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Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

Noble M600 – launch soon?

The new Noble M600 caught testing in the UK and almost ready to launch Next up for Noble is the M600, which signifies a big leap in target market. The Noble M600 is heading where Lotus did a generation ago with the Esprit – aiming to take on the ‘Big-Boys’. The M600 was out testing in Arizona last year in the company of a Porsche Carrera GT, which indicates just how high Noble is aiming.

Top Gear Series 19: Video trailer & 1st episode details

Series 19 of Top Gear returns to BBC 2 on 27th January, and we have a video trailer and details of the first episode. It’s been a bit odd without Top Gear on our screens (well, new Top Gear episodes), but normal service will resume on 27th January as series 19 of Top Gear returns to BBC2. Ahead of the first episode of series 19 (there will be seven episodes in total), the Beeb is making sure we know there’s a new Top Gear series coming with a short video trailer, and the BBC has also sent us details of the first episode.