Please Be Informed...

Sydney motor show opens without big names.

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Holden says you'll be able to buy its electric car in 2012; Renault and Skoda both bring new mid-size SUV's, Mazda shows it's frankly startling Taiki concept car and the industry says it expects to sell one car for every twenty people in Australia in the next year. But some big names don't think it's worth making the trip.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Ford for when mummy becomes nanny

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Ford has announced that its next generation of cars will feature parental controls.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Socialism's big day

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Britain's Left, led by Gordon Brown who, with Tony Blair has presided over a stealthy but steady move towards both socialism and republicanism in the UK over the past eleven years will today, via Brown's proxy at the Treasury, announce the biggest step left yet, as they nationalise large parts of a strategic industry.

CoNet Section:

Politics and Economies

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Euro Auto going badly

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Where will the axe fall next? Renault's plans to cut 6,000 jobs are not the first cuts in the European car industry.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Cars: "it's called what?"

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It used to be the preserve of Japanese manufacturers to call their cars by stupid names. Then marketing men all over the world got involved and now it's a global idiocy. The latest batch of new names is, quite simply, ridiculous. Or is it?

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Now that's what I call a Lotus

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It was a sad day when I stood in Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre at the British Motor Show in the mid 1980s and failed to buy a British sports car for the sole reason that there wasn't one I liked that had anywhere to put a child seat. Now there is.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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660,000 cars recalled in the USA.

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General Motors and Toyota in the US are recalling cars for a variety of defects

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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VW recalls Passats

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Volkswagen has issued a voluntary recall in the USA for many Passats built between 1999-2005.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Ford says TATA to Jaguar and Range Rover

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It is expected that Ford, which had already said that Tata of India was its preferred bidder, will shortly announce that Jaguar and Range Rover will be sold to TATA for USD2 milliard.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Ford finally gets it right - just in time to lose it

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Ford sold Aston Martin to an investment company and then put Jaguar and Range Rover up to sale, recently declaring TATA of India to be the preferred bidder. It's yet another faux pas in the recent history where, so far as the company's accounts are concerned, it's any colour you want so long as it's red.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Canada bites back

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Here's a puzzle - what's northern, big, white and grumpy? No, it's not a polar bear. It's Canada - at least when it comes to its car manufacturing industry. What's that, you say? Does Canada have a car manufacturing industry? Apparently so.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Ford: WTF?

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131,400 - the number of minutes in a three months

44140 - the number of USD Ford has lost in each one of them

46,326 - the average annual income for Americans 2005 - Source US Census Office.

CoNet Section:

Automotive Industry

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Gas Powered Public Transport - how it began (part 2)

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Continuing the story of the world's first Rolls Royce powered bus running on natural gas.

For part 1 see How it began
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.... The bus was taken out onto the road: the test driver brought it back after a short trip. He was shaking. "It's terrifying," he said.

CoNet Section:

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Gas Powered Public Transport - how it began (part 1)

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In the mid 1970s, bus engineer Roy Cotterill and his brother-in-law Rolls-Royce marketing man Lionel Gibbs sat around Roy's dining room table in Stockton on Tees, Teesside, with the plans of a secret Rolls-Royce engine project and the engineering diagrams of a Daimler Fleetline bus. Could they mate the advanced engine with a passenger transit vehicle and if so what would be the cost implications and benefits / disadvantages. And what happened to the project?

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