Standard Motor Products 9450 Tailor Resistor Wires 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.

EBay exotic: 1971 Maserati Indy

In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, we bring you this lovely red 1971 Maserati Indy. Styled by Vignale, the Indy served as Maserati’s four-passenger business express from 1969 to 1971, powered originally by a 4.2-liter V8 and later by 4.7- and 4.9-liter versions of the Ghibli powerplant. This Oregon-based Euro-market example has a five-speed manual gearbox and power steering, and the owner of 20 years claims to have had a lot of expensive-sounding work done over the past few years.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster at Geneva 2012?

Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster Confirmed Aston Martin boss Ulrich Bez has reportedly confirmed that Aston Martin will launch a Roadster version of the V12 Vantage at Geneva 2012. When Aston Martin launched the V12 Vantage – all the fun of the V8 Vantage but with proper V12 goodness – AM declared it a limited edition model. But as we reported back in May 2012, the V12 Vantage became a proper production model.