scooter.

DETROIT – For the first time since 1993, automakers sold fewer than a million new cars and trucks in a single month in the United States, as a reeling economy scared people away from showrooms in September, and many eager buyers were unable to get loans. With industry sales dropping 26.6 percent overall compared with a year ago, car companies are likely to cut more production and jobs to compensate for falling revenue.

Warren E. Buffett is emerging as the banker of choice to the embattled blue-chip companies of American business. Buffett, the billionaire investor, announced yesterday that he would invest $3 billion in General Electric, the industrial giant that is also America's largest nonbank financial company.

WASHINGTON – The government kicked off a program yesterday that aims to prevent foreclosures by letting an estimated 400,000 troubled homeowners swap their mortgages for more affordable loans.

Developers of a proposed 39-story hotel/condo tower just outside Petco Park are scrambling to finalize a heavy-handed bridge loan before Monday, when the full-block site downtown is scheduled for sale at a foreclosure auction.

Homeowners already coping with an uncertain credit market and falling real estate values got more discouraging news yesterday when PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. said home prices in San Diego County are likely to continue dropping for another two years.