Wholly-owned Ford subsidiary Ford Retail UK confirmed today it has bought 11 of the 12 Quartic Group sites put into administrative receivership in October.
In one of the largest compensation settlements in US car industry history, Ford has been ordered to pay $225m (£141m) to the families of two people who died after being thrown from their F-150 pick-up.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has admitted that the efforts to cut traffic congestion – a key milestone in the Government's 10-year transport plan – have failed. He told this morning's BBC Radio 4 Today programme that: “There's no point beating around the bush – we're not going to hit that.”
The RMI claims that its tight lobbying focus on the MoT sector is resulting in a sharp rise in the number of MoT stations seeking to join the organisation. 308 MoT testing stations have joined the RMI since it set up its Operations Team in August.
Yesterday's 8.4 per cent pay increase for Mini workers at Oxford has upped the ante in this year's automotive industry pay round – putting strike-threatened Peugeot and Jaguar under pressure to offer more.
The Dutton-Forshaw Group has been bought by Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Division for £48.7m. The 38-site group, which was owned by CVC and is No18 in the AM100 with a turnover of £499m, will provide a remarketing outlet for a proportion of the contract hire company's 70,000 used car disposals per year.
Around £30m-worth of manufacturer-owned BMW, Volvos and Saab cars were consigned to the deep following Saturday's collision between two ships in the English Channel. The Norwegian-registered Tricolour containing the 2,862 cars sank 30 miles east of Ramsgate.
The EU has now ratified the proposals for the introduction of sulphur-free fuel throughout the community. The agreement means that petrol and diesel with less than 10ppm of sulphur content will be available throughout the EU from 1 January 2005.
Franz Fehrenbach is to be the new chairman of Bosch GMBH. He takes over on 1 July 2003 from Dr Hermann Scholl who has occupied the chair since 1993. Fehrenbach joined Bosch in 1975 and has been a member of the board of management since 1999.
Inchcape has forecast that its full-year profit before tax should be 8.5 per cent higher than in 2001. The group forecasts a profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptionals, of £106.2m (2001= 97.9m).
More than 1200 Jaguar workers in the UK are to be balloted over strike action this week. The members of the Amicus union are dissatisfied with the company's recent pay offer. The postal ballot opens today and will close on January 6.
Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr is to be the subject of an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the allocation to him of shares in Goldman Sachs – the investment bank which has taken $90m in fees from the carmaker since 1996.
The Fiat board has today confirmed Allessandro Barberis as its new chief executive to replace Gabriele Galateri. The appointment of Mr Barberis came at the end of a tense meeting which formed a showdown between the Government/Mediobanco/Agnelli family axis which is determined to keep Fiat in Italian hands, and the creditor banks which are keen to go ahead with the agreed restructuring plan - which includes 8,000 lay-offs.
Morgan has launched a new sponsorship scheme to fund the provision of a fully-fledged works team for the 2003 Le Mans event. For a £1,000 membership fee, sponsors can become an “Official Morgan Team Partner.”
Volkswagen has expressed an interest in participating in one Mediobanco-inspired restructuring option for debt-torn Fiat Auto. The German carmaker would like to own a chunk of a hived off Alfa-Romeo/Ferrari grouping.
The problems created by having to fit large UK-design registration plates to imported vehicles designed for smaller foreign plates have been solved by the DVLA. The agency has approved smaller character size numberplates on some imported cars.
The latest European Commission report on CO2 emissions strategy progress points to a 10 per cent reduction in emissions from new passenger cars sold onto the EU market since 1995. The RMI has hailed the news.
A threat by Fiat's creditor banks to back out of its agreed purchase of half of Fiat's car financing operations looks to have effectively blocked the appointment of Enrico Bondi as chief executive. It now looks as if Alessandro Barberis, currently Fiat's director general, will be appointed at the Fiat board meeting today.
Land Rover has announced that it will be looking for 1000 redundancies at its Solihull plant in 2003. The carmaker hopes that most of the job cuts will be achieved through a voluntary redundancy package and natural wastage.
Paragon Car Finance made £162.4m (2001 = £138.5m) in advances in the year to 30 September 2002 – a rise of 17.3 per cent. The value of the loan book rose 28.7 per cent from £188.7m to £242.8m.
The Chinese car finance market is to be opened up to foreign motor finance companies with major WTO liberalisation of its financial markets next year. And with sales of 1.1m cars this year – an increase of more than 50 per cent on 2001 – the foreign car manufacturers in the Chinese market are ahead of the game in seeking motor finance provider status.
If the man tipped to replace Fiat's chief executive Gabriele Galateri gets the nod from the company's board on Friday, the appointment could mean the prompt resignation of Fiat chairman Paulo Fresco.
BMW's Mini is subject to another recall. This time, 26,000 owners of right hand drive models built before June have been contacted. The recall is for a handbrake problem and follows instances of vehicles rolling away after being parked.
Volkswagen is to modify and get “better value” out of its platform strategy as a means of cutting costs. Group chairman Berndt Pischetsrieder says he intends to extend each platform's longevity to 12 years from the current eight year average.
Yorkshire car importers Motor Vehicle Industries are sueing MG Rover for £58m for allegedly reneging on a deal to sell imported Indian Tata and Russian Avtogaz cars and pick-ups through the UK carmaker's dealer network.
GM is set to sign a £69m deal with its long-standing partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Group to invest in a new car plant in China. The new Yantai Bodyshop plant, which will be joint-owned by GM and SAIG, will effectively increase GM's car production by 50 per cent.
TRW Inc, the parent company of Lucas brand owner TRW Automotive, and defence contractor Northrop Grumman have merged after both sets of shareholders yesterday voted unanimously in favour of the deal. This clears the way for Northrop Grumman to then sell on TRW Automotive to New York Equity House Blackstone Group for £2.99bn.
DaimlerChrysler UK has now submitted a planning application for its Heritage and Technology Centre for Mercedes-Benz at the historic Brooklands racetrack site at Weybridge in Surrey.
The alternative fuel debate powers on, with liquefied petroleum gas conversions at the fore. The problem with LPG (and compressed natural gas) vehicles is that they fit into two different categories – manufacturer conversions from the likes of Vauxhall and Volvo, offering factory-produced cars and then the aftermarket conversions. One of CAP's most frequently asked questions is what the effect these conversions have on used values.
The possibility of a luxury car maker “supergroup” emerging from the ashes of Fiat Auto – with VW involvement – may be the preferred option of the bank which the Italian Government had hoped would take over the ailing carmaker. But that plan, increasingly gaining media attention, was overshadowed by yesterday's shock resignation of Fiat Group chief executive Gabriele Galateri.
