Atcoa Air Sander Dual Piston Straight In Line File Viking Tool Made In Usa.003 on 2040-parts.com

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.

Bentley Bio-Fuel beckons

Bentley finds itself in this ludicrous position. Of course, the current credit problems play a big part in Bentley’s problems, either because buyers need finance to buy their cars or, more likely, the demonising of the sort of cars Bentley makes by the eco-mentalists makes them an uncomfortable buy. So Bentley has come up with a strategy to combat the ‘Planet Killing’ perception many have of its products – Bio-Fuels.

Volvo S60, V60, V70 & S80 DRIVe Diesels get Auto ‘box

Volvo DRIVe diesels get automatic gearbox Volvo has announced that they are offering their S60, V60, V70 & S80 DRIVe Diesels with an auto ‘box option, with the same emissions and economy as manual cars. There was a time, not very long ago, when seekers of economical cars had to wear a very hairy shirt to achieve silly mpg. That meant giving up any semblance of comfort, size or luxury in your transport, and an automatic gearbox was a definite no-no.