Gmb 135-1360 Water Pump on 2040-parts.com

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.

Could the McLaren P13 get a Honda engine?

The McLaren P13 is due to arrive in 2015 and we’re expecting it to get a de-tuned version of the 3.8 litre V8 already found in the 12C (pictured above) and P1, and be priced to take on the almost empty sector (in terms of price) the Porsche 911 Turbo occupies - somewhere around £125k. It’s a sensible plan to fill a potentially lucrative sector of the supercar market with a mid-engined, rear wheel drive ‘baby’ supercar with performance of around 3.8 seconds to 60mph and stunning handling. It should give the 911 Turbo a run for its money.

VW Polo BlueGT at 2012 Geneva motor show

This is the VW Polo BlueGT, just unveiled at the 2012 Geneva motor show. The VW Polo BlueGT is the second most powerful Polo you can buy, but thanks to some clever technology is also one of the cleanest and greenest. VW Polo BlueGT?