What a difference a year makes
Nov 11 2008 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette
January: Washington’s Nissan plant announces the creation of 800 jobs and the introduction of a third production shift to help meet demand for Qashqai.
June: Nissan announces it will build a new compact soft-roader at its Washington plant, starting in 2010.
It also confirmed manufacture of the Micra model would shift to India. More than 1,300 workers at the Washington plant and 2,000 in the site’s supply chain have been told their contracts are safe.
October 21: Nissan announces cuts in production and the introduction of short-time working. Bosses blame a drop in demand for Micras and Notes for the changes, which will affect about 800 of its 5,000 workforce. A number of temporary workers are also to lose their jobs at the end of their current contracts.
November 4: A survey shows as many as 77% of motorists say the current economic climate is having an impact on their purchasing plans, according to uSwitch.com
The report finds a total of 15% are set to spend almost £3,000 less on their next car than on their current motor, while 26% say they are not able to afford a new car at all. And 47% will now hold on to their current car for longer than planned.
The same day car giant Jaguar Land Rover says it is to extend a voluntary redundancy scheme which could lead to almost 600 jobs being cut. The company sys an announcement last month for 198 volunteers to leave had been “heavily over-subscribed”.
The company says the programme had now been extended to a further 300 to 400 workers spread across the firm’s plants at Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands.
November 6: New car sales fall by their biggest year-on-year margin for almost 18 years.
The same day a firm dealing in top-of-the-range cars crashes with the loss of 19 jobs - a victim of the credit crunch. Bentley West Country, based in Exeter, Devon, had a fleet of around 50 high-end models including Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
And it was announced production of the Mini is to be cut back in the latest sign of problems facing carmakers in the wake of the economic slowdown.
Workers at the firm’s factories in Oxford and Swindon have been told the two-week Christmas shutdown is to be extended to four weeks this year as a result of the credit crunch.
November 10: Reg Vardy and Evans Halshaw dealership owner Pendragon says it’s predicting a £30m loss year and the closure of 75 forecourts.
