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Crunch watch October 09: the auto industry in crisis

Tuesday 20 October 2009• Honda's CEO said he would consider launching electric vehicles for sale in Europe, Japan and the USA in a possible change of strategy for the Japanese car manufacturer (Automotive News, subscription required)• Ford 59-plate car sales up by 22% in September ‘09 compared to the same month last year. Ford claims a 14.8% share of total new car sales for the same period (Ford)• Porsche, VW and Daimler all sent top executives to the Shanghai motor show in April, but chose to snub the Tokyo motor show this week. The news comes as China’s automotive market is set to become the world’s largest (Bloomberg)• Toyota enters the Korean car market, challenging the 72% market share owned by Hyundai Motor Co (Bloomberg)  Monday 19 October 2009 • The organisers of the Geneva motor show claim that 'all of the major manufacturers have already confirmed their participation' for the March 2010 event (Geneva Palexpo)• Jaguar is auctioning off the first XJ off the line to raise £1m for the NSPCC children's charity.

Peugeot 408 GT Coupe planned for 2016

Peugeot 408 GT Coupe planned for 2016 based on the 308 (pictured) The market for smaller four-door coupes has grown in recent years, and it looks like the Mercedes CLA – the four-door coupe version of the Mercedes A-Class – is a runaway success. That seems to have given Peugeot the idea that it should revive the ’40-something’ badge a couple of years after they dropped the 407 and 607 in favour of the 508 and build a new coupe, this time a four-door. The Peugeot 407 was a larger two-door coupe – the not quite as convincing update for the very good 406 coupe – which had an old-world coupe feel and was very much a niche product in Peugeot’s range.

Toyota recalls 2003 Sequoia for stability-control problem

Toyota is recalling thousands of the 2003 Sequoia SUV to repair a potential stability-control problem, the company announced on Wednesday. The recall covers 50,000 of the SUVs produced early in the 2003 model year. The problem is the stability control could activate at too slow of a speed (about 9 mph), limiting the ability of the Sequoia to accelerate.