Publisher KC Crain promoted to vice president/group publisher

AutoWeek publisher KC Crain, 30, has been named vice president/group publisher at Crain Communications Inc. with responsibility for Plastics News, Rubber & Plastics News, Tire Business and Waste & Recycling News, based in Akron, Ohio. He will also supervise the European-based titles of European Plastics News, European Rubber Journal, Plastics and Rubber Weekly and Urethanes Technology International.

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.

Tesla has room to grow with the Model S sedan, Calif. factory

We got a brief ride in a prototype of the Tesla Model S all-electric sedan, and as far as we could tell from the passenger seat, it seemed like a luxury performance bargain for just $57,400. Of course, being just a passenger means any evaluation is more or less just a guess. We should get to drive one of them sometime before the fully finished models go on sale next summer and then we will have a more definitive take on the car.