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Crunch watch August 09: the auto industry

By Tim Pollard, Alex Michaelides, Ben Pulman and Freddie Fulton Motor Industry 31 August 2009 10:00 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Monday 31 August 2009• Bank holiday today in UK; staff on a well earned break from Crunchwatch!Friday 28 August 2009• Toyota will stop producing vehicles at the New United Moor Manufacturing plant in California next March. Company officials and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the decision, which comes in the wake of factory partner GM’s announced that it would abandon the venture back in June (Detroit News)• Tengzhong may finalise its deal to buy Hummer from GM next week, well placed sources told AN (Automotive News, subscription required)• German economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says it is 'hardly realistic' for GM to keep hold of its European outfit Opel and Vauxhall (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Ford's US cop car favourite, the Crown Victoria, is going to cease production in 2011 (Detroit News)Thursday 27 August 2009• Nissan and Chrysler have abandoned plans to build cars for each other in the wake of Chrysler’s alliance with Fiat.

Jeep adds Rocky Mountain models to lineup

On top of cash-back incentives and employee-pricing programs, Jeep is implementing another value play to lift sales with the introduction of Rocky Mountain Edition versions of the Patriot, the Liberty and the Grand Cherokee. Included in the Rocky Mountain Edition are a sunroof, a 30-gigabyte UConnect stereo interface, a Boston Acoustics sound system, exclusive wheel finishes and Rocky Mountain Edition badges. According to Jeep, that's $2,300 worth of options at the discounted price of $1,595 if you check off the Rocky Mountain package on the order sheet.

BYD T6 – a 2.0 litre Porsche Cayenne Clone

The BYD T6 - a 2.0 litre Porsche Cayenne Clone [ad#ad-1] We do still think of Chinese goods as being cheap rip-offs of Western Goods. But the news yesterday about the next generation electric car battery technology should make us look at what the Chinese are doing in a different light. And then this crops up!