15 Polaris Sportsman 850 4x4 Gas Tank & Fuel Pump on 2040-parts.com

Crunch watch Dec 08: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard and Simon Stiel Motor Industry 31 December 2008 14:05 Wednesday 31 December 2008• GMAC, GM's finance arm, said it would immediately revise its criteria for providing loans, after the US government bail-out of the General's credit arm. It will now supply credit for anyone with a score of 621 or more on the Fico scale, the scale used to assess Amercian customers' creditworthiness (Financial Times)• The news means that 80% of US consumers would now qualify for a loan from GMAC – which should improve sales in the depressed US market (Detroit News)• Chrysler is being lambasted for taking out full-page adverts in the American national press thanking the nation for supporting its auto industry. But critics point out this is a fresh waste of bail-out resources, as pages in the Wall Street Journal – one of the titles in which the ad ran – reportedly cost up to $264,000.

Toyota to build RAV4 EV in Ontario

Toyota said on Friday that it will build the electric version of the RAV4 at its assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario, beginning in 2012. The electric crossover will use powertrains supplied by Tesla from California. The companies began transforming gasoline-powered RAV4 SUVs into functional EV prototypes last July.

Bertone Nuccio

Bertone will launch its latest car, the Nuccio at the 2012 Geneva motor show. The car has been built for an individual private buyer, and named after Giuseppe Bertone whose nickname was Nuccio. Bertone says the car's surface language is representative of the brand's future identity, whilst the low, angular silhouette is an echo of the wedge shaped cars that helped define the design house.