Car Production Belgium: 2008

Belgium is a net exporter of vehicles, that is it makes more than is sold in the country. In 2001 Belgium made 1,060,000 cars and 130,000 commercial vehicles. In 2008, it had dropped to 680,000 cars and 44,000 commercials. That is a drop of 39% in unit volume. With a high paid workforce and no indigenous carmakers, Belgium is at the mercy of decisions made far away.

So which brands are made

X3 vs Q5 vs XC60 vs Freelander

For the May 2009 issue, NZ Autocar put these Euro SUVs head to head to find the best. This is how they ranked them:

Fourth: The biggest selling of them, the BMW X3 came dead last, easily. It was considered, too expensive, too small and ugly. Why would the X3 be so popular then? People buy a badge. They get ripped off but hey, a fool and his money is soon parted.

Third: The rest were closer but

Nissan Qashqai Scores Highly in J.D. Power Satisfaction Survey

Nissan's compact Crossover the Nissan Qashqai (Dualis) has been rated 11th overall in the JD Power/What Car? 2009 UK Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study of 101 models, its first appearance in the survey.
With a rating of over 81% the Sunderland-built Nissan Qashqai rated 3rd in the SUV category and also higher than all of its traditional C-segment competitors including the Honda Civic,

LDV's Demise

Recently a company in Malaysia were talking of buying LDV vans but they have pulled out. It now seems they will wait until it goes belly up and buy it cheaply through a receiver. Then they probably will move the operation to Asia. LDV seem to make a good product but it is a pity they couldn't have better distribution network, perhaps in tandem with a car maker. The volumes they make are not