CarBuyersNoteBook

Great Britain announced it will provide its auto industry with $1.8 billion in government loans recently, after months of pleading from Jaguar, Land Rover, and Vauxhall. France and Germany have already pumped government money into their automakers to sustain them through the credit crunch and economic downturn, and the U.S. provided GM and Chrysler with government loans in the last month of George W. Bush’s presidential term.  Great Britain exports 76% of the cars it builds.

In December, British automakers had to cut production nearly in half due to a backlog of unsold product. Like the United States, Great Britain is dealing with national unemployment that has been rising for 11 straight months. Analysts do not believe the British loans will be sufficient to rescue their troubled car makers but may be sufficient to keep them afloat through the rest of 2009.