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Crunch watch Apr 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard and Ben Pulman Motor Industry 30 April 2009 17:21 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Thursday 30 April 2009• It's official: president Barack Obama confirms this afternoon Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it strikes a patnership with Fiat (Automotive News, subscription required)• 'Over the past month, seemingly insurmountable obstacles have been overcome,' says Obama. 'Chrysler and Fiat have formed a partnership that has a strong chance of success' • Chrysler is filing for bankruptcy protection under Section 363(b) of Chapter 11 bankruptcy code – expected to last for 30-60 days (Detroit News)• Treasury to pay Chrysler $4.5 billion 'in exit financing'• Chrysler tipped to get new board of directors.

Smart ForTwo GrandStyle Edition looks like the run-out model – price from £10,330

The Smart ForTwo GrandStyle comes as a coupe or cabrio The next generation Smart car is heading for the Paris Motor Show in October, so you can probably look at Smart’s latest special edition car – the Smart ForTwo GrandStyle Edition – as a final hurrah for Mercedes’ city car in its current guise. Based on the Smart Passion trim, the GrandStyle gets a set of 15″ gloss black alloys, LEd running lights,  titanium-coloured surrounds for the headlights, ‘grandstyle’ logos and a choice of five exterior and tridion colours. Inside comes swathed in Artico for an upmarket look, there’s a leather steering wheel, SatNav with 6.5″ colour screen, AirCon, cup holder and the option of a comfort package that adds heated seats and electric heated door mirrors.

Ford Escape/Kuga

When we spoke with J Mays about the Vertrek concept car at the 2011 NAIAS in Detroit, he told us "this is about 85 per-cent as the production car will look". On viewing these pictures of the new generation Ford Kuga/Escape, it's clear Ford's chief designer was true to his word. It's significant for being the first true product of the company's ‘One Ford' strategy, which harmonizes the American, European and Asian operations, developing singular products for the global market.