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Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

There's a 2015 Ford Mustang convertible on the way, too

Almost immediately after the Ford Mustang debuted, buyers could choose from three body styles -- a hardtop, a rag-top convertible and a fastback (which actually came out a few months later than the hardtop and convertible). We already knew that the 2015 Mustang will arrive as a fastback (sorry, notchback partisans), but Ford has just announced that a drop-top version is also in the works. Pictures of the convertible sport a shiny "5.0" badge on the side and and chrome "GT" badge on the back, but we assume all the standard engines -- the 5.0-liter V8, 3.7-liter V6 and that new 2.3-liter EcoBoost turbo-four -- will be offered.

Lincoln Quicksilver Ghia concept heads to auction

Next week at the Mecum Auction in Kissimmee, Fla., bidders will get a chance to take home something truly unique, a Lincoln Quicksilver concept car created by Carrozzeria Ghia in 1983. This radical concept was created at a time when Ghia was a division of the Ford Motor Company. The concept itself debuted in one place where the Lincoln brand was, ahem, somewhat underappreciated: the Geneva Auto Show.