Plug Connectors For Air Craft 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.

Saab appoints North American administrator, prospects darken

Saab has appointed an outside administrator to oversee its business in North America and the potential wind-down or sale of the company if its parent operations can’t emerge from bankruptcy. The move was announced on Wednesday afternoon by Saab North American COO Tim Holbeck as the company’s future remains uncertain. McTevia & Associates, a management and financial-consulting service with offices in suburban Detroit and Florida, is the administrator.

Range Rover Evoque: Evoque details +video

The Range Rover Evoque - Video below We got the reveal of the new Range Rover Evoque on Thursday night at Kensington Palace, and we were delighted to see that the production version has come through almost unchanged from the original concept. But it wasn’t actually a big surprise  after the Range Rover Evoque spy photos we published showed a very similar silhouette to the original LRX Concept. The Kensington Palace reveal was about capping off Range Rover’s 40th Anniversary with a flourish; the way forward being the plan.