US: Feds lend Chrysler cash (MEM)

Chrysler has received a US$4bn loan from the US government, days after larger rival General Motors also received help to get it through the current financial crisis.

JAPAN: Toyota freezing plant expansions - paper (MEM)

Toyota has declined to comment on a Japanese newspaper report it is to freeze plans to build new factories in Thailand and Russia as demand falls world-wide.

JAPAN: Auto sales hit 34-year low (MEM)

Japanese sales of new vehicles, excluding minivehicles, fell to a 34-year low of 3,212,342 units in 2008 - nearly half of the 1990 peak.

• ANALYSIS: How to rebuild an icon (MEM)
  Struggling car companies will have to take the axe to their businesses in order to ride the recession. Mark Bursa takes a sideways look at how one iconic company used a radical approach to keep its ‘axes’ intact!
• GERMANY: Daimler plans drastic CO2 cuts (MEM)
  Daimler is working hard on a new model strategy that will allow it to meet the EU Commission target of 130g/km average CO2 emissions for all vehicles sold by 2012.
• US: Ford sees 2008 at 13.5m units (MEM)
  Just ahead of official US results announcements, a top auto industry sales analyst has called 2008 at 13.5m units after 2.5m sales in the fourth quarter.
• RESEARCH ANALYSIS: More automotive electric motors power comfort and convenience applications
  They can adjust your seat and headlights, power side window and mirrors, assist braking and steering and are found in anything that has an electrical movement or solenoid function. With as many as 120 electric motors stuffed into a luxury car, Matthew Beecham reports on some promising market applications.
• FRANCE: PSA to ask suppliers for money back (MEM)
  PSA is to ask suppliers to pay back money they had been given to allow for higher raw material prices.
• AUSTRIA: Interiors maker bust (MEM)
  Car parts maker Eybl International has declared bankruptcy, noting that the future of its production sites in central eastern Europe was still to be determined.
• AUSTRALIA: Have cars, will swap for beef (MEM)
  The regular release of sealed-for-decades 'secret' government papers in the UK and elsewhere occasionally turns up a gem like this – a late-70s proposal to swap Australian beef for cars.

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Fender and Defender
5th January 2009 18:33

I'm a big fan of analogies and metaphors to help make points or draw lessons from history. The more creative or unusual they can be, still hanging together, the better (though you have to be carefu...

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• INAPA 09
• Autocare & Transport Arabia 09

• Intelligence Set: Global market review of automotive electric motors – forecasts to 2014 (download)
  Published Jan 2009 - (£ 685.00)
• The rts Auto Retail Industry Salary Survey 2009
  Published Nov 2008 - (£ 199.00)
• World Electric Lighting NEW Forecasts for 2012 & 2017 in 22 countries
  Published Dec 2008 - (£ 3500.00)
• Global Industry Report - Auto Part Manufacturers
  Published Dec 2008 - (£ 750.00)
• Light vehicle body structures and modules: technologies and trends
  Published Dec 2008 - (£ 395.00)

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just-auto’s review of 2008

What a year! Business as usual it was not. The economy took the headlines and there was no getting away from that. Maybe we should simply be grateful that the banks still function and that complete international financial meltdown was apparently avoided. Let’s just say that at the beginning of the year things looked under control – we were looking at a ‘managed slowdown’ for the global economy and the auto industry was very much a part of that. But by the end of the year, major companies were struggling to keep their heads above water in the face of collapsed automotive markets. Read Dave's review of one of the most significant years the auto industry has experienced.

download here >>