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Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

VW Tiguan Review – Johnny wins heat 2

The white VW Tiguan tested by heat 2 winner Johnny Heat 2 seems to have been hard-fought, with the competitors using social media to get votes in. Di and Johnny, two of the most competitive of the Volkswagen Tiguan People’s Reviewers, pulled out all the stops last week, using their social networks of friends and followers to get out the vote. In the end, Johnny claimed the Group 2 crown, pulling out a victory in a back-and-forth race.

Suzuki Swift gets a tweak for 2013

Suzuki Swift (pictured) gets a tweak for 2013 Suzuki has had a couple of bites at PR for the updated Swift already this week, with news that the Swift can now be had with a 4WD option and that the Swift Sport can be ordered with five doors. So even though it seems a bit back to front to trumpet two new versions of the Swift before revealing the overall tweaks to the range, it’s probably got Suzuki three times the coverage they’d have got if they’d just announced the 2013 tweaks included the 5-door Sport and 4WD option. Who can blame them?