Mazda Oem B3c710602a Engine Crankshaft Seal/seal, Crankshaft 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.

Jaguar renames and expands its performance driving school

What do you get for the man or woman who has everything, including a 500-hp sports car from Jaguar? If you want to keep them alive we’d suggest the newly renamed Jaguar R Performance Driving Academy. Jaguar renamed its driving school on Tuesday and also expanded it to four locations in the United States this year, offering both basic and advanced courses.

One Lap of the Web: Jaguar C-X75, 'Top Gear's' 20th season and Bugatti vs. Pagani

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Remember the Jaguar C-X75 concept a couple of years back?