Jaguar Sheds 200 Jobs Jaguar Land Rover has today announced it is seeking 200 voluntary redundancies from its 16,000-strong workforce at it’s 3 manufacturing sites: Castle Bromwich and Solihull facilities, and Halewood in Merseyside. A spokesman for Jaguar told the BBC the plans were part of an efficiency drive and not connected to the current economic downturn. Last month Jaguar Land Rover announced it was making a series of production cuts at its factories, due at the end of October. Land Rover has suffered from falling sales due to falling demand for large off raod models, but Jaguar has increased both profits and sales this year thanks to strong demand for the Jaguar XF . Read more here:  Jaguar – Land Rover Announces 200 Job Losses

Jaguar XF-R Spotted Hot Weather Testing Some great pictures on the internet today of the Jaguar XFR undergoing hot weather testing in Death Valley. The area is known for being the hottest driest area of the United States, and is located in Inyo County, California. These conditions are ideal for pushing the Jaguar XF to its limits to ensure that the new 5.0 litre supercharged V8 can withstand some of the worlds harshest conditions. The pictures also show the car wearing a very light disguise, even less than previous spyshots, and reveal what we expected about the car – It will feature a lower, more aggressive front spoiler with enlarged air intakes, a set of deeper sideskirts, a pair of bonnet vents to help the engine breathe and let heat out, and also noticeable if you look really closely is a discreet rear lip spoler on the back of the boot. The new Jaguar is expected to be revealed early next year, with sales commencing mid – late 2009. View original post here:  Jaguar XFR Spotted Testing

My oil life indicator got down to 10% today (at about 6500 miles) and, since I had the day off for Columbus day, I decided to take my Fit in for its first oil change. Living in the small ghetto-ish community of Echo Park here in Los Angeles, there aren’t too many Honda service centers or even Econo Lube n Tube’s around. This is why I found myself at the little service center in my local independently run gas station. They changed the oil on the Fit for $30 and got it done fairly quickly. The only downside was that they didn’t reset the damned oil life inidicator. Thanks to the “ Having a Fit” blog, I discovered how to reset the indicator myself and thought I’d share them with you: Press the trip meter select/reset pin until you the oil life reminder is displayed Press and hold the select/reset pin down for approximately 10 seconds until the oil life reminder is blinking Press and hold the select/reset pin down for another 5 seconds or so until the oil life reminder is reset to 100% Big thanks to Having a Fit for posting this . Up next, I’ll be posting about my brand new Pioneer Avic F700BT. See original here: How to reset the oil life monitor / indicator on a Honda Fit

This must be one of the sweetest ads ever made by a car maker… It’s an Accord ad, but it’s pretty much more of a brand-making thing… Click here to view the embedded video. See original here:  Honda’s Domino Ad

My fit is a 2008 Sport with automatic transmission. Since I opted for the AT over MT (a pretty damned big decision mostly influenced by the hours a week I spend on the LA freeways), I’ve known not to expect amaaazing gas mileage out of my Fit, but that said, I’m still just not that impressed with my results. I’ve heard people say that I need to wait for the car to be truly broken in, but at this point my Fit has just over 6k miles on it and I’m still basically averaging around 29mpg.  My useage is almost entirely highway and I really expected to see closer to the 34mpgpromised. I’ve even heard of some people on various Fit/Honda forums getting up to 45mpg … which leads me to wonder whether the rumors of amazing gas mileage for the Fit stem mostly from people who drive it like a 90 year old woman. I’m no where near the most aggressive driver I know, but driving in LA, you definitely need to accelerate enough to not die when merging onto the freeway. So, whats the deal Fit lovers? What kind of mileage are you getting? Anyone have any real world, practical, tips that don’t involve drafting behind a giant truck or turning off the engine in the middle of a crowded highway? See more here:  What kind of mileage do you get in your Fit?

For the 11th straight month, the Honda Fit has ranked as the best selling compact car in Japan. Up 52% in September, the Honda fit has sold 16,350 units, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a release today. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Corolla ranked second with 12,176 vehicles sold, and the Vitz took third with 9,972 sold. Demand for Honda’s Fit and the new Freed minivan boosted the Tokyo-based company’s domestic sales, excluding minicars, by 12 percent in the fiscal first half. The Fit, revamped last October, helped Honda defy the industry’s 2.9 percent drop to the lowest level in 34 years. Japan’s first-half auto sales slumped to 1.54 million vehicles as rising unemployment and decade-high inflation sapped demand for new vehicles. Here is a ranking of the top 10 Japanese subcompact’s for September: ——————– No. Model 1. Honda Fit 2. Toyota Corolla 3. Toyota Vitz 4. Honda Freed 5. Mazda Demio 6. Nissan Tiida 7. Nissan Serena 8. Toyota Prius 9. Nissan Note 10. Toyota Passo ——————– View original here: Honda Fit Best Selling Car in Japan for 11th Month in a Row

Jaguar to close Halewood Plant for 1 week. Halewood, Jaguars production facility in Merseyside which produces both the X-Type and the Freelander for Land Rover, is to cease production for a week to ensure supply matches demand with the worldwide economy slowing, a Jaguar spokesman announced. “The plant will shut for a week towards the end of October, and We’re taking prudent action to continue matching production to demand,” the spokesman said, adding that staff at the plant would continue to go to work and get paid. spokesperson admitted that “final decisions have yet to be made, but it’s likely production of Jaguar XJ and Jaguar XK XK will also be reduced, primarily in response to global demand”. She also confirmed that despite the impending reduction in output Jaguar’s UK sales are up over 12 per cent year-to-date, thanks to the success of the new Jaguar XF . This has raised concerns of possible job losses from Jaguar scaling back to a 4 day week or cutting shifts to scale down production to meet shrinking demand due to the credit crunch, although extra capacity in the Halewood plant is expected to be taken up by the new sub-Freelander Land Rover model, as shown by the recent LRX concept in 2009. See more here:  Jaguar ‘Scaling Back Production’

Unlike the LA times and many recent publications that seem to have a glowing review of the new Honda Fit, Jason Harper from Bloomberg.com didn’t seem to like it quite as much. Harper states that people might take the many positive reviews that the car has been receiving as an indication that it’s a “refined and grown-up sort of car.” Harper thinks it isn’t. He said that in his 400 mile test drive the meek 117hp engine struggles up hills and while the chassis has been stiffened in the 2009 model there is still significant body roll through turns. Harper states that the seats are cheap, uncomfortable and don’t offer proper lumbar support, the interior looks cheap and overall he thinks the car is ugly. While the “ugly” is just an opinion, he’s right about most of his complaints, although he *is* talking about a $16k car. The article didn’t only have bad things to say about the Fit though. Harper liked the cabin and cargo space, the large windows with no blind spots, navigation system and other amentities that have made the car so popular. Read the full article on Bloomberg.com . Here is the original: Bloomberg.com Comes Down on the Honda Fit