1969 Gto Heater Control Mldg. on 2040-parts.com

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

2015 Land Rover Defender delayed – creating the absolute dog’s danglers will take longer

Recently, we reported  Land Rover’s design director Gerry McGovern saying of the 2015 Land Rover Defender  “This car will be the bollocks, I assure you. The absolute dog’s bollocks.” But it seems that creating the absolute dog’s danglers is going to take a bit longer than planned. Autocar are reporting that John Edwards – Land Rover’s Global Brand Director – has said the new Defender will not be going in to production in 2015 as planned, although Land Rover are planning to scrap the current Defender then as it will no longer meet emissions regulations.

Audi A5 Coupe Sport by Project Kahn

Project Kahn reveals the Audi A5 Sport Coupe Project Kahn take stylish and appealing cars and add some glitz. Not always to our taste, we must confess, but not usually a glitterball explosion in a branch of Halfords either. And it could be argued that some cars could do with a bit of extra visual oomph.