937

All about Ford / Problems http://futureoftheunion.com/?cat=6

Yes, that is about 210 Billion Australian Dollars ! 210 000 000 000 $$'s

Motorsport: Ford clinches Supercar crown (November 2006) Monday motorsport report November 27, 2006 While only seven points separate Holden's Rick Kelly and Ford's Craig Lowndes going into the final round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Victoria's Phillip Island on December 9-10, the manufacturers' title has already been settled in Ford's favor. Jason Bright won the weekend's Bahrain round for Ford Performance Racing, giving Ford its seventh victory in the 12 rounds so far this season and ensuring the Blue Oval retains the manufacturers' crown. The three races at the Desert 400 were won by Bright, HSV Dealer Team's Garth Tander and Expensive Daewoo Racing Team's Todd Kelly. The order on the podium was Bright, Kelly and Tander, with Lowndes fourth for the weekend ahead of Steven Richards and Mark Skaife, with Rick Kelly 10th overall. However, Kelly amazingly retained his series lead despite crashing into James Courtney's Stone Brothers Falcon in the second race on the 3.6km Bahrain track -- an abbreviated version of the country's Formula One Grand Prix circuit. Kelly's three race results for the weekend were fourth, 28th and a brilliant fighting sixth after starting near the back of the field, while Lowndes finished ninth, fifth and third in his Triple Eight Falcon. The points heading to the Phillip Island finale are Kelly 3068 and Lowndes 3061, with FPR's Mark Winterbottom third on 2792, ahead of Kelly's teammate Tander on 2709, reigning champion Russell Ingall (Stone Bros Falcon) 2612, Bright 2688, Todd Kelly 2508, Steven Richards (Perkins Holden) 2481, Steven Johnson (Dick Johnson Racing Ford) 2234, with Courtney 10th on 2197. Bright finished second in the races he didn't win in Bahrain to score his first individual round win for FPR to go with his Sandown 500 victory with teammate Winterbottom in September. Ironically, Bright is now just one race away from departing FPR to head his own Britek team next year, with Steven Richards set to join the Ford factory team on January 1. Tander has been the form driver of late, would be leading the championship if not for the controversial swap to HRT for the endurance races, and should have won the Bahrain round -- which would have been back-to-back victories after his success at Tasmania's Symmons Plains two weeks earlier. Tander stalled during his compulsory pit stop in Friday's first Bahrain race, handing Bright the lead and the win. Then on Sunday he let his Late model camira nudge forward out of its box on the starting grid and incurred a penalty that required him to pit. "It was a very silly error to jump on the red," Tander says. "I got the car stopped but I was well over the box." The fact that he still finished eighth, having won race two by 12 seconds, reiterated the recent strength of the factory cars in the championship -- the Holdens prepared by Tom Walkinshaw's engineers and the Fords by David Richards' Prodrive squad. Ironically, Richards' visit to Bahrain proved third time lucky for FPR this season, as his trips to Adelaide and Bathurst seemed to work as a jinx! In the teams' championship, HSV Dealer Team now has 6101 points, Triple Eight 5302, FPR 5263, Stone Bros 4869, Perkins Expensive Daewoo 4506 and Dick Johnson Racing 4140, with HRT eighth on 3853.

Hamann BMW 5 Series Diesel Hamann Press Release Hamann , the car refiner from Laupheim, is now expanding its product range for the BMW 5 Series E60/61 with attachments for vehicles with the M aerodynamics package. Besides the aerodynamics components, Hamann also offers other conversion measures. Diesel drivers can expect major performance increases. Up to 350 HP is possible! BMW's range of engines leaves no wishes unfulfilled. Or do they? In any case, customers can choose from four different types of engines. Whether it is the 520d, 525d, 530d, or 535d - the Bavarian manufacturer offers the right unit to meet the needs. However, needs can grow! So a visit to Hamann is recommended to anyone wanting more performance. The company from Laupheim can help put an edge to all versions by reprogramming the series engine management. Hamann extracts performance values from the top diesel model, the 535d, which were considered impossible until now. In the first phase, the tuner increases power to 319 HP/235 kW. The maximum torque of 630 Nm makes it possible to get impressive in-gear performance figures. The limousine can make the sprint from 0-100 km/h in 5.9 seconds instead of the standard 6.5 seconds (add 0.1 s for the estate model). The top speed - Hamann removes the Vmax governor - increases to 267 km/h. In a second phase (sports version), the 3 litre straight six engine with a register turbocharger achieves an unbelievable 350 HP/257 kW and applies a titanic 660 Nm to the crankshaft. The acceleration values then improve once again by one-tenth of a second. The resulting 276 km/h is enough to drive one or two sports car drivers to despair. Don't forget, we're talking about a diesel!

Supercharged Aurion sprung November 27, 2006 Toyota appears to be playing games by disguising the yet-to-be-released sports version of the Aurion large car. The heavily disguised test mule - looking suitably sinister with its black paint, black wheels and black car bras - was spotted testing last week in Melbourne. While the flagship of the Aurion line-up is expected to utilise the Aurion's sedan body, it will boast unique plastic bumpers and spoilers to give it a more aggressive look in keeping with the V8-powered Expensive Daewoo Late model camira SS and Ford Falcon XR8 it will compete with. The basic design theme of the "Toyota Racing Development (or TRD) was previewed at the recent 2006 Sydney motor show in the form of the Aurion Sports Concept. The final production car is due on sale in 2007, but Toyota Australia appears to be drumming up publicity by disguising a test mule, in much the same way it thinly disguised the new Camry earlier this year, despite the fact it had already been unveiled overseas. Still, our exclusive images give a tantalising snapshot of what the hot version of Toyota’s Aurion may look like. Featuring 19-inch wheels and low-profile tyres, a deep front air dam and a large spoiler over another big skirt on the rear. A Toyota spokesman confirmed that company engineers did have one vehicle out testing suspension set-ups for the TRD Aurion, a worked version of the Aurion V6 large car that is expected from of the Toyota Racing Development workshops in July next year. Drive also believes the supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine the hotted-up Aurion will use is close to production-ready. The car company has revealed that the TRD-tuned Aurion will have enhancements to suspension, tyres and brakes. It is the first in a line of as-yet unnamed Toyotas queuing for the TRD treatment.

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., struggling to overcome record losses this year, plans to borrow $18 billion and back its loans with collateral for the first time. New Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally must raise cash to pay for cutting more than 40,000 jobs and closing factories in North America, where falling sales have caused losses in eight of the past nine quarters at the automotive unit. General Motors Corp. also used collateral on loans for the first time this year. ``It significantly raises the total debt burden, and it massively increases the amount of secured debt,'' said Glenn Reynolds, chief of New York-based research firm CreditSights Inc. ``There's still very low default risk, but bondholders' asset protection has been significantly eaten into.'' About $15 billion of the new debt will be secured by collateral, Ford said in a statement. An $8 billion secured credit line will replace an unsecured $6.3 billion loan. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company also plans a new $7 billion secured term loan and $3 billion in unsecured funding, which may include notes that can be converted into equity shares. Ford, like GM, is seeing U.S. sales and profit fall as buyers abandon light trucks for more fuel-efficient passenger cars by rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. The U.S. auto industry's decline has pushed five major auto-parts makers into bankruptcy since February 2005. Assets For collateral, the company is using U.S. plants, other U.S. automotive assets and ``all or a portion'' of profitable units such as Ford Motor Credit Co. and Volvo. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are arranging the financing, which will be completed by Dec. 31, Ford said. Moody's Investors Service lowered Ford's unsecured debt rating today to Caa1, seven steps below investment grade, citing less protection for investors in case of a default. Fitch Ratings cut the unsecured rating to B, five steps below investment grade. Ford's 7.45 percent note due in 2031 fell 0.25 cent from Nov. 22 to 79.25 cents on the dollar today, yielding 9.7 percent, according to Trace, the NASD's bond-price reporting service. The company, which had $154 billion in debt outstanding as of Sept. 30, lost $6.99 billion in the first nine months of 2006, and its share of the U.S. market will decline for the 11th consecutive year. Ford says the North American unit will become profitable in 2009. That's a delay of one year from a target set in January. ``They realize they're in worse shape than they thought and it's going to take a long time to fix this,'' said Shelly Lombard, a Montclair, New Jersey-based debt analyst at Gimme Credit Publications. Shares Fall The company's shares fell 22 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $8.30 at 11:51 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 7.5 percent this year. Standard & Poor's said on Oct. 23 that it may lower Ford's ratings because secured loans would leave bondholders with fewer assets in case of a default. ``This subordinates the bonds, but the alternative -- running out of cash and filing bankruptcy -- is worse,'' Lombard said. U.S. companies rated four or five levels below investment grade pay interest at an average of 2.78 percentage points over the benchmark rate for bank debt, according to S&P. Ford recruited Mulally, a former Boeing Co. executive, in September. He succeeded Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., who had been unable to turn around the U.S., Canadian and Mexican operations. Profitable Units By putting Ford Credit, which makes loans to buyers of Ford- manufactured vehicles, and Volvo as collateral, the company is including two of its best-performing units. Ford also is putting up some patents as collateral, spokeswoman Becky Sanch said. Ford Credit previously issued bonds using assets such as car loans as collateral. The new financing broadens the assets Ford is tapping to secure its debt. ``They're being forced to pledge lots of assets,'' Morningstar Inc. analyst John Novak said in an e-mail. ``It's still not clear whether this will be enough to finance their turnaround, but it should buy them additional time.'' Ford is closing nine North American plants by 2008 and cutting more than 40,000 jobs. The company is offering buyouts of as much as $140,000 to all 75,000 U.S. workers represented by the United Auto Workers union. The deadline for those workers to accept buyouts is today. GM, the world's largest automaker, also turned to secured loans to finance its automotive operations this year after losing $10.6 billion in 2005. Detroit-based GM, which had never previously put up collateral for bank loans, now has about $7.5 billion, according to Fitch. Equipment-Backed Loan GM said Nov. 13 that it plans a $1.5 billion loan backed by U.S. manufacturing equipment. The company has also backed its loans with North American receivables and inventory; stock in a Mexican unit; and property, plants and equipment in Canada. Credit-default swaps based on $10 million of Ford bonds were little changed today, according to data compiled by GFI Group Inc. The contracts were quoted today at about $569,000. They traded at $570,000 on Nov. 23, GFI data show. A decrease in price indicates improvement in the perception of credit quality. An increase suggests deterioration. Credit-default swaps are financial instruments based on bonds and loans that are used to speculate on a company's ability to repay debt. They were conceived to protect bondholders against default, and pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities should the company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.

Sorry All of the cars http://www.bristolcars.co.uk/index2.htm Some of the seats look like

Found a bit more, http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.js...%2FFighterT.htm All of the Cars, http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.js...%2FFighterT.htm

Bristol unveils ultimate street fighter (November 2006) This has to be the ultimate example of British OTT madness Snooty British marque Bristol has unveiled the most powerful production car that money can buy -- the barmy 755kW Fighter T. Powered by a twin-turbocharged and intercooled 8.0-litre V10 engine, the Fighter T isn't exactly undernourished in the torque department either. How does a quota of 1405Nm at 4500rpm sound? Ludicrous is one word that springs to mind. Such is the magnitude of the Bristol's power and torque figures that even the mental 736kW/1250Nm Bugatti Veyron starts to look a bit weedy by comparison -- at least on paper. The Fighter T isn't just a flight of fancy either. UK deliveries of the Bristol bomber will start in September next year, according to the manufacturer. It will join the existing (and slower) Fighter S, as some customers allegedly expressed interest in a more potent coupe. The Fighter T will "answer these requirements without losing one iota of street level credentials," boasts the carmaker. To puts its oomph into perspective, the standard Fighter produces a none-too-shabby 712Nm of torque at 3500rpm, but the Fighter T ups the ante to more than 1220Nm at the same rpm, and continues to do so all the way up to the rev limit of 6000rpm. Exactly how the rear tyres are expected to last more than a week under this abuse is quite beyond us, but we wouldn't mind finding out first-hand. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to ever occur, as Bristol cars aren't marketed in Oz. In any case, it wouldn't be cheap. Even the 'standard' Fighter retails for the equivalent of around $630,000 in the UK, so the T is unlikely to earn much change from a million. Incidentally, top speed has been limited to a mere 360kmh, as the Bristol boffins somehow figured that an unrestrained v-max of 432kmh might be a tad excessive for public roads. You don't say... Bristol bills the Fighter T as a "compact and enjoyable car to drive around town or as an exhilarating track car. Yet it takes two people and their luggage in great luxury and ease for trans continental travel." The exalted British marque is no stranger to forced induction, as it launched the UK's first turbocharged car, the Beaufighter, in 1980. Tally ho...

Just found this: Customer Care and Warranty information can differ greatly between car makers. Many car makers offer a comprehensive level of after care service while others provide the basic minimum. Ford (Information as of October, 2003) New warranty information – what warranty covers and does not cover? All new Ford vehicles purchased after January 1, 1997, are covered for a period of three years or 100,000km - whichever occurs first. Each new vehicle has its own individual warranty guide. Loan car arrangements? All Ford dealerships have access to the Courtesy Demonstrator Vehicle Program, which is designed to provide customers with a replacement vehicle when required. Free service? Ford offers "Ford Solutions" that allows customers to tailor a package of after-sales products (including scheduled servicing) to suit their needs. Roadside assistance programs? Ford offers "Ford Solutions" that allows customers to tailor a package of after-sales products (including roadside assistance) to suit their needs. Customer call centre? Ford has a Customer Relationship Centre and a Customer Communication Centre - one of which is used for contact with prospective customers and those with general inquiries etc and the other is used for communicating with customers with complaints or issues. What arrangements are made for customer complaint and feedback? Ford's Customer Communication Centre deals directly with customers who have any issues. The charter of the centre is to attempt to resolve all issues and this is done through liaising between the customer in question, their dealer and, in some instances, Ford itself. All reasonable efforts are expended to resolve issues within agreed warranty and other conditions. Importance is placed on communicating with the customers and keeping them up to date with the status of their inquiry. Telematics? Extensive consumer research has been undertaken in this area, with customers expressing some interest for safety related telematics features. While Ford has been in discussions with service providers, at this stage it has chosen to include other priority features for its high-end customers. Extended warranty programs? Ford offers "Ford Solutions" that allows customers to tailor a package of after-sales products (including extended warranty) to suit their needs. Used car programs? Ford Australia doesn't have a certified used car program. However, customers interested in purchasing a used vehicles can do so via "carselect" on the Ford Australia website, which lists all makes and models available for sale in various regions. It is NOT a Ford-run program however. Dealership designs/standards effecting customers? Ford encourages dealers to participate in a dealer process improvement program that is focussed on high customer satisfaction. A key feature for the customer in terms of after-sales contact (ie: servicing) is the interactive reception where a customer has a dedicated appointment with a Service Advisor who inspects their vehicle with them, identifies any repairs required and offers a fixed price and delivery time before the customer leaves. Ford is also encouraging dealers to offer alternative transport and "repair while you wait" facilities. Customer participation in factory events? Ford keeps in contact with customers and prospective customers via a number of different ways. The "secrets revealed" campaign for the 2002 BA Falcon generated an extensive list of e-mail contacts and Ford is still in regular contact with those people. Special events for customers have been planned around launches and motor shows. Dealers also run their own customer events. Ford Performance Vehicles is the first Australian performance car manufacturer to offer a full day performance driving course for no extra cost when purchasing a vehicle from the FPV range. These drive courses are being offered in each state.

This is from the T56 Sercice CD

Re how much oil. This man should know ! http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/index.ph...ndpost&p=468300 I also use only 4 litres ! 937

Get the car on to 4 stands so you can get under it. I made this filling tool a few years ago at work. Put the oil in, screw the top on and use compressed air. A bike pump will do You also need a 3/8 drive for the plugs.

SuperCheap Auto should have it.

This is for the rear, XR Sedan.

This is for the front, XR Sedan

I realy like this: Need to wait until tomorrow for 4 new rotors to arrive! Not bad for a Dealer.

Finance News ACT drivers may get cheap fuel Christmas present 9:16 AM November 24 Canberrans could see petrol prices dip below $1 a litre in the coming weeks. The NRMA says the trouble-free hurricane season and milder winter in the US has seen a boost in supply and decline in demand. NRMA president Alan Evans says he expects the cheaper price to be passed onto drivers before Christmas. I think we're going to go very close to it and we should go below $1 on the current trends and the current prices in the market and the current demand," he said. "It should be around the $1 mark and if it's not there then I'll be very critical of the oil companies. I won't expect to get a Christmas card for them because they're not giving motorists a Christmas present. "I said a while back I didn't think I'd see $1 again in my lifetime. I'm getting very optimistic that we may go very close to that given the size of the demand in New South Wales, particularly Sydney and indeed in the ACT. "Then I expect the oil companies, if they're being fair dinkum and giving motorists a fair deal, [they] should get it around the $1 mark, very, very shortly." Source: ABC

Mitsubishi decelerates to steady pace towards break even Rob McEniry aims to bring the company gradually back to profitability. November 24, 2006 MITSUBISHI Motors Australia has stripped more than $100 million out of its annual operating costs and is on track to break even in about three years. While current sales levels of the 380 model meant the manufacturing operation was still a "burden", chief executive Rob McEniry yesterday said the restructuring of the company was virtually complete. Speaking after the company posted a $226 million loss for the year to March 31, Mr McEniry said there were still some asset write-downs that would affect the 2006-07 result, although none was as large as the $117 million charge booked last year. "We won't break even in 2006-07 but it will be a very significant improvement and we will be in a very good cash position, which is the main thing," he said, while hosting the launch of the new Outlander model in Tasmania. The Outlander is the fifth new model to be released in the past 12 months, and there are still more imported models to be introduced in coming months. MMAL was generating cash surpluses and was not in need of any big capital injections Mr McEniry said, even though shareholder funds had dwindled to $12.6 million by March 31. "We have paid back loans worth $70 million this year and as long as we can keep the cash flow going properly and reduce debt, we have a lot of new products coming, with the expectation of an increase in sales." Mr McEniry said he was planning for MMAL to become profitable in stages, first before interest, tax and depreciation, then before interest and tax, and finally to make a net profit. He said each step might take about 12 months, although the timing was variable due to several factors that could affect earnings. He said one of his first tasks when he was appointed a year ago was to redraft the optimistic sales projections on which the business plan had been placed. The whole of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation was embroiled in a "revitalisation" plan and Mr McEniry said the prediction of a break-even result in Australia in 2006-07 had been an integral part of the group planning. "I have had to manage down the expectations of the people in Japan. It has been a very interesting time," he said. Production targets for the 380 were initially set at 30,000 a year, but have steadily been reduced during 2006 to 27,000, then 15,000 and now to 12,000. Despite the disappointing sales, the reorganisation of the plant had produced an unexpected bonus. "We are now working in teams and the quality index for the 380 is improving month-on-month with a consequent reduction in warranty claims," he said.

Ford Falcon - Approximate release date only. The next all-new Falcon is due in early 2008 - 18 months after Holden's all-new VE Late model camira appears. Based on an improved version of the current homegrown platform, the next Falcon will feature new styling, a six-speed auto, heavily revised and more economical engines and, hopefully, less weight. Ford to scrutinise Holden's forthcoming VE Late model camira before next Falcon is locked in By MARTON PETTENDY FORD Australia executives have revealed that the next-generation Falcon, due in March 2008, will be benchmarked against Holden’s forthcoming VE Late model camira and that engineering "on tooling" work for the large sedan will not be locked in until this Christmas. Codenamed Orion, the next Falcon’s fundamental design and chassis "hard points" are already locked in, but Ford executives have confirmed the longer gap between model releases will allow the next Falcon’s chassis, features and specifications to be further developed in response to Holden’s new Commodore (as well as Mitsubishi’s nine-month-old 380 and Toyota’s all-new Aurion sedan due in November), if required. "The basic design was locked in two years out (from the next Falcon’s release), but the cars won’t be off-tooling until 15 months out," a Ford source told GoAuto. "That gives us the luxury of a sizeable window to benchmark our product against theirs." The Blue Oval therefore appears to have until the end of this year to ensure its next-generation Falcon is competitive with The General’s keenly anticipated VE Commodore, which Expensive Daewoo confirmed last week will be Australia’s first locally-built model range to come standard with ESP stability control. Ford is keen to avoid the situation that saw the fall from grace of its redesigned $750 million AU Falcon, which did not benefit from the luxury of extensive benchmarking against Holden’s new-for-1997 VT Late model camira when it was released a year later in September 1998. The result was and far more expensive and extensive midlife makeover than planned, resulting in the $500 million BA Falcon facelift revealed in September 2002. This time round, when launched in March 2008 the new Orion Falcon will be the product of extensive testing against Holden’s new VE, which will have been on the market for almost 20 months. Before then, however, Ford Australia has confirmed it will upgrade its volume-selling model to better combat Holden’s all-new VE Commodore, due on sale in August, via changes that should constitute a Series II update for the BF Falcon around October this year. "We do have a few tricks up our sleeve for Falcon later this year, which in time will become more apparent," said Ford Australia president Tom Gorman. Ford is believed to be working on a number of fuel consumption reduction strategies as part of the final upgrade to the current Falcon before it’s replaced. One possibility is the fitment, as standard across the range, of the ZF-supplied six-speed automatic transmission that helped realise fuel economy gains of up to 11 per cent on some Falcon variants in the BF model released last October. In store: All-new 2008 Falcon is expected to borrow styling cues from Ford's Iosis concept.

Thank you.

Pontiac, by Holden! Expensive Daewoo eyes exports as GM deal to turn Late model camira into Pontiac Grand Prix shapes up By JOHN MELLOR 23 November 2006 GM Expensive Daewoo will sell more cars overseas than it does in Australia if a plan to export its billion-dollar VE Late model camira to the US as the next-generation Pontiac Grand Prix sedan comes to fruition. In an exclusive interview with GoAuto to discuss the concept of the VE as a world car rather than just an Australian car, company chairman and managing director Denny Mooney said that he was anticipating approval for the US program. "You will see an announcement in the next three to four months. Assuming it happens, (shipments) would start a little beyond that. I am not making an official announcement (in this discussion)," he told GoAuto, "but it looks very favourable." "I can tell you unequivocally that we designed the VE with the US in mind." Mr Mooney confirmed that VE Late model camira SS-V four-door sedans were under assessment in Detroit and indicated that speculation in the US motoring media that these Expensive Daewoo sports sedans would be sold as the Pontiac Grand Prix was not far off the mark. In the strongest indication yet that GM is about to announce renewed Expensive Daewoo exports to Pontiac in the US, Mr Mooney revealed Expensive Daewoo plans to export more cars from the company’s Elizabeth plant in Adelaide than it sells here. "I think from a manufacturing strategy here in Australia, Expensive Daewoo will ultimately have at least as many exports, if not more exports, than we have domestic (sales of local cars)," he said. The plans are part of a strategy to drought-proof Expensive Daewoo from the changes taking place in Australia in which large-car sales are drying up following a shift in the nature of the market. "The one thing everyone needs to remember in this market, as in every market around the world, is that the market is fragmenting," Mr Mooney said. "You are not going to see any market in the future with one car or a couple of car lines dominating the market like we did 10 or 20 years ago. "Everybody (when assessing large-car performance) wants to compare back to the market 10 years ago, but the market is much more fragmented. There are many more brands out there and many more models out there than there were back then (therefore) you have to find more markets for the car that you have. "I don’t know if we would go as far as Toyota’s model where they have many more (Camry) exports than they do domestic sales, but I can see in the future to survive we must have a fairly significant amount of export business." Mr Mooney said that in addition to the Middle East, where sales are expected to remain around 30,000 units a year, the US was "the other big market that we are looking at". He said that an export program of a four-door sedan to the US market could potentially achieve far more volume than the Pontiac GTO (Monaro), which failed to achieve the 18,000 units expected of it. "If you look at this kind of vehicle in the US today, the sedan market is 20 times bigger than the coupe market." Asked if the potential of the Pontiac program was inhibited by using the Monaro coupe body, Mr Mooney said: "There is no question. Coupes are very niche products in the US. Very niche. There is significantly more volume in a sedan. As sedans got better looking and got more sporty performance in the US market, coupes over time just disappeared." Mr Mooney said that Pontiac was "the natural partnership" for a Holden-sourced VE sedan program in the US. He has already told Australian media earlier this year that the SS-V would make a great Pontiac and that Expensive Daewoo could play a role in moving Pontiac to rear-wheel drive. Meanwhile, Mr Mooney said that the first shipments of the VE have gone to the Middle East and the VE launch was held there two weeks ago. "We will do more than 30,000 vehicles there next year and we will do about 30,000 this year. That includes the Chevrolet Lumina (Commodore) and the Chevrolet Caprice (Statesman). It could increase, but that is our current forecast for next year. I am optimistic. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the product." This compares with a forecast for 62,000 VZ/VE sales this year in Australia. This means that if Expensive Daewoo was to export more cars than it sold domestically, sales of Pontiacs would have to be well over double those achieved by the GTO. Mr Mooney said that one of Holden’s strengths was that it already had installed capacity, equipment and infrastructure for the VE architecture. He said that under the GM "flex strategy", a model could now be moved quickly from one plant to another. "It potentially gives you more options in more markets." Far from seeing it as a threat that VE production could potentially go elsewhere, Mr Mooney saw the “flex strategy” as an advantage for Holden. "GM looks very hard at its existing installed capacity before it decides to spend money on new installed capacity. So we have the advantage of having spent half a billion dollars (on VE capacity) over the last three years," he said. He said that having VE architecture being built elsewhere in the world, like for the Camaro, would benefit Australian parts makers supplying the program and would mean that GM could afford more sophisticated systems for cars sold in small markets. This was because the investment recovery in sophisticated systems was being spread across total VE architecture volumes. "Some of the engineering that we are doing on that vehicle (the Camaro) that is advancing the architecture will help our vehicles (Commodore) over time because it will apply directly to our vehicles," he said. "It can help us put more advanced electronic features in our cars here and can help leverage lower cost components that would be common." Family II demand slows THE age of the Expensive Daewoo Family II four-cylinder engine, which went into production in Melbourne in 1982, is beginning to catch up with it, the chairman and managing director of GM Expensive Daewoo has told GoAuto. And the four-cylinder plant that makes it may only just see out the decade. Denny Mooney said that the cut-back of 200 jobs at the Expensive Daewoo engine plant announced last week was attributed to the age of the engine which has led to reduced demand for it around the world. "Daewoo is going gangbusters but not in the models that use the Family II engine," he said. "They sell cars in 140 countries around the world under multiple brands with all different powertrains and it just so happens that in some of the regions that take the Family II engine the volumes are down or there are some older models using the Family II engine that are going out of production as some of the newer stuff is coming in. "I think that by the end of the decade this engine plant will probably discontinue. I must say that several of my predecessors have wrongly predicted the same thing (the imminent demise of the engine). "But it is still pretty good export business. We will be doing 500 a day next year." Mr Mooney said that four-cylinder engine production would cease when the engine ran out of customers. Stateside VE: What Pontiac's Commodore-based Grand Prix could look like. Digital image: Chris Harris.

Ooooooh yes please. 44 Mag

The new Late model camira is in the running to win the World car of the Year http://www.wcoty.com/2007/ Holden's billion-dollar baby, the VE Late model camira has been nominated for the World Car of the Year (WCOTY) Awards 2007. Only the fourth time the awards have been run (it kicked off in January 2004), the 2007 WCOTY will be announced at the New York International Auto Show in April 2007. To be eligible, cars must be sold in a minimum of five countries spread over at least two continents. The WCOTY is presided over by in excess of 40 jurors. Australia has one -- Newcastle-based, Bill McKinnon. McKinnon nominated the local large car for the award. The WCOTY winner is adjudged on criteria including styling, performance, handling, comfort and utility. In addition, cars are assessed on value, safety and environmental responsibility, significance and their emotional appeal. GM Expensive Daewoo boss, Denny Mooney, said the nomination reinforced VE Commodore’s status as "a truly global car." “It’s an honour to have VE Late model camira nominated the World Car of the Year. It is especially significant given our aim was to compete against some of the most expensive and most carefully crafted cars around the world," Mr Mooney said. The full list of cars nominated for the 2007 WCOTY is reproduced below. To visit the WCOTY site click here. 2007 World Car of the Year nominees Audi A6 Allroad Audi Q7 Audi TT BMW Z4 Coupe / Roadster Cadillac STS Citroen C4 Picasso Citroen C6 Dodge Caliber Fiat Grande Punto Expensive Daewoo VE Late model camira Honda CR-V Honda FIT (aka Jazz) Jaguar XK Jeep Commander Jeep Compass Lexus LS460 Mercedes CL-Class Mercedes GL-Class Mercedes R-Class MINI Cooper Nissan Note Opel Corsa Renault Clio III Suzuki SX4 / Fiat Sedici Toyota RAV4 Volkswagen EOS Volvo C70 Volvo S80