CAR's daily guide to the auto industry news stories that matter

News watch September 2011: today's auto industry news

By Tim Pollard

Motor Industry

30 September 2011 09:28

Come to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour

Friday 30 September 2011• Toyota and Honda have both returned to full production after Easter's disastrous earthquake. September car sales will be released next week, and Bloomberg predicts a rise to 12.8 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (Bloomberg)
• The US now predicts a slightly smaller 2011 full-year sales total. Most analysts now agree 12.6 million new car sales are likely - lower than the 13m that had been projected (Detroit News)

Thursday 29 September 2011• Swedish Automobile, owner of Saab, has sold Spyker Cars, the Anglo-Dutch supercar maker. American private equity house North Street Capital has paid around $43 million for the boutique car maker (Automotive News Europe)
• The Spyker sale means that the UK's CPP in Coventry has missed out; it had entered negotiations to buy Spyker, but an MOU had lapsed this summer. Victor Muller will remain chairman of Spyker and the deal hinged on North Street Capital's ability to fund long-term projects
• PSA could be the worst hit by the economic uncertainty, judging by the 41% slump in its shares in 2011, reports ANE. The gap to Volkswagen's stock has accelerated to  €91 - from a 10-year average of  €16 (Automotive News Europe)

Wednesday 28 September 2011• Bentley has a new chief engineer: Rolf Frech, 53, replaces Ulrich Eichorn, who's leaving to become managing director of the VDA, or German association of the automobile industry. Frech has worked at Porsche since 1983 and latterly worked on the Cayenne and Panamera, which will prove useful as Crewe moves into new waters with cars such as its proposed SUV (Bentley Motors)
• General Motors chief exec says that GM Europe is now profitable. Dan Akerson said the turnaround plan was working and they hoped to see further growth after Opel's $102 million pre-tax profit in the second quarter (Automotive News Europe)
• Aston Martin is today named the coolest brand in the UK. London agency Superbrands conducts the most influential survey of consumer tastes and publishes its findings annually (BBC News)
• GM plans to idle its Fort Wayne plant to cut production of full-size trucks. Sales of large pick-ups are still slow in America and GM is balancing its inventories (Automotive News)

Tuesday 27 September 2011• The new Ferrari 458 Spider will be priced at €226,800 in Europe when sales start in October (Automotive News Europe)
• Not content with his duties at General Motors and Lotus, former GM product chief Bob Lutz has joined the board of an American hybrid powertrain company. Via Motors, in Utah, has developed a plug-in hybrid system for pick-up trucks (Automotive News)
• The US Senate has agreed not to cut $1.5 billion from its rescue package to the American car industry. It is pumping money in to encourage the development of fuel efficient cars (Detroit News)