New Wheel Hub And Bearing Assembly Unit Fits Titan Armada Pathfinder Qx56 Front 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.

Final second-generation Mini leaves production line

THE FINAL Mini hatchback of the current generation has left the production line in Oxford, after more than a million were made for customers around the world. There’s no time for production staff to rest, though, with assembly of the new Mini hatchback already under way alongside the many other Mini model derivatives. In total, more than 1.8 million hatchback Minis have been built at the factory since 2001, of which 1,041,412 were the currently outgoing model.

Audi SQ5 Exclusive – for when an SQ5 just isn’t enough

Audi are debuting a limited edition of their new SQ5 – the SQ5 Exclusive – at Paris 2012 before a limited production run of 50 cars. The new Audi SQ5 – a diesel RS Q5 in all but name – bowed in at Le Mans in June featuring the 3.0 litre twin turbo diesel V6 with 479lb/ft of torque, 309bhp and a very un-SUV 0-62mph of 5.1 seconds. As the range-topping Q5 you would think that would be enough for Audi, but it seems they think there’s a market for an even more exclusive Audi SQ5 so they’re producing a limited edition model that’ll cost an extra £30k – the Audi SQ5 Exclusive.