Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Crunch watch July 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman, Ben Whitworth and Alex Michaelides Motor Industry 31 July 2009 11:23 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  Friday 31 July 2009• Lamborghini today posted pre-tax profits of €5.4 million – despite a sales drop of 37% in the first six months of 2009. Sant'Agata said turnover hit €156.9m in the first half (down 43%) as it sold 825 cars globally (Lamborghini)• British motorists could have to pay £250 in tax to park at work from 2012.

Daimler agrees to unload remaining Chrysler stake

Daimler AG announced today that it has reached an agreement to unload its remaining 19.9 percent stake in Chrysler LLC. "Daimler's remaining 19.9 percent shareholding in Chrysler will be redeemed, and Daimler will forgive repayment of the loans extended to Chrysler, which were already written off in the 2008 financial statement," Daimler said in a prepared statement. All told, Daimler will write off $700 million as a result of the deal, according to the statement.

Hyundai developing new test centre at Nurburgring

Hyundai has revealed they are building a new test centre at the Nurburgring to help develop driving dynamics for their European cars. We already know that Hyundai are going to make 2012 a brand building exercise, with much effort going in to raising the experience and profile of the Hyundai of today. Part of that is entering WRC rallying with the i20 for the sprinkle of performance dust it will cover Hyundai’s product range with and, hopefully, point towards a serious intent to develop more extreme versions of their performance models.