THE BUSINESS: What's happening in the Irish motor industry. Andrew Hamilton's weekly digest
• Go searching the web for a house and you could also be looking at Toyota cars. Toyota Ireland and MyHome.ie have just announced an online advertising partnership. Users of the MyHome.ie site who search for houses for sale within their chosen range of prices, are automatically provided with an online ad brochure for a Toyota car that matches their budget. According to Michael Gaynor eBusiness Manager at Toyota Ireland "this new approach to online advertising has helped us increase our traffic by 75 per cent in the last six months."
• Linders is one of Dublin city's long-established dealerships and now it is moving from its city centre location at Smithfield to Chapelizod. "We are building what we expect to be the largest indoor car showroom in the country, combined with full after-sales and body repair servicing," says Paul Linders. "Building has just commenced on the site and we expect to move in, in a number of months."
• Small cars get bigger these days and even the Smart two-seater baby car isn't exempt. Smart, which is owned by DaimlerChrysler, is now planning to introduce a four-seater version. Right-hand-drive is likely to come by 2004. Meanwhile, there's still no news when the two-seater Smart model will arrive in the Republic. There has been an unexpectedly enthusiastic response to Smart in the UK.
• Hundreds, probably thousands of Irish people worked there, at Luton in England where the last car has just rolled off the Vauxhall production line. The plant is closing with the loss of 2,000 jobs. Nearly 7.5 million cars have been built there since 1905. Production of the new Vectra five-door hatchback is concentrated on the plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
• Hyundai's new Terracan is now also available as a 2.9 litre commercial version. Retailing at €30,800, ex works, it comes with a 2.9 litre TC i diesel engine with common-rail technology. The Terracan has four-wheel-drive through ATT or Active Torque Transfer: ATT provides power only to the rear wheels in normal driving conditions. The standard specification includes twin airbags, alloy wheels and electric windows.