GREAT NEWS - Spyker has been removed from bankruptcy, and will launch new B6 Venator soon.

Dutch supercar maker Spyker won its appeal against being placed in bankruptcy by a court late last year. Spyker CEO Victor Muller said he now intends to push ahead with development of the company's B6 Venator, an entry-level luxury sports car, and to merge with a U.S. based manufacturer of high performance electric aircraft.

Spyker has been struggling to survive financial setbacks since its ill-fated acquisition of Saab from General Motors in 2010.

Spyker was placed in bankruptcy on Dec. 18 by a Dutch court after bridging finance promised while it was under creditor protection failed to arrive. Spyker got the money 11 days later and appealed the court’s bankruptcy declaration.

A Dutch appeals court on Thursday declared the bankruptcy "null and void with retrospective effect." This puts the company back under the protection of the "moratorium of payment" – equivalent to U.S. Chapter 11 protection from its creditors.

Muller said that the company has now reached agreement with the majority of its creditors. As a result "we should see Spyker exit 'moratorium of payment' in a matter of weeks," he said in a statement.

Spyker hopes the B6 Venator, a mid-engined 375-hp V6 sports car unveiled at the 2013 Geneva auto show, will attract more customers. The model is intended to compete with such cars as the Porsche 911 and Lotus Evora.

When it was first revealed there were suggestions it would be priced around 160,000 euros. That is about 40,000 euro less than the 198,500-euro 2014 European list price of Spyker's 4.2-liter C8 Aileron sports car.

Muller is keen to pursue a merger with a U.S. based specialist aircraft manufacturer once Spyker comes out from the "moratorium of payment." The logic for this, according to Muller, is that "the exciting new sustainable and disruptive technologies" currently being developed by the as yet unnamed company will be of value in future "full electric" Spyker cars.

REPORT HERE

Old defunct brands from GM will not be making a comeback anytime soon !

General Motors CEO Mary Barra, at the recent Automotive News World Congress, said the company doesn’t miss any of the brands that were discontinued during the company’s 2008-09 bankruptcy and restructuring -- Saturn, Saab, Hummer and Pontiac.

You can take that to mean that none will ever be revived by GM, at least while Barra is in power.

But that doesn’t mean displaced customers of two of the brands -- Hummer and Pontiac -- have nowhere to go.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is building a lineup that would be a natural home for displaced Hummer and Pontiac customers.

Looking at Jeep’s staggering global growth and the worldwide explosion in popularity of SUVs and crossovers, you have to think a Hummer customer’s first choice would be a Jeep. (Don’t forget the two brands shared the same basic seven-slot grille.) GM no longer has a dedicated brand of rugged off-road vehicles.

But I see the biggest migration of GM customers to coming from Pontiac -- and going to Dodge.

“Dodge is the American performance brand,” Tim Kuniskis boasted during a presentation of Fiat Chrysler’s new five-year plan in May.

Kuniskis, CEO of Dodge, is trimming and recasting the brand’s lineup to focus on performance -- putting its tires squarely on the turf that transformed Pontiac into a performance powerhouse in the 1960s.

Pontiac’s performance image, spawned by such cars as the GTO, Firebird, Super Duty Trans Am and others, lasted well into the 1980s. It was in the midst of being reborn when GM killed the brand in 2009.

Dodge’s Grand Caravan minivan is about to join the midsize Avenger sedan in automotive history books. And by 2018, Kuniskis says, Dodge will have seven performance-oriented nameplates. That plan is already in motion with the outrageous new 707-hp Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat muscle cars, and the V-10 Viper sports car.

I asked Kuniskis if Dodge will actively pursue Pontiac fans with direct mail appeals, discounts and other tactics, since GM no longer has a brand dedicated to performance vehicles.

“The Dodge brand is open to any buyer who is looking for performance,” he said. “Every Dodge vehicle is designed to deliver that visceral feel that reminds buyers why they fell in love with driving in the first place, and we’re open to any buyer who is looking for that feeling, regardless of the brand they’ve previously driven.”

I don’t want to give you the impression that GM no longer cares about performance cars and Pontiac customers. Cadillac is largely about luxury and tire-shredding performance. At the North American International Auto Show, Cadillac showcased the new CTS-V, a 640-hp road rocket.

And Chevrolet has some interesting cars, such as the SS, which is a new version of the discontinued Pontiac G8 sports sedan, and the Corvette and Camaro. But GM has no mainstream brand purely devoted to performance or even with a strong performance image.

Even if Dodge does capture a good share of Pontiac buyers, success is not guaranteed, says AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan.

For one thing, GM won’t give up Pontiac customers easily.

GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney says GM consistently communicates with Pontiac customers, alerting them of new GM models and offering loyalty incentives to stay with GM. The company won’t disclose or quantify how successful it has been at retaining Pontiac customers, Carney said.

U.S. buyers have many performance vehicles from which to choose.

“When you look at other performance models -- the Ford Focus ST, the Raptor, BMW’s M series, Audi’s S and RS models -- none of those automakers dedicate a whole brand to performance,” Sullivan says. “There is a limited market for go-fast stuff. Look how many Accords, Camrys and Altimas sold last year.”

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler, is not known to have a lot of patience. But he may need it with Dodge.

Says Sullivan: “It’s going to take a few product cycles, maybe 10 or 15 years, to fix memories of the Caliber and Journey.”

Richard Truett

REPORT HERE

Aston Martin has been given funds it needs to makeover the model lineup, expect a Geneva reveal.

Aston Martin's main financial backer has pledged to provide cash for a refreshed model lineup that the supercar maker plans to reveal at the Geneva auto show in March.

Investindustrial S.p.A., which bought a 37.5 percent stake in the British manufacturer in 2012, will invest fresh cash in Aston Martin if needed, Andrea Bonomi, the private-equity firm's chairman, said in an interview today.

Investindustrial has no plans to sell its holding anytime soon as the investment was made with the intention of keeping it for seven to 10 years.

"Aston has an industrial plan which is growing in its ambitions and we have always planned to participate in all funding needs that Aston has," Bonomi said on the sidelines of a conference here. "It hasn't been decided yet, but if Aston needs capital, we're there."

Bonomi helped recruit Andy Palmer, Nissan's former chief planning officer, to take over as CEO after Aston Martin went a year without a top executive.

The Gaydon, England-based manufacturer is the only global supercar brand that's not part of a larger group. That makes it tricky for Aston Martin to fund the r&d needed to compete with Volkswagen Group's Bentley and Fiat Chrysler's Maserati or BMW Group's Rolls-Royce.

Aside from the Italian private-equity firm, Aston Martin's other main shareholders are Kuwaiti companies Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co.

Daimler has an agreement to acquire a 5 percent stake in Aston Martin in exchange for providing the sports-car producer with components such as engines and automotive electronics.

In Geneva, Palmer "will give a clear indication of where the brand is going," including the prospects of building a Aston Martin's first SUV, Bonomi said. "We're at the beginning of the revamp plan."

REPORT HERE