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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.

Tesla system will swap a Model S battery in 90 seconds

"This is the title fight," said Elon Musk, in typical brashness. "This is battery-powered versus gasoline." The Tesla CEO preached this to a crowd of Tesla owners and supporters while formally confirming the company's worst-kept secret: the fact that the Model S sedan's batteries were designed from the beginning to be swapped out. The system Tesla envisioned has plenty of ambitious, techno-wizardry automation, with a focus on as much convenience as possible: The Model S will drive over a pit containing machinery which automatically changes the battery from underneath in approximately 90 seconds -- and the driver doesn't even have to get out of the car.

Lamborghini ‘Super Sports Car’ teased for Frankfurt

Lamborghini 'Super Sports Car' tease for Frankfurt 2011 (click photo for full image) Lamborghini has a long-standing promise to bring something new to every major motor show, and with Frankfurt only weeks away they are starting to tease a ‘Lamborghini Super Sports Car‘. So far all we’ve got is the image above (click it to see the whole thing) which just says “Discover a new Lamborghini super sports car at the next Frankfurt Motorshow.” So what is this new Lamborghini super sports car? Well, we doubt it will be a Lamborghini SUV Concept as we doubt even Lamborghini would consider such a vehicle a super sports car.