Archive for April, 2009

Mahindra signs two MoUs with Corporation Bank

M&M’s Automotive Sector makes a wide range of vehicles including MUVs, LCVs and three wheelers. It also manufactures the Logan passenger car through a JV with Renault SA of France. Mahindra is the largest manufacturer of MUVs, offering over 20 models including new generation utility vehicles like the Scorpio and the Bolero.

Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. (MNAL) is a 51:49 Joint Venture between Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) and Navistar Inc. USA.  MNAL manufactures the entire spectrum of commercial vehicles ranging from 3.5 – 49 tons GVW/GCW. These products are developed to suit Indian conditions and will set new levels of reliability, efficiency and customer experience in the commercial vehicle industry. Apart from a joint venture to manufacture trucks and buses, in November 2007, Navistar signed a second joint venture agreement with Mahindra & Mahindra, Ltd., this one focused on producing diesel engines for Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles in India.

Sourced via zigwheels.com

Councillors aim to put trackers in vehicles

THE days when council employees could use official vehicles to “park off” and “hang around” at roadhouses are numbered.

Buffalo City councillors, concerned about the constant abuse of the municipal fleet, want all cars fitted with tracking devices to monitor their use. The idea was debated during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Council Speaker Luleka Simon said the directorate responsible for vehicles needed to note the councillors’ concerns.

“We are saying our vehicles mustn’t be abused. We must put a tracking system into all vehicles,” Simon said.

She said there was a tendency by employees to conveniently “leave their jackets at the office” and use council vehicles and hang out at city roadhouses .

ANC councillor Sindiswa Gomba said the vehicles should be fitted with tracking devices as a matter of “urgency”.

DA councillor Terence Fritz said employees were not even using logbooks to indicate where they were taking vehicles.

“I just want to ask for a simple thing like the use of a logbook.”

Fritz said he had raised the issue of tracking devices in 2007.

“I raised that question not last year, but the previous year. We’ve got a fleet management with inspectors checking the vehicles. But some directorates don’t want to fill in these logbooks . So the acting municipal manager must check and report back to us ,” Fritz said.

Councillor Sizwe Dikimolo said it was good that the issue had been raised because the budget for the next financial year was being prepared.

When council met last month to approve adjustments to the city’s capital and operating budgets, the municipal vehicle fleet was boosted by a further R4 million.

Sourced via dispatch.co.za

GM, Ford offer zero per cent finance, incentives to bolster car sales news

In the wake of US administration’s strict order to perform or cease to exist, carmakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp are offering new incentive plans to push up sales and boost customer confidence.

Ford on Tuesday said it will offer zero per cent financing through its subsidiary and cover payments for up to 12 months on any new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle if customers lose their jobs. The offer will run through 1 June.

Immediately after, GM came out with a new plan that offers payment protection for the first 24 months of ownership. If a buyer loses his income, the company will make up to nine months’ worth of payments for up to $500 a month. GM will also help protect the retail value of a new vehicle at trade-in time for a customer’s next GM vehicle.

Chrysler and Hyundai have been offering zero per cent financing, along with rebates, employee pricing and discounts of up to $6,000 since January as it looked to clear out dealers’ inventories and boost sales. However, the incentives appeared to provide little boost to sales.

The US administration has also come up with several incentives to woo customers. President Barack Obama in a television show said the warranty will now be safer than it’s ever been, because starting today, the US government will stand behind your warranty. The administration is also exploring ways to provide tax credits or vouchers for people who trade in older gas guzzlers for new cars.

And the Internal Revenue Service on Monday began touting a tax break introduced last month that allows some car buyers to deduct from their income taxes the sales and excise taxes on purchases made by the end of the year.

Auto makers are expected to show another steep decline in March sales as consumers worry about weak economic conditions and reduced credit availability. US auto sales, which fell 41 per cent in February, have dropped to their lowest levels in more than a quarter century.

GM’s 2-day old chief executive Frederick Henderson said at a press conference that no auto maker can be successful in the US marketplace that has annual sales in the range of 9.5 million vehicles. As such, they need to take steps to ”bring customers back into the equation.”

”It’s about confidence, credit and employment. What we tried to do is deal with all three of those things in a well-structured programme,” said Henderson, who took over as CEO on Monday replacing Rick Wagoner, who was shown the door by the Obama administration.

Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas, said the government ‘supported’ the new financing initiative as part of its commitment to fund the auto maker for 60 days.

Ford vice president of sales and marketing Ken Czubay said on Tuesday the company wanted to help rebuild faith in the marketplace as consumers remain anxious about the economy.

In the face of recession, GM and its financing arm have received a total of about $19.3 billion tax payers’ money, while Chrysler and its financing arm have received about $5.5 billion.

New survival kit for carmakers
Obama on Monday, using the threat of bankruptcy as a weapon, vowed to transform the US auto industry by pushing GM and Chrysler to make major changes in exchange for billions in additional taxpayer money they need to survive.

The  administration has given GM 60 days and ”adequate working capital” to produce a better restructuring plan, and Chrysler 30 days to work out a deal with Fiat or another partner.

Setting aside doubts that the administration is trying to nationalise the industry Obama said, “let me be clear — the US government has no interest in running GM. What we are interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make those much-needed changes that will let them emerge from this crisis a stronger and more competitive company.”

Administration officials said a quick, government-led bankruptcy would be a last resort. But if it comes to that, they said, the court process could be used to separate the companies’ good assets from the bad. The good assets would form stand-alone companies to survive or be sold; the bad assets would be eliminated.

The administration is forcing Chrysler into the arms of Italian automaker Fiat after the president’s auto task force determined that Chrysler was not viable as a stand-alone company.

Under the revised terms of a proposed alliance between Chrysler and Fiat, the Italian company would take an initial 20-per cent stake in the US auto maker, down from 35 per cent stake agreed to under its January pact.

Fiat has been in negotiations with the Obama administration’s task force, and the government said on Monday that Fiat is viewed as the only route to survival for Chrysler.

“We believe we will arrive at a result that will establish a credible future for this crucial industrial sector,” Fiat Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said in a statement.

If Fiat and Chrysler reach a definitive alliance agreement, the government would consider investing as much as $6 billion more in Chrysler.

“We cannot, and must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish,” Obama said, adding that its survival can’t depend “on an unending flow of taxpayer dollars,” and “these companies must ultimately stand on their own, not as wards of the state.”

GM lost $30.9 billion in 2008 and sold 23 per cent fewer cars from 2007 to 2008. Chrysler, a smaller company, lost $8 billion and sold 30 per cent fewer cars.
Ford, the other part of the ”big three” US automakers, is better off and says it does not need government help to survive.

Sourced via domain-b.com

2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Stuttgart engineers are putting the years of cost-cut me-too Benzes behind them. Ditto the endless distractions of the Chrysler affair. The 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class represents Daimler’s contrition for those sins. Like the recent C and S, the new E-Class is a return-path to what people always loved Mercedes for: a solid, safe, comfortable, conservative car in which you can invest utter faith.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been progress — it’s clearly part of the new design generation.

The E posts impressive economy and performance numbers thanks to careful weight reduction, low aero drag, and powertrain improvements. It inherits a panoply of fancy driver-assist systems from the S-Class. But overall, the impression is that nothing has been done to upset the solid evolution and granite-like quality.

The design sits somewhere between crisp and boxy, with a bluff front end desperate (almost too desperate) to imply status. The flank design is pleasing, with good sculpture and, in the fairing behind the rear wheelhouse, a sly reference to its ancestor the 1953 “ponton” Mercedes. The look is a bit busy, but there’s lots of surface detail and it’s hardly boring. And the aero performance is superb, with a Cd of just 0.28.
Inside, the instrument binnacle is equally bluff, and the switchgear and surfaces feel like they’re built for the end of time. All models get a high-mounted center ICE/Navigation screen with superb control logic and graphics. The cars we drove featured poly-adjustable
heated and cooled massaging seats, but the normal chairs are also shaped for a perfect long-distance driving position. Rear head-and legroom are carefully planned for this car’s pivotal role in the German taxi trade.
The bodyshell uses high-strength steel to produce better crash results than ever without adding weight. Indeed, the shell is optimized for the V-6 models: The V-8 and AMG editions get reinforcements, so that the base-engine cars aren’t unnecessarily heavy. To protect pedestrians who stray into its path, the rear of the hood pops up on impact to give their heads a cushioned landing.

A switch to a three-link front suspension improves crash performance, though it required a lot of development driving to ensure the dynamics weren’t compromised compared with the more complex previous design. The new suspension also improves component commonality with the C-Class. In fact, Mercedes engineers no longer talk of the C and E being separate platforms.

Sourced via Motortrend.com