1995 Seadoo Speedster 5891 / Sportster 5892 Speed Sensor on 2040-parts.com

Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

Aston Martin Rapide: The Movie

Aston Martin Rapide: The Movie Last February Aston Martin decamped en-masse to the Iberian Peninsula to play PR jollies with the new Aston Martin Rapide. First stop on the tour was Valencia, where the world’s media gathered at Aston Martin’s expense to eat, drink, grab a few rays and fit in a drive or three in the first Aston Martin four door in a generation. No doubt a good time was had by all, and we got a few stories out of it.

Driven: Kia Picanto

The first-generation Kia Picanto was one of the cars that helped promote Kia from the lower half of the second-division to somewhere near the playoff places. Its combination of great value, five-door practicality and vaguely cutesy - if thoroughly unremarkable - design found it many a home on the driveway of those looking for an A-segment hatchback. The second-generation model is playing a rather tougher ballgame.