Archive for the ‘Toyota’ Category
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are announcing an equipment safety recall on the Japanese automaker’s 2008 Highlanders and Highlander Hybrid models.
On the 2008 model year crossover, the optional stainless steel exhaust tip retention clamp apparently has a manufacturing defect that can cause it to develop microscopic cracks, and in the worst case, [...]
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
There are a lot of questions left unanswered after General Motors announcement this morning that its Pontiac division was not long for this world. One of those is what will happen to GM’s joint venture agreement with Toyota to produce models at the New United Motor Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) facility in California. The Pontiac [...]
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
Fearing that a couple dozen of its U.S. suppliers could shut down production, Toyota has established a “war room” to monitor suppliers and has begun to warehouse assembly components. While the move marks a departure from the automaker’s “just in time” production philosophy, a mantra that associates stockpiling with inefficiency and waste, a bankruptcy by [...]
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
As you read this, Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda are in the midst of a knock-down, drag-out fight for global hybrid supremacy with their two latest gas-electrics, the standard-bearing 2010 Prius and the revived-for-2010 Insight, respectively. Might Nissan, Japan’s other major automaker, get involved in the fuel-saving games?
Not exactly. According to Senior Vice President Andy [...]
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Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Toyota has announced official pricing for the five (!) trim levels for the 2010 Prius, due to hit dealers in the States sometime in late May. The bare-bones version (which must be pretty bare, since Toyota hasn’t divulged what’s included) will be just $21,000. On the other end of the spectrum, the top trim level [...]
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Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Well, it looks like Toyota is committed enough to the Lexus LF-A to at least race it again in this year’s 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Just like last year, the rumored on-again, off-again for production luxury supercar is set to tackle the Green Hell in another 24 hour endurance run. That certainly lends some credence [...]
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Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
With the introduction of the Honda Insight, Toyota is facing the most serious challenge yet to its hybrid dominance since the Prius debuted. While the Insight’s hybrid technology is not as sophisticated as Toyota’s, it delivers excellent fuel economy, and more importantly, the Insight has a significant price advantage over the Prius. Given the threat [...]
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Friday, April 17th, 2009
Over the last several years, few automotive stories have held as much interest as the global fight between Toyota and General Motors for worldwide sales supremacy. Don’t look now, but there’s a new combatant hailing from Germany ready to take the reigns: Volkswagen. However, VW’s ascendancy has less to do with the German automaker’s output [...]
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