Acdelco Pt1280 Connector on 2040-parts.com

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.

Volkswagen 'will build the XL1' - Piech

Volkswagen will build the radical 313mpg XL1 eco cigar in 2013, Ferdinand Piech revealed at the Qatar motor show. In an interview with Automotive News, the VW chairman said: 'We want to go into series production with this car starting in 2013.' He insisted it would go on sale to real people, not just as media demonstrators. And VW chief exec Martin Winterkorn added the XL1 would be sold in Europe first, then be rolled into the US and Chinese car markets.

2008 Fiat’s best year EVER!

Didn’t they do well!? Fiat has just announced that, despite the doom and gloom in the car world in 2008, particularly in the last quarter, they have had their best year ever, with their trading profit up by 4% and turnover by 1.5% to €60 billion. Well done them.