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Weather still causing commuter chaos

COMMUTERS had a miserable return to work today as bad weather continued to cause havoc to road travel. A number of major road routes were affected by flooding or by fallen trees, while one lane was closed on the M48 Severn Bridge due to strong winds and a section of the M77 in Glasgow was closed because of flooding. A landslip at Hawick on the Scottish Borders led to hold-ups on the A7, while a section of the A36 in Hampshire was closed due to a fallen tree and fallen power cables.

Hot Octavia now with diesel power

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 18 August 2006 09:01 A grunty, 170bhp diesel engine will join Skoda's high performance vRS range in September. The engine will be available in the Octavia hatch and estate, priced at £18,370 and £19,200 respectively. The 2.0-litre TDI kicks out 258lb ft, more twist action than a BMW 330i.

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.