New Drum Brake Hardware Kit on 2040-parts.com

Only one minivan in Chrysler's future, no subcompacts for U.S. market

The Chrysler Group will offer just one minivan in the future--the Chrysler Town & Country--as part of a plan to end duplication in dealer showrooms and give each of its brands a strong and distinctive lineup. Under the plan, the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan and Dodge Avenger mid-sized sedan will be replaced by a single crossover in 2013, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told Automotive News. The Chrysler brand will get a replacement for the 200 sedan when the Avenger, its sibling, is replaced.

Mazda 3 saloon unveiled at LA Auto Show

By Ben Pulman Motor Shows 19 November 2008 17:00 Mazda has officially unveiled its new 3 four-door saloon at the LA Auto Show today, revealing the car in full and releasing more technical details. A five-door hatchback (favoured in Europe) will be shown at the Bologna motor show in December 2008, and form the basis of a hot MPS model. The current 3 is Mazda’s best-selling vehicle, accounting for one third of the Japanese manufacturer’s sales (and a total of 1.8 million units over the past five years).

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.