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.

Best 'Popemobile' for Francis

As people welcome Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, we've been wondering what type of vehicle he'll choose to transport himself. Francis probably won't request a new set of wheels -- the bestsellingcarsblog.com, the top-selling cars in Argentina as of the end of February were the Chevrolet Classic, VW Gol Power, Ford EcoSport, Renault Duster, and the Peugot 207 Compact. None of these seemed regal enough for his holiness in our opinion, though.

Bentley set to enter Dakar rally with new SUV

Is Bentley planning to enter the 2013 Dakar rally with a race version of its new Range Rover-rivaling luxury SUV? CAR has uncovered early plans suggesting that Crewe is preparing to do exactly that, helping give its EXP 9F 4x4 a motorsport pedigree to smoothe the arrival of this rather controversial 4x4. CAR understands that Bentley is currently buying back the Race Touaregs that VW Motorsport sold to privateer teams after leaving the event to concentrate on its Polo WRC entry.