MIND brings you all the relevant information affecting the local and global motor industry with a few quick clicks of your mouse. Updated on a quarterly basis, our continuously expanding database is packed with interesting and useful information to help you gain insight into the workings of the local industry. Share your views with us at mind@rsp.co.za.

There is less than six months to go before the Johannesburg International Motor Show (JIMS), and it is set to take place from Thursday 30 October through Sunday 9 November 2008. And as usual, CAR Magazine will host its biennial CAR Conference.

VWSA is the latest South African automotive manufacturer to announce an expansion in its built-up vehicle export programme, which makes a welcome change to the doom and gloom in the local vehicle market due to declining passenger vehicle sales.

McCarthy Motor Holdings has announced the launch of Chery, China's largest domestic auto manufacturer in South Africa and its product lineup includes the most affordable new passenger vehicle in the market.

Ramsay, Son & Parker recently announced that Stuart Lowe would succeed Harold Eedes as the company's managing director. As a result of Lowe's appointment, the Cape Town-based publishing house is seeking a new Publisher for RS&P's Automotive division.

The current downturn in vehicles sales in South Africa will not last too long, McCarthy retail motor group chief executive Brand Pretorius claims.

South Africa will stage the country's first international trade fair for automotive parts, equipment and service providers when Automechanika South Africa is held at the Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec, on March 18 to 21 next year.

At a recent presentation of KPMG's global automotive survey results, Dr. Johan van Zyl, president of NAAMSA and president and CEO of Toyota SA expressed his views on the global motor industry, and the position that South Africa finds itself in, in this industry.

It seems the South African motor industry's rather short-lived "honeymoon" period is over and the road now goes uphill. Not only has the overall market (including non-reporters from Associated Motor Holdings) slumped by 14,3 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, but the industry has been negatively affected by a multitude of other factors.