Todd 3100 Cushion Set on 2040-parts.com

New Mazda3 i-stop announced

The Mazda3 i-stop has been released utilising a new type of stop-start technology We won’t go on about our review of the new Mazda 3 as you’ve heard it all before, but it is a very good car. And the addition of a model with stop-start certainly adds something new to the range, particularly for buyers who drive most of the time in town. Mazda label this as part of their ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom’ strategy.

Auctions America revitalizes former Kruse sale

Despite a few close calls and false starts, Auburn, Ind., remains a town where two large operators hold collector-car auctions at the unofficial end of summer. Worldwide Auctioneers continued at its regular space (though with a much larger sale), and the new kid down the street, Auctions America by RM, took over where Kruse had faltered. Auctions America held a successful rookie effort at the former Kruse Auction Park in Auburn.

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.