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Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Video: Jan Kaul explains Mercedes-Benz A-Class' interior

Mercedes-Benz has released a video exploring the interior of its new A-Class featuring the designer who headed the project. Jan Kaul explains in the video how the inspiration behind the interior was the subject of aviation, the same inspiration that produced the Concept A-Class show car. "The theme running through the design of the A-Class was definitely ‘less is more,'" says Kaul.

CPP buys Bowler Offroad

Bowler Nemesis - Now made - and owned - by CPP Goodness, CPP Manufacturing are busy little bees at the moment. No sooner do we learn that CPP has bought Spyker Cars (well, strictly speaking it’s CPP Global Holdings Ltd who are hoovering up with Vladimir Antonov’s money) than we discover CPP has also acquired Bowler Offroad. For the uninitiated, Bowler are the makers of bonkers offroad vehicles that can probably be best described as Land Rover Supercars.