Xuan ur card

It has been five years since the current Honda Civic made its debut. So based on the standard 5 year product plan, a new model should be unveiled later this year. Not so, says Honda, which cites changing market conditions and emissions regulations as the reasons behind the pushed back release to 2011. “In general, we are not changing cycles. We change vehicles as need be. The ability to do something based on more current information is better than waiting a full model cycle. Some of that is being able to have the opportunity to change (based on) what you see happening in the marketplace,” explained John Mendel, American Honda Motor Co’s Executive VP. The next Civic was supposed to grow in size over the FD2, but Honda COO Tsuneo Tanai said at last year’s Tokyo show that the design had been altered midstream and resized closer to the current car. Five years already? The current Civic doesn’t feel very dated in our books, and is still very competitive against younger rival...

Not all Volkswagen Group marques are doing as well – SEAT operating losses hit almost 340 million Euros last year. Volkswagen only has three unprofitable units – SEAT, Bentley, and Volkswagen commercial vehicles. SEAT’s 1Q loss this year of 110 million Euros is more than double the losses of the other two units. Volkswagen bosses has given SEAT a deadline of sorts – it has 5 years to cut losses by expanding its model range and growing its market share outside of its ‘home market’ of Spain, where car sales have dropped by 21% last year, which is no wonder considering Spain current has a high jobless rate of 20.1 percent, the highest in the eurozone. If the brand cannot turn itself around VW may just let it go, but it seems that things are so bad with the brand’s financials that VW would have to PAY someone to take it off its hands. “This is the last attempt for SEAT as a brand, it would not be sensible to view things differently. If one would want to get rid of SEAT, one ...

Team BMW Motorsport has won the 2010 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, five years after its last victory at the endurance classic. The No.25 BMW M3 GT2 driven by Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Pedro Lamy (PT) claimed Munich’s 19th victory by crossing the finish line first after 154 laps of the 25.378 km circuit, despite gearbox problems in the last three hours. They inherited the lead from Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid, which engine gave way with only an hour and 45 minutes left. An impressive fight back saw the second M3 GT2 driven by Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE), Andy Priaulx (GB) and Dirk Adorf (DE) finish seventh in front of 220,000 spectators. A crash, while swerving to avoid a collision, resulted in the them losing an hour in the pits early on in the race, dropping back to 182nd. After replacing the front-left suspension, radiator and the rear-left shock absorber, car number 26 worked its way back up the field lap by lap. The two BMW ...