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Thousands of employees at Honda’s Swindon factory have been allowed back to work after the plant was forced to close for four months due to financial troubles. The 3,400 workers have agreed to taking a pay cut until 2010 but are pleased that their jobs are finally guaranteed after the uncertainty of the last four months.

The factory was forced to close while the company decided on the best way of dealing with the problems caused by the global recession and the effect the economic downturn has had on the number of car sales and contract hire agreements. The car industry has been one of the worst affected and many car manufacturing companies are struggling to make ends meet, but the situation at Honda and how they have recovered could stand as an example to other companies who are still struggling. Tamporarily suspending production at the Swindon plant has allowed them time to make important decisions about the future of the business as well as complete maintenance work that had been in the pipeline for a while. During the four months downtime the production lines were stripped down and rebuilt, and they took the opportunity to redecorate the whole plant, where possible by employees who had the specialist skills required for the job. 

But not everything is good news. A further 1,300 Swindon employees chose to take voluntary redundancy when the factory closed, many of whom still have not managed to secure alternative employment. And although the employees returning to work now know their jobs are secure, their pay has been cut by 3%, or 5% in management roles, for the first 10 months. The plant is only running at 50% of its normal capacity, with a projected output of 113,000 vehicles in 2009, less than half the original intended number of 228,000.

In short, it’s a small victory but the company is not out of the woods yet, Honda car leasing and sales figures will have to increase significantly over the next few months if they want to avoid any further disasters. The new Honda Jazz model, due to start production at Swindon in September, should help to boost sales and work towards securing the long-term future of the plant. Not to mention as the economy begins to recover buyers will be taking advantage of low car prices as across the board from Honda to Mercedes, car leasing and purchase prices are cheaper than ever.

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General Motors, one of the world’s largest carmaking companies, has filed for bankruptcy protection in America. For generations General Motors (GM) has been one of the big three car manufacturers in America and one of the largest in the world. Now the car industry is on its knees, and two out of the three big American car giants have now been forced to seek protection from their creditors by declaring themsleves bankrupt. But what difference will all this make to us?

Well, for UK consumers, it probably won’t make much difference. If you have a car that was made by GM, you don’t need to worry about the possibility that you might not be able to get parts for it in the future, as the company has not gone out of business entirely. With the financial protection of the US government, they hope to be through the worst of it in as little as three months. In addition GM Europe, which consists of the British brand Vauxhall and the German Opel, has already been sold off to a Canadian company who have agreed to do everything in their power to save the 5,500 UK jobs that could be at risk.

For consumers looking to purchase a new car in times like these, it could well be that leasing or contract hire could be a better option than buying outright, as it gives you more freedom of choice and wouldn’t leave you in the lurch later if the manufacturer did go out of business. Certainly if you are worried about buying a car by one of the main manufacturers tied to one of the companies that is at risk such as Vauxhall or Ford, car leasing could put your mind at ease.

Whether you’re looking for a handy little car about town or a fancy new BMW, car leasing gives you a wider choice of vehicles including those that may otherwise have been out of your price range for buying outright. Your contract allows for your estimated mileage and normal wear and tear to the vehicle, so your car won’t decrease its financial value over the course of the contract and when your agreement ends you get to swap the car for the new model of your choice. With the car industry in such a state of disaster, it could be the best way to make sure that any future disasters don’t affect you too much!

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Scalextric was initially created in the 1950s by British firm Minimodels. In 1952, the company introduced a range of clockwork powered race car systems called Scalex, which were then adapted into electric systems and renamed Scalextric - a combination of Scalex and electric.

Scalextric cars became an instant hit in the slot car racing market, so much so that Minimodels was unable to meet the demand for its popular range and was incorporated as a subsidiary of Tri-ang, who changed the slot cars from metal to plastic manufacture.  The first Scalextric tracks were made of a rubber compound and had two parallel grooves to allow two cars to race against each other.In the 1960s production of the track was also switched to moulded plastic that is still in use today.

As slot cars became more popular during the 1960s, Tri-ang opened additional factories in Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand to meet demand for Scalextric sets. In the 1980s, Scalextric’s parent company had collapsed and one of its subsidiaries became Hornby Railways.  By this point slot car racing had lost some of its appeal and Scalextric saw some of its  darkest days, but kept going nonetheless producing Scalextric sets while some of its biggest competitors like Fleischmann and Märklin, stopped production altogether.

The 1990s saw more authentic and detailed models.  New replicas of slot cars from the 1960s and 1970s appeared on the market, giving enthusiasts the option of racing modern and classic cars against each other. The Micro Scalextric range was also introduced, using 1:64 scale cars racing on dedicated Micro Scalextric tracks.

Today Scalextric is to slot cars as Hoover is to vacuum cleaners.  Scalextric Digital cars with digital control systems allow up to six cars to race in a single slot with more realistic passing.They are capable of utterly unrealistic speeds however!   Many have attempted to set the land speed record using Scalextric cars and a scale measured-mile.Celebrities like James May of BBC TV’s Top Gear managed to get a Scalextric Ford GT to reach the equivalent speed of 392 mph, which is 80 mph faster than the genuine article!The current record stands at an amazing scale equivalent of 983.88 mph with a Scalextric Honda F1 model.

I believe, the coldest that I have ever been in my existence was riding a motorbike. I was in the military at the time and I was stationed at fort Lewis Washington. I rode my bikedown to Portland Oregon to drop in on my family. I had a very nice holiday.

The weather conditions was hot and dry when I started the trip over to Portland. It was very nice and warm every day of my leave except for for the date I was to return to the base.

Wouldn’t you know, the final day of my leave the weather turned chilly and drizzling. Clearly my fate, I had to ride the 250-mile ride back to Ft. Lewis in the chilly rain. To make things worse the girl that I was dating at the time decided to travel up with me.

I put my motorcycle jacket and my motorcycle boots, rolled up my equipment and strapped them to the Honda. We jumped right on and off we road. When we started out the rain was just a drizzle. Nonetheless, by the time we crossed the Columbia River into Washington it was hammering. I didn’t’ own any rain gear; all I had was a armed forces issue rain poncho. It actually didn’t do a decent job of keeping me waterless.

My passenger wasn’t doing well at staying dry either. I don’t’ think she was prepared for a long bike ride in the rain. She should have had a buffalo hide motorcycle jacket, women’s motorcycle chaps and Motorcycle boots, but all she had on was a pair of denims, lite shoes and a small wintry weather undercoat, and not waterproof I might ad.

It wasn’t terrible enough that it was rainy and chilly, by the time we got to Longview Wa. the temperature had fallen to freezing and the rain turned from just cold, wet, chilling to the bone light rain, to freezing rain. Brrrrrrr!

The street was dangrous to ride but I pushed on. By the time I had reached Chehalis Washington I had to stop. The cold plus the wind chill made it miserable.

I remember pulling into a roadside café just out side of Chehalis, it was so chilly that even with gloves on, when I went to down shift the motorcycle I could not secure my fingers to draw the clutch in. I had to coil the tips of my fingers around the clutch bar and draw it in using my whole arm. I did get the Honda stopped nevertheless.

Getting off the motorbike was interesting to say the least. Because of the freezing rain a pane of ice had formed on the front of my legs. The ice started from the cuff of my jeans to the top of my pants packet. When I got up the ice cracked and fell to the ground like somebody hitting a plate glass windowpane with a hammer. I was so stiff from the cold, trying to boost my leg up and above the seat made me suffer like I was 80 years older after hip replacement surgery.

We made it inside the cafe and the warmth was both a reprieve and a annoyance. The heat felt pleasant and soothing to my cramped and hurting body. My hands on the other hand, pardon the pun, cried out in agony. I am certain you have all been there. When you were a kid playing out playing in the snow with out your gloves on. Think of going in the nice warm home and your little fingers aching from being so cold. Yeah you get the image. It was agony… It took me a whole half hour before I could lift my cup of coffee to take a sip.

After thawing for an hour I had to make a choice. My vacation was up and I was supposed to be back on duty at 5:00am in the morning. With almost a eighty five miles to go, should I continue on to my residence in Lacy and be certain I would make my morning assembly, or should I acquire a room, hang about dry and warm and wish the weather conditions improved.

Well as fate would have it, just as I was all set to wimp out and find a room, the precipitation stopped. The unexpected thing is, that right after we stopped in Chehalis the temperature went up a few degrees. So the freezing rain changed to only rain and the roads were not icy.

Now dry, the road safe and the rain stopped, grudgingly we got back on the motorbike and cruised the rest of the way up to Lacy and the luxury of my apartment.

That was history and I have ridden countless miles since then. Even to this time I can’t bring to mind ever being so frozen.

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