Mixed January for US car retailers as Chrysler and Ford beat forecasts February 1, 2012 FIAT-OWNED Chrysler Group posted a 44 per cent rise in US car sales in January, led by gains for its Jeep brand, while its larger domestic rival General Motors lost ground in a month marked by modest growth. Chrysler’s sales blew past some analysts’ expectations of a 35 per cent increase, demonstrating the unlikely comeback [...]
Ford revenues up but profits slip January 27, 2012 Car manufacturer Ford has reported that fourth quarter operating profit fell to $1.1bn (£700m), down $189m (£120m) on the same period last year, as the firm failed to meet analysts’ targets. This is despite quarterly net income of $13.6bn (£8.65bn), a $13.4bn (£8.46bn) increase from fourth quarter 2010. Revenues shot up thanks to a one-off [...]
Brown to skipper Scotland January 24, 2012 RUGBY UNION: Edinburgh hooker Ross Ford will captain Scotland in their Six Nations opener against England a week on Saturday after head coach Andy Robinson revealed Saracens No8 Kelly Brown has been ruled out of the tournament with a leg injury.
Boxing clever: the new Land Rover January 24, 2012 Right now Land Rover’s design team is halfway through a programme to redesign the world’s most famous 4×4, the Land Rover Defender. The goal is to take the key elements of the iconic car and create a cool, new and modern version of a design that has remained mostly unchanged since 1948. For the time [...]
Volvo hunting for partner to develop compact vehicles January 22, 2012 VOLVO Cars is hunting for a partner to share in the development of its compact models. Chief executive Stefan Jacoby, who took the helm at the Swedish brand when Volvo was bought by China’s Zhejiang Geely for $1.8bn (£1.16bn) in 2010, said a partnership would make sense for the relatively small carmaker to find economies [...]
Ratings agencies won’t be trusted without a fight January 22, 2012 THE Big Three rating agencies hardly seem to be out of the news with their ability to move markets. Following Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decision to reduce its assessment of the health of France’s sovereign debt by one notch to AA+ from AAA status, top German politicians like Michael Fuchs and others have jumped on [...]
CAR TALK January 10, 2012 ECONOMICAL C1 GETS A REFRESH Citroen’s smallest car gets a fresh look for 2012. The latest C1 is cleaner and greener and boast more than 65.7mpg, emitting just 99g/km of CO2 and making it Congestion Charge exempt. It goes on sale in April. NEW MONDEO SHOWS OFF ASTON MARTIN-LIKE GRILL Ford revealed its latest Mondeo [...]
We’re the 100 per cent because we all pay tax January 9, 2012 DEBATES about tax can be pretty taxing – as two recent examples of both sides of the debate embellishing the facts to create outrage out of nothing clearly show. In a recent report, Action Aid found that 98 per cent of FTSE 100 companies had subsidiaries that operated within a tax haven. There are problems [...]
Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is that no-one tries to scrap what the Iron Lady achieved January 5, 2012 THIS isn’t a review of The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and on general release in cinemas this week [For this, see p. 18]. I’m sure it’s a fine film and I’ll see it once I can scrape together the money from my dwindling pension for a pair of tickets and some [...]
US CAR MANUFACTURING JUMPS January 4, 2012 US CAR sales jumped in December, suggesting growth in consumer confidence. Chrysler’s sales are up 37 per cent, Ford’s rose by 10 per cent and Nissan’s increased by 7.7 per cent. Meanwhile, factory output rose in November, according to US commerce department data also released yesterday. New orders rose by 1.8 per cent to $459.2bn [...]