Outboard Motor Locking System on 2040-parts.com

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.

Mercedes A 45 AMG goes off-road in the Desert (video)

The Mercedes A 45 AMG struts its stuff in the desert The Mercedes A 45 AMG is now starting to appear in small numbers on UK roads after buyers have been tempted to shell out nearly £40k for the quickest Mercedes A-Class there’s ever been. But it seems Mercedes don’t want us to think of the A 45 AMG as just a very hot hatch for the roads, but as a little hot hatch with some proper off-road pretensions. So they’ve taken the A 45 AMG off to West Africa to show it at play on the dirt tracks and sand dunes, and we have to say that Mercedes 4MATIC four wheel drive does seem to make a decent fist of coping with what’s thrown at it.

Mercedes CLA 45 AMG Edition 1 revealed

The launch edition of the CLA AMG – the Mercedes CLA 45 AMG Edition 1 (pictured) has been revealed Launch editions are a way to tempt buyers in to a new model in quick sticks, so Mercedes has revealed the launch model for the new CLA45 – the Mercedes CLA 45 AMG Edition 1. Frankly, we’d be surprised if MB has any real trouble finding buyers for the CLA 45 AMG, but a launch edition with extra goodies is always a ‘nice to have’, and the CLA45 version looks appealing. The changes aren’t huge for the Edition 1, but they do include a gloss black spoiler at the back, graphite grey side stripes, a set of 19″ matte black alloys and red detailing for the mirrors, wheels and grill.