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Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

VW halts merger talk with Porsche

Volkswagen on Sunday slammed the brakes on merger talks with Porsche, just before the first meeting to discuss ways to bring all of the automakers' brands together under one entity. VW said that it made the move because it believes that Porsche doesn't have a solid plan for the merger. VW and Porsche announced the plan to hold merger talks on May 6.

Classic Mini voted 'best British car'

THE ORIGINAL Mini, first introduced in 1959, is the best-ever British car, according to a survey of Autocar readers. The poll also named Norfolk-based Lotus as the most popular British manufacturer, with seven of its models making the 100 best British cars list. Following the Mini at the top of the list was the McLaren F1, with the Jaguar E-type third and the Range Rover fourth.