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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.

Land Rover can’t keep up with demand for Range Rover & Range Rover Sport

There’s a 9 month waiting list for the new Range Rover Sport (pictured) The Range Rover has been a big success for Land Rover in recent years, and the launch of the new Range Rover last year – even with big price rises – has seen demand soar to unprecedented levels. Good news for JLR. To add to that, the arrival of the all new Range Rover Sport – this time based on the new Range Rover instead of the old Discovery – has seen the RRS turn from a footballers wife’s car in to a proper sporty SUV, one that can take on the likes of the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5 on-road and obliterate them off-road.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing Electric – Official

Mercedes has confirmed they are planning an SLS AMG eDrive for 2015 As we suggested the other day, it looks like this will be known as the Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive. It will feature an in-board electric motor for each wheel, generating the equivalent of  526bhp, which should give the SLS eDrive similar performance to its conventionally driven sibling. By putting a motor at each corner, Mercedes are effectively endowing the SLS eDrive with an intelligent four wheel drive system.