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Crunch watch August 09: the auto industry

By Tim Pollard, Alex Michaelides, Ben Pulman and Freddie Fulton Motor Industry 31 August 2009 10:00 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  Monday 31 August 2009• Bank holiday today in UK; staff on a well earned break from Crunchwatch!Friday 28 August 2009• Toyota will stop producing vehicles at the New United Moor Manufacturing plant in California next March. Company officials and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the decision, which comes in the wake of factory partner GM’s announced that it would abandon the venture back in June (Detroit News)• Tengzhong may finalise its deal to buy Hummer from GM next week, well placed sources told AN (Automotive News, subscription required)• German economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says it is 'hardly realistic' for GM to keep hold of its European outfit Opel and Vauxhall (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Ford's US cop car favourite, the Crown Victoria, is going to cease production in 2011 (Detroit News)Thursday 27 August 2009• Nissan and Chrysler have abandoned plans to build cars for each other in the wake of Chrysler’s alliance with Fiat.

Hottest 911 ever!

A few weeks back, we revealed spy shots of the next-gen Porsche 911 GT2. But now the Web is awash in reports from a Porsche dealer meeting in Germany where the company revealed the even-hotter GT2 RS. Reportedly pushing 620 hp from its turbocharged boxer-six engine, the track- and street-legal GT2 RS is said to be 200 pounds lighter than the GT2.

Ferrari California HELE: Paris Motor Show 2010

The Ferrari California HELE Not surprisingly, most of the Ferrari focus at the Paris Motor Show has been on the Ferrari SA APERTA, the 599 Roadster making its first appearance. But the SA APERTA isn’t the only new Ferrari on Ferrari’s stand in Paris. Ferrari has brought along the Ferrari California HELE to Paris (and no, we don’t know why Ferrari suddenly find it necessary to SHOUT their car names), which is about as close as you’ll get to an Eco Ferrari.