OSC was invited to take photos this weekend for DMCC Drift Mania Round 5 at Autdrome in St-Eustache QC

Here are a couple shots

visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/winiarz/sets/72157622292369112/ for more photos

for more info – http://www.dmccdrift.com/

Canada has had a cash for clunkers-like program in effect for nearly a year now.  However, Canada’s  “Retire your Ride” program which gives you a paltry $300 towards a new car or bus pass in exchange for your “ride” hasn’t caught on.

Ford Canada has upped the ante and will offer anyone an additional $2700 on top of the $300 ($3000) for your 15 year old vehicle in exchange for a new Ford.  Chrysler will offer $1500 and Hyundai $1000 in similar programs.

Apparently due to the epic success of the American $3500-$4500 version, the Canadian Government is said to be reviewing the entire program as I type this and Ford Canada CEO David Mondragon has been quite vocal about the issue…

“If the government decides to make changes to the program, we hope it will be complementary to our program, but that said, in today’s hyper-competitive market, we could not afford to wait.”

Canadian auto sales have been in a free fall for the past 10 months and Canadian auto companies are screaming for an in increase to the current $300 offered for older vehicles from the Canadian Government.

Roger Penske’s recent purchase of GM’s Saturn unit comes with grave news for Canadians employed at the 60 Canadian Saturn stores.  They are leaving.

Saturn never truly caught on in the Canadian market (their words, not mine) and Penske has decided to pull Saturn out of the frozen north.

The truth?  Most new Saturns are just rebaged Opels and Canadian Auto Parts giant Magna International is in the final stages of purchasing Opel from GM.  Magna has stated that they would sell Opels in Canada as they believe Canadians will purchase vehicles from a Canadian company and it makes no sense at all to have the same cars with Saturn badges on them at a dealer across the road.

Americans, enjoy your Saturns.  Canadians..enjoy your Opels.

The Canadian new car market fell -6.4% for July 2009 vs July 2008 but gains were seen by Ford, the number one car maker in the Country, as they posted an epic 48% gain.

Other companies that posted gains include Kia (30%), Hyundai (38%), VW (15%) and BMW (12%).

Chrysler slowed the blood loss to the tune of -9.5% over July 08 but was up a staggering 73% compared to the previous month of June 2009.  GM was not so fortunate and dropped -42% and fell alarmingly close to Toyota (within 295 units) the current #4 car company in Canada that also posted a -14% decline themselves.

Light truck sales saw a combined rise of 4.4% but passenger car sales fell -14.4%.

Canadian auto parts maker Magna International offered to increase their upfront cash offer for GM’s Opel unit reports said last Tuesday.  The cash offer sits now at $714 million and would allow for an immediate cash injection into the brand, rather than using convertible debt to cover the majority of the financing.

GM’s chief negotiator believes the deal will be sealed by the end of September but there are still some kinks to work out.

Analysts reported that problems arose when it became clear that GM would never be able to buy Opel back from Magna once the sale went down, so they began looking at other private equity offers where a buy back could be possible, if or when GM gets back into the black.

German Gov’t officials didn’t like that, so hence the Opel deal leading the pack again.