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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.

2012 BMW M5 revealed in production trim

The wraps have been torn off the fire-breathing 2012 BMW M5. And, as expected, the Bavarian luxury maker is going in a different direction under the hood. BMW is eschewing a naturally aspirated powerplant in the new M5, whose high-revving roots date to the 1980s, in favor of a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 pushing out about 552 hp.

Hyundai confirms luxury Genesis Brand to take on Lexus & Infiniti

Hyundai are planning to launch the Genesis Brand (Hyundai Veloster pictured) The rise and rise of Hyundai (and Kia too) has lead to speculation for some time that the next stage in their evolution is a proper luxury brand to take on Infiniti and Lexus, and it’s now confirmed that Hyundai will be launching the ‘Genesis’ brand within two years. Not to be confused with the ‘Not for the UK’ Hyundai Genesis, the Genesis brand will be a range of cars from Hyundai offering real competition for the luxury brands from Nissan and Toyota, but with a dose of Hyundai pricing and warranty thrown in to the mix. Hyundai’s product manager in Australia – Roland Rivero - has come out and confirmed that the Genesis brand is in  the making and will initially – at least in Australia – offer two RWD cars.