Matthew Beecham’s Q&A with Dayco, which develops and manufactures engine products and drive systems, including timing belts, chain kits, belts and pulleys for the OE and aftermarket attracted a lot of eyes this week. He caught up with Steve Carolan, national sales manager, Dayco Aftermarket UK to learn how its business is taking shape. New Jaguars always attract interest, and especially so when it’s the brand’s first foray into territory previously the domain of sibling brand Range Rover. Cue sibling war or complementary co-existence? And can it see off Porsche? And, while we’re on luxury SUV territory, there was news just today of Maserati doubling Levante production.
While we’re on product, editor Dave Leggett flew to Paris to take a look at Peugeot’s new 3008 – we have the Big Picture here and the product detail there – and yours truly and The Family subjected yet another quivering PSA product – the about to be facelifted Citroen C4 Grand Picasso – to a real-world review. Grand Picasso is what we call an MPV in Europe; in US-speak it’s a minivan. It was interesting to note the rise and rise of SUVs, and the shrinking share of other segments in JATO’s latest Europe sales statistics out this week. We also had news from PSA of its latest powertrain strategy.
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The industry’s little scandals rumbled on this week. Daimler told us how much the latest Takata-related recalls were likely to cost, Toyota added 1.6m vehicles to the US tally, GM announced compensation for overstating fuel economy and Nissan named its Mitsubishi reformer.
I was intrigued to see infrastructure, or lack thereof, cost Romania a Daimler engine plant (it has a gearbox plant) but the i-word also cropped up in a story about Ford in the country (which builds engines, B-Max and (soon) EcoSport there). On the other hand, a happy Continental has announced expansion.
Automakers’ forays into wider mobility continued this week with Toyota’s announcement of a collaboration with Uber which could include lease deals where Uber income offsets vehicle lease payments, according to a memorandum of understanding between automaker and ride share platform.
One reason to like May in UK – two ‘Bank Holiday’ Mondays start and end of month. Cue Met Office warnings of heavy rain and possible thunderstorms.
Have a nice weekend and we’ll see you Tuesday.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
