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Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts

News: Skoda in Galway to help raise funds for Lily-Mae

Posted by Alex Bale Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Monaghan & Sons, Galway’s Skoda dealership is undertaking an Eco-Drive from Wednesday, 31st January – Friday, 2nd February to assist in raising vital funds for The Sunni Mae Trust for the treatment of Lily-Mae Morrison. Monaghan & Sons are urging locals to guess how far a Skoda Fabia can travel on a tank of fuel.
 

Lily-Mae Morrison, a native of Claregalway, has recently been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Neuroblastoma which affects 1 in 100,000 children in Ireland. Lily-Mae is the four year old daughter of Galway based dancers Judith Sibley and Leighton Morrison, who are best known in Galway for their work with Chrysalis Dance and Youth Ballet West.

In order to enter, competition forms will be available in local Centra stores where people can guess how far a Skoda Fabia will travel on a tank of fuel and in turn make a donation to the fund. There will be prizes for competition winners including fuel vouchers and a weekend away courtesy of Monaghan & Sons.

A member of staff from Monaghan & Sons will undertake the challenge to maximize the fuel endurance of a Skoda Fabia 1.2 diesel from a full tank while driving to Centra Stores within a 75km radius of Galway city over the course of three days. The drive will take place on Wednesday, 31st January, Thursday, 1st February and Friday, 2nd February travelling over 1500 kilometres.

To launch the Eco-Drive, Galway Bay FM will broadcast the Big Smoothie Breakfast show with Ollie Turner from Monaghan & Sons between 6.30-9am on Wednesday, 31st. During the event Galway Bay FM will link up live with the driver at different times during the day to get updates on the progress of the journey.

Commenting, Leo Monaghan, dealer principal, Monaghan & Sons, Galway said, “We are delighted to be able to help out with the fundraising appeal for Lily Mae. It is a fantastic cause and we would urge people to get their hands on a form and donate some much needed funds. Forms are available in local Centra stores and also from the Monaghan & Sons dealership.”

News: Can GM's new plan save Opel?

Posted by Alex Bale Friday, January 11, 2013

In a week when rumours once again surfaced that Opel was up for sale to PSA Peugeot Citroen, the German firm's US masters at General Motors have come up with (another) new plan to turn around the loss-making car company.

Interestingly, GM Europe boss Steve Girsky admits that this is the first Opel turnaround programme "not to include hope as part of the package" and the 10-year plan centres on cutting costs (Opel needs to get its fixed costs down by about €500-million, and make around €1-billion of savings in its parts-and-platform sharing agreement with PSA) and to introduce 23 new models (along with a bevy of new, more efficient engines) by 2022. The plan, rather playfully, is called Drive! 2022. 

If everything works, Opel will hit break-even in a couple of years and move back into profit by around 2018. Some of the plan has already been implemented; the tie-up with Peugeot and Citroen is already well progressed, the decision to close the loss-making factory in Bochum has already been taken and several key new models, including the Astra saloon, Adam city car and Mokka compact SUV, have already been introduced.

Opel actually had quite a good year in 2012, finishing up as Europe's third best-selling brand and going a long way to winding down stocks of unsold models. Next up will be to start building non-Opel-badged models in Opel's German plants, to take up the slack in capacity. Expect to see Buicks for China (China is now a massive market for this classic American brand) and mechanically-identical Chevrolets for Europe built in Russelsheim and elsewhere. And, although the plan doesn't overtly admit it, expect too to see the next-generation of Citroen C5 and Peugeot 508 built on a common platform with the Opel Insignia in Germany.

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