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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.

Desperately seeking Toyota Carina E

It’s 20 years next month since Toyota opened its Burnaston Plant in the UK, and they’re desperately seeking the earliest Carina E built in 1992. Twenty years ago next month, in December 1992, Toyota started producing cars in the UK in a new plant at Burnaston in Derbyshire. And with such a milestone looming, Toyota are keen to celebrate.

Schools Award and CDN Design Schools League Table

Schools as well as students are being recognized in this year's CDN-Interior Motives Student Design Awards, just launched, with a special award being introduced for the school whose students have the most success in the competition. CDN acknowledges that great teaching, as well as raw student talent, is needed to shape the work of the next generation of car designers. So along with the student finalists in 2012 will come finalist schools, as measured by the success of their students in getting to the shortlist stage of the competition, in becoming category finalists, or in winning an award or becoming overall winner.