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Crunch watch Feb 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 02 March 2009 18:11 Monday 2 March• The Volkswagen Group announces a 5% rise in sales revenues in the 2008 tax year and a 3% increase in operating profits, up to €6.3 billion. Chairman Martin Winterkorn said the group's multi-brand strategy and low CO2 cars had helped sustain sales, although he admitted that 2009 would see a fall in demand and revenues (Volkswagen) Friday 27 February• Jaguar Land Rover announces a significant order for 13,000 cars from a Chinese business. It's a morale boost for JLR which has been hit by a slump in demand with the global slowdown (BBC News)• Opel this afternoon agreed to a restructuring plan designed to save as many jobs and factories as possible – but it needs a €3.3 billion lifeline from the state.

Vauxhall Astra GTC revealed: Prices & Models

Vauxhall Astra GTC - looks good Vauxhall has certainly got some mileage out of the launch of the 2012 Vauxhall Astra GTC. As has Opel for the launch of their differently badge version of GM’s Euro-hot-hatch, designed to take on the likes of the VW Scircoco. Since the Astra GTC was revealed at Paris last year we’ve had the expected dance of the seven alloys as Vauxhall reveals a bit more with each bit of news.

Volvo S90, V90 and V90 Cross Country on the way

The Volvo V70 (pictured) will become the new Volvo V90 All the talk for Volvo lately has been the new 2015 Volvo XC90, an impressive offering that really does look like it will take the fight in the ‘Premium’ SUV market to the Germans (and even to Land Rover). But the new XC90 is just the start of Volvo’s new model line-up, and the next couple of years will see more new models arriving with Volvo’s new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and the new range of 4-cylinder, 2.0 litre engines. What we now also know, thanks to Volvo’s Dennis Nobelius, is that the replacements for the S80, V70 and XC70 won’t use the current nomenclature but will be given new names to better reflect their upmarket aspirations (and their place in Volvo’s new line-up).