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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.

Europe trailing on ESP safety

NOT ENOUGH new cars in Europe are being specified with an electronic stability programme (ESP) that is proved to be most important safety system in prevent collisions. Research by Frost and Sullivan has found Europe is lagging behind North America, where there is almost 100% success with fitting news cars with ESP. Despite ESP being included in the European New Car Assessment Programme since 2011, the study shows there has been only a minimal increase in the number of cars sold that have ESP.

Baby Range Rover confirmed in Land Rover shake-up

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 24 September 2009 11:08 The shake up at Jaguar/Land Rover continues, with a consolidation of the brands’ Midlands manufacturing facilities announced alongside plans for more vehicles. The headline news is that Land Rover’s Solihull factory and Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plant will be amalgamated over the next 10 years. JLR promises there will be no compulsory redundancies, and the industrial logic is compelling: consolidating production of the Range Rover/Discovery and XJ/XK/XF lines will bring around 200,000 vehicles together under one roof – still 100,000 fewer cars than Mini builds a year down in Oxford. The move will reduce JLR’s fixed costs, provide room to grow and give greater flexibility to meet the natural ebb and flow of demand. JLR has also confirmed production of the LRX, the baby Range Rover.