By Andy Bannister
12.24.2009
Some countries, it seems, are pre-destined to be car builders, others acquire an auto manufacturing industry almost by accident, while a third category simply try their best but fail.
In the latter grouping sits Israel, today the centre of a politically-troubled region which generally has more to worry about than producing automobiles.
Half a century ago, however, it was a different story. Little Israel was busy gearing up for an improbable assault on what was then by far the most advanced car market in the world, the United States of America.
Behind this audacious move was a bold outfit called Autocars Ltd, based beneath the slopes of the biblical Mount Carmel, in the port city of Haifa.
Israel then was a new and young country, born somewhat controversially in 1948 out of the horrors the Jewish people had suffered in the Second World War, and suffused with an optimism that anything was possible.
Automotive News is reporting that Chrysler has sent the initial required letter regarding arbitration to 789 rejected dealers, starting a process that potentially could reinstate the dealers, one that is required by recent legislation.
With car industry growth next year likely to be led by emerging markets like India, Toyota is about to pitch in with a new budget car to be shown in concept form at the New Delhi Auto Show next month.
Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, has committed to purchasing a majority stake in Zastava Automobili, according to a statement issued from the office of Boris Tadic, president of Serbia.
We’ve come a long way in the in a short while, where now ‘climate change’ and ‘carbon footprint’ have entered the lexicon, and the helpless automobile has been borne aloft as the anathema to all things pure and natural. Naturally, alternative fueled cars had their time to shine, and to the staunch petrolhead, this was something to turn one’s nose up at, be it out of pride or, more likely, fear that this heralded the end of “proper” cars. So here we are, at the precipice of a new decade, and powerful, dinosaur-burning thumpers are still here (for now), supercars have begun to embrace electric power, and in the middle of the spectrum we find, puttering along, with no sign of abating, is the hybrid.
