The New York Equity house Blackstone Group has been given the go-ahead from the US anti-trust authorities to acquire TRW Inc's automotive parts unit TRW Automotive – the Lucas brand owner.
A new restructuring plan for Fiat Auto championed by one of Italy's leading entrepreneurs could get GM off the hook and satisfy Italian Government demands for the debt-laden carmaker to remain in Italian hands.
PSA Peugeot Citroen's joint venture with China's Dongfeng Motor Corporation is set to triple production to 250,000 vehicles by 2006, according to the venture's general manager Liu Weidong.
The 2003 Laguna range boasts a new 2-litre engine and a new model, the Dynamique Techno. The extension to the offering is part of Renault's sales push for their D-Sector champion which enjoyed a 40 per cent lift in sales to November 2002 - to 232,075 units.
Howard Basford has sold two of their sites at Warwick and Bromsgrove to Impact Repair Centres Ltd for an undisclosed sum. The sites were too small to synergise with the crash repairer, which was the subject of a management buyout in October last year.
<b>By Julian Rance<br> Director, Paragon Car Finance</b> <hR> It should be of immense concern to everybody within the automotive retailing sector that the new Block Exemption system is in desperate danger of having exactly the opposite effect from that which the legislators intended. The consumer will see <b>less</b> competition in car retailing, <b>less</b> competition in car servicing and the aftermarket, and even <b>less</b> competition in automotive finance.<p>
There was a further lull in consumer demand for point of sale motor finance, according to the latest figures from the Finance and Leasing Association. Car finance sales were down 14 per cent in November compared to year-earlier figures.
One of Germany's car industry chiefs has pointed to the country's high taxation policies as the key cause of a forecast substantial downturn in domestic car sales in 2003.
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has signalled that his Government may eventually have to help Fiat – but says any package must not contravene EU's state aid rules.
Japanese carmakers have achieved record penetration in western Europe – and are set to use the success as a springboard for building sales in the emerging eastern European markets. The development of diesel engines and styling improvements are key to that success, says a report in today's <I>Japan Times</I>.
Ford Motor Co. is seeking a replacement for its chief financial officer Allan Gilmour seven months after he came out of retirement to take the job, according to a Financial Times online news story today.
Prince Charles' appeal for Government departments to “Buy British” for their catering contracts in order to help hard-pressed British farmers has raised claims of hypocrisy in the tabloid press. The Sunday Mirror has pointed out that the prince had just signed a £99k deal with Audi.
Fiat's restructuring pains were made more acute with the recent downgrade of its debt rating to junk bond status by Moody's Investors Service. And the move may herald further stock market falls.
Toyota is developing a “pre-emptive” protection system for vehicles. The technology predicts a forthcoming crash and launches safety systems before impact.
The 1.6-litre Mini Cooper is to be sold in China. The model, which was unveiled on December 27 in Beijing, will cost the equivalent of a little under £30k.
Audi has introduced a new manufacturing process at its Neckarsulm plant which allows customers to make last minute spec changes to their A8. Changes are accepted up to two days before completion.
Vauxhall has signed its largest-ever car daily rental deal to supply rental giant ANC Rental Corporation, the operator of the National, Alamo and Guy Salmon brands in the UK.
The impact of carmakers' moves to cut product lifecycles was starkly revealed during 2002. For no used car segment was immune from the downward slide in residuals.
Just 550,000 vehicles from the estimated 5 million relevant fleet and motor trade vehicles have been loaded onto the new Motor Insurance Database – and the new legislation comes into effect on January 20.
Changes in retail habits as a result of the market availability of late plate vans on the market could have a disastrous impact on older van values, CAP Red Book has warned.
MG Rover's on-going talks with Tata over a joint venture for the production of a small Rover have come to fruition – the partnership will produce a new vehicle in 2003.
Honda's Swindon Plant will have achieved a record production total of more than 176,000 units by the end of this year – an increase of 55 per cent on last year's total.
The scale of the UK Government's indebtedness to the hard-pressed motorist has been revealed by a tax revenue analysis by the SMMT.
Ford has submitted a planning application for three 1.8 megawatt wind turbines at its Dagenham car plant. The aim is to provide the total energy requirements for the carmaker's new “Clean Room” assembly hall which will expand production of diesel engines.
A new report to be published next week points to a 64 per cent rise in the value of mergers and acquisitions in India last year at $9.2bn.And Suzuki's seizure control of the country's largest carmaker was the largest automotive acquisition – and possibly most controversial.
Plans by Ford to sell its Think Nordic electric battery-powered car business are being hailed as a further vote of confidence in hydrogen fuel cell technology as the way forward for the global automotive industry.
Workers at MG Rover's Powertrain subsidiary have voted in favour of a 2.2 per cent one-year pay deal, according to the <i>Birmingham Post</i>.
A joint venture company between Howard Basford and consultancy/training company Partnership Solutions may be on the horizon. HB directors Andy Johnson and Tim Dunkley of PS have confirmed that they are exploring the opportunity.
According to Associated Press, Ford Motor Co. has agreed to pay state attorneys general £31m to end claims that the carmaker's advertising fails to disclose the rollover risk involved with driving sport utility vehicles.
Debt-ridden Daewoo Motors India, which has been up for sale since November 22, has now received bids from the Ashok Leyland-Sundaram Clayton combine, Rico Auto and Machino Plastics. The bidding process has been extended as firms such as Tata Engineering, Ford and the Jay Bharat Maruti group have also expressed interest.
