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During a routine test on its Sienna minivan in April 2003, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers discovered that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick, potentially making the vehicle accelerate out of control. The automaker redesigned the part and by that June every 2004 model year Sienna off the assembly line came with the new panel. Toyota did not notify tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel, however. It wasn't until U.S. safety officials opened an investigation last year that Toyota acknowledged in a letter to regulators that...

The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007. Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former...

Will consumers buy from a bankrupt auto maker? There always are bargain hunters, but I was certain many would stay away. With Pontiac and Saturn out of the picture, I figured General Motors would be down to 16% market share, losing perhaps another 3% as worried potential buyers talked themselves out of visiting a GM showroom. That would have left GM with as little as 13% share. At least, that’s what I figured, and I have a lot of experience covering failing auto companies. So far, I’m wrong. GM’s market share has been climbing since it left bankruptcy, hitting 20.2%...

TOKYO - Toyota to recall 4 million U.S. vehicles. Japan's Toyota Motor is planning to recall around four million vehicles in the United States to fix a potential problem affecting their accelerator pedals, a media report said Wednesday.The move was made due to a risk that loose driver-side floor mats could slip forward and jam the pedals, Kyodo news agency said, quoting sources close to the matter. Last month, Toyota quoted the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as saying that it had received reports of 100 related incidents, including 17 crashes and five fatalities involving Toyota vehicles, Kyodo said...

It's an economic contradiction to order the industry to build small cars but not encourage people to buy them. The government is trying to push us into smaller, fuel-stingy vehicles. The plan is not working. Motorists don't seem excited by the small cars out there. They'll sit on their hands rather than buy. The end result is not so much fuel efficiency as depressed sales of new cars. The top seller in the American market is still the big Ford f-150 pickup. Then comes the family-size car, the Toyota ( TM - news - people ) Camry, then the big...

The people want an empire, apparently, with that unassuming little black VW bug at the head of it. The U.K.’s Guardian explains, "Volkswagen-Porsche has overtaken Toyota to become the world's largest car manufacturer as the German group benefits from state-backed stimulus packages around the globe." VW has "produced 4.4 million vehicles so far this year, outstripping its Japanese rival which has seen four million cars roll off production lines since January." Ironically, VW reached the milestone in part by taking over Porsche – which it was forced to do after Porsche failed in an attempt to take over VW earlier...

Volkswagen Group has displaced Toyota for the first time as the world's largest car manufacturer in terms of production. The German carmaker produced 4.4 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, overtaking its Japanese rival by 400,000 units, consulting firm IHS Global Insight said on Wednesday. Volkswagen Group owns a variety of models such as Skoda and Seat and high-end lines Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. In July it expanded its stable by acquiring Porsche. HIS Global Insight said Volkswagen was able to beat Toyota thanks to increased sales in China, Germany and the U.K. even amid...

Toyota has quit Formula One motor racing, in a move that leaves the scandal-hit sport without any participation by Japanese automakers in the coming season. Jarno Trulli could soon be looking for another team The decision, which was announced in Tokyo this morning, is part of Toyota’s wider efforts to slash costs after an extraordinary board meeting held at the company’s headquarters. Toyota is already rumoured to be looking for an Asian buyer for the team. Toyota’s pullout follows a similar decision from Bridgestone, which announced three days ago that it would stop providing tyres after the 2010 season. That,...

The report alleges that Toyota exploits guest workers, mostly shipped in from China and Vietnam. According to the NLC, these workers are “stripped of their passports and often forced to work — including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota — 16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage.” Workers are forced to live in company dormitories and deported for complaining about poor treatment, the report finds.

Could the Prius and other Toyota hybrids be banned from the U.S.? It seems unthinkable, but that's one possible ending to a patent investigation launched this week. This case centers around Paice, a tiny Florida company that has patented a way to apply force to a car's wheels from the electric motor or the internal combustion engine.

Some significant items worth sharing in the automotive field today: Roger Penske has backed out of a deal to buy Saturn from GM at the last moment. Penske was unable to finalize a deal with Renault to sell vehicles produced at Renault factories in the coming years (GM had agreed to keep producing Saturns for Penske for the first few years). GM had said the Penske deal would save 13000 jobs. There is no indication of a backup plan now for Saturn, it sounds like it will be dead in about a year. In other news, the head of the...

After the U.S. government put out a warning to owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles about safety problems tied to removable floor mats, the Japanese automaker announced that it will recall 3.8 million vehicles sold since 2004. According to the consumer alert, the floor mats of the affected vehicles could interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause a crash.

Q: Are you tempted to get out the shotgun and blow a large smoking hole in the middle of your flatscreen TV if you are forced to watch that damned Prius commercial one more time?? You know the one I mean....

DETROIT - Toyota's decision to close its 25-year-old California factory where UAW workers build Corolla cars and Tacoma pickups has delivered a seismic, Detroit-like jolt to the once-invincible Silicon Valley economy. The Japanese automaker's first plant closing in North America will add to California's swelling unemployment rolls, and perhaps, help the Golden State better empathize with the industry that it has persistently challenged with regulatory requirements. The closure also will eliminate Toyota's only UAW-represented workforce. ;California has now lost 580,000 manufacturing jobs - a quarter of its total - since 2001. NUMMI's closure next March could erase about 40,000 more....

Kids in Napa won't hear the usual "clackety clack" of a diesel engine when district bus HY-2 lumbers up to their stop next month. In fact, when the bus is sitting still, they won't hear anything at all. Within a week or two, Napa Valley Unified School District will premiere one of the first small hybrid buses in the nation, thanks to state grants aimed at curbing school bus emissions and a transportation manager's aggressive campaign to green his fleet. "I just got tired of seeing the commercials with the big puff of black smoke coming out of the tailpipe...

Hailed as a jump-start for the U.S. economy, the federal government's "cash for clunkers" gave the biggest boost to foreign automakers. Overall, auto sales in August were the highest in more than a year, according to industry figures released Tuesday. Carmakers sold more than 1.2 million cars and trucks, up 1% from the same month last year and the first year-over-year sales gain since August 2007. Much of that was a result of the clunkers program, which ran July 24 to Aug. 24 and provided hefty government rebates to consumers who traded in gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient new vehicles....

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A former attorney for Toyota has accused the automaker of illegally withholding evidence in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, in a "ruthless conspiracy" to keep evidence "of its vehicles' structural shortcomings from becoming known." The explosive allegations are contained in a federal racketeering suit filed in Los Angeles by Dimitrios P. Biller, former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., who claims his complaints about the company's legal misconduct cost him his job.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Fremont, Calif. - Toyota Motor Corp.'s decision to abandon its assembly line in Fremont marks the end of large-scale auto manufacturing in California, which over the years boasted a dozen or more plants building vehicles ranging from Studebakers to Camaro muscle cars. The Japanese automaker said Thursday that it would end production at the plant March 31, throwing 4,700 people out of work, and return some production to Japan. It's another hard blow for California, a state already grappling with an 11.9% unemployment rate -- its highest since World War II and the fourth-worst in...

Toyota said today it plans to shut down the NUMMI plant because of high labor costs, associated with California’s high cost of living, and not because the UAW represents workers at the plant. “The UAW presence does not have a direct impact on the decision,” Executive Vice President Atsushi Niimi said in conference call today. “California is a high-cost location,” Niimi said.

FREMONT, Calif. — Toyota Motor Corp. officially confirmed Thursday that it will relocate production of the Tacoma pickup from a (unionized) plant in Northern California to its state-of-the-art (non-unionized) manufacturing facility in San Antonio by next summer. The announcement came hours after the Japanese automaker ended its relationship with a joint venture plant in the San Francisco Bay area as part of an effort to reduce excess production capacity at plants around the globe and return to profitability. As part of the plan to shift Tacoma production to San Antonio, Toyota will stop making vehicles at the New United Motor...

TACOMA PRODUCTION MOVES TO SA TOYOTA PLANT It will mean 1,000 new Toyota jobs. By Jim Forsyth Thursday, August 27, 2009 Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Texas announced Thursday night that Toyota is relocating its Tacoma mid sized pickup truck production form Fremont California to San Antonio, and is expected to make a $100 million investment in the plant on the city's south side, 1200 WOAI news reports. "Here in Texas, the addition of the Tacoma to the Tundra production line will better utilize our plant's capacity and the 21 supplier facilities on our site," TMMTX President Kenji Fukuta said. "This...

In a statement released today by the UAW, union President Ron Gettelfinger said, “It’s unfortunate the company chose to close a U.S. facility after benefiting so greatly from the federal cash-for-clunkers program, which is funded by U.S. taxpayers.”

The Obama administration spent three billion dollars subsidizing the destruction of 700,000 vehicles in order to boost car sales. Which auto makers actually benefited from these American tax subsidies? Reuters reports that foreign car manufacturers gained market share, while the two bailed-out American automakers lost significant portions of theirs in the big summer sale. Only Ford managed to hold its own:

Toyota Motor Corp. announced Thursday that it plans to end production in March 2010 at the Fremont, Calif., plant it has run with General Motors Co.

(8/27/2009) Toytoa announced today it will end production at Fremont, California’s New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., better known as NUMMI, in March 2010. Before today’s announcement, California lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have appealed to Toyota to save Nummi and its 4,600 jobs, a majority of which are represented by the United Auto Workers union. The NUMMI plant, established in 1984, employs 4,600 workers.

The DOT released the final tally on the ‘cash for clunkers’ today. The final data is concerning for the big three automakers because their market share took a big hit. This decrease in market share is due to the fact most of top selling cars under this program are foreign, while most trade-ins were domestic. See Top Selling Cars & Trade-Ins Under the Cash for Clunkers Program...

Stolen trucks were sold to unsuspecting buyers in Orange and Los Angeles counties, prosecutors say. SANTA ANA – Five men will appear in court Thursday on charges of stealing more than 50 Toyota Tacoma trucks in Orange and Los Angeles counties and selling the vehicles to unsuspecting buyers, prosecutors said. Those arrested Tuesday were: Jorge Velasquez Fernandez, 22; Luis Rico Humberto, 26; and Ignacio Fernandez Mendez, 25, all of Anaheim; Gabino Rodriguez Perez, 35, of Orange; and Marco Antonio Mendoza, 21, of Los Angeles, according to Orange County prosecutors. They will be arraigned Thursday at North Justice Center in Fullerton...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Toyota Corolla remained the top-selling vehicle under the Cash for Clunkers program, according to data released Friday by the government. Asian automakers also continued to increase their share of sales under the government incentive program that offers car buyers rebates on new vehicle purchases of $3,500 or $4,500 in return for turning in older, less fuel efficient vehicles. Toyota vehicles accounted for 19.2 percent of the 489,269 sales recorded through Friday morning, while General Motors had the second spot at 17.7 percent.

August 17, 2009 Good News!... Cash for Clunkers a Boon For Japanese Carmakers The Toyota Corolla is the top selling car in the Cash for Clunkers program. Cash for Clunkers is a big boon for Japanese carmakers. The Financial Times reported, via LGF: The US’s cash-for-clunkers scheme, designed to bolster Detroit’s embattled carmakers, is turning out to be an even bigger boon for their Japanese rivals. According to data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday, Americans are using the scrappage incentives to buy more vehicles from Toyota than any of the three Detroit carmakers.

Four of the five top-selling cars in the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program are made by foreign automakers, according to new data released Tuesday by federal transportation officials. The trade-in program has proved so popular that the government is in danger of running out of money for the rebates; Senate leaders said they plan to schedule a vote this week to boost funding. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said 157,000 trades had occurred as of Tuesday morning, eating up $664 million of the $1 billion appropriated for the effort. More than 80 percent of the vehicles turned in were trucks and...

All numbers are as of Tuesday morning. 25.4 miles per gallon is the average fuel economy of vehicles purchased under the "cash for clunkers" program. 15.8 mpg is the average for clunkers turned in for demolition. 83% of the clunkers traded in are SUVs and trucks. 60% of the new vehicles purchased are cars. 47% of the new vehicles are made by Ford, General Motors or Chrysler. Top 5 states (Dollar amount of vouchers issued for new cars) Michigan: $34.4 million Ohio: $29.3 million California: $26.4 million Minnesota: $26.1 million Texas: $25.0 million Bestselling models (Top cars purchased under the...

--- The Top Ten Cash for Clunkers Trade-Ins: 1. 1998 Ford Explorer 2. 1997 Ford Explorer 3. 1996 Ford Explorer 4. 1999 Ford Explorer 5. Jeep Grand Cherokee 6. Jeep Cherokee 7. 1995 Ford Explorer 8. 1994 Ford Explorer 9. 1997 Ford Windstar 10. 1999 Dodge Caravan --- The Top Ten Cash for Clunkers New Cars: 1. Ford Focus 2. Honda Civic 3. Toyota Corolla 4. Toyota Prius 5. Ford Escape 6. Toyota Camry 7. Dodge Caliber 8. Hyundai Elantra 9. Honda Fit 10. Chevy Cobalt

The United Auto Workers and its union allies have quietly launched a campaign aimed at pressuring Toyota not to close the NUMMI plant in California now threatened by the break-up of a long-standing joint venture between the Japanese maker and General Motors. The e-mail-based campaign is urging supporters of the UAW to call their Congressmen and encourage them to keep the plant in Fremont, California open. The factory, originally a GM plant, has been running for a quarter century as part of an alliance between the two erstwhile competitors. Toyota originally saw the joint venture as a way to test...

Lawmakers reach out to Toyota Jul. 23, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Members of California's congressional delegation are asking Toyota Motor Corp., officials what they could possibly do to help keep an automotive plant open in Fremont that employs 4,500 people. Toyota has decided to liquidate its stake in the California manufacturing plant, which it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday. The plant was established in 1984. In their letter to Toyota President Akio Toyoda, lawmakers say the plant has been a great asset to the state's work force as well as to the company. They say...

According to a Japanese news agency, Toyota is pulling up stakes at its Fremont, Calif., factory, known as NUMMI. This is the plant that was jointly run by Toyota and GM before GM’s bankruptcy filing this summer. The Detroit-based automaker decided NUMMI — where it built the Pontiac Vibe alongside the Toytoa Matrix and Corolla — was not integral to its future. NUMMI employs 4,700 people and is the only U.S. Toyota plant with UAW employees.

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to liquidate its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday. The Japanese carmaker will begin negotiating with the "Old GM" starting next week, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed company officials. Toyota spokesman Mike Goss would not confirm that the Japanese automaker had made a final decision on the fate of Fremont, Calif.-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. Goss said Toyota will begin negotiations with the GM officials about the plant and added that the company is conducting an "extensive...

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to liquidate its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday. The Japanese carmaker will begin negotiating with the "Old GM" starting next week, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed company officials. Toyota spokesman Mike Goss would not confirm that the Japanese automaker had made a final decision on the fate of Fremont, California-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. Goss said Toyota will begin negotiations with the GM officials about the plant and added that the company is conducting an "extensive...

Toyota’s top U.S. executive said Monday the company will make a decision “as quickly as possible” on the fate of its California joint venture plant with General Motors as it evaluates the chaotic U.S. auto market. Yoshi Inaba, president of Toyota Motor North America and chairman of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the Japanese automaker was carefully evaluating its options for the Fremont, California, plant, called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc, and had not made any decisions about the future of its idled Blue Springs, Missisippi, plant. Inaba, who recently returned to Toyota Motor Corp. as part of a management...

It's the worst year in history for the industry: Two Detroit companies went bankrupt, and even the Japanese are losing money. But nothing stops those Koreans. Hyundai and Kia are expanding their lineups, a new Kia plant is to open in Georgia, and they are setting most ambitious goals. Their cars may not be the best, but they are improving--many get on the "recommended" list in Consumers Reports--and they are getting major help from the home country's weak currency. The two are connected under the name Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. Hyundai is larger and owns a 39% controlling stake in...

Toyota Motor Corp. reportedly plans to make a decision this month on whether to take over or shut down the Fremont auto plant it has run with General Motors Corp. since 1984.

The silent hum of hybrid petrol-electric vehicles, which recently became number one best-selling cars in Japan, has been deemed dangerous to pedestrians, in particular the visually impaired. When switched from fuel to battery mode, the vehicles make a barely perceptible noise, prompting campaigners to urge the installation of noise devices to prevent accidents. A new government panel of scholars, consumers, police, vision-impaired groups and automobile industry leaders has been formed in Japan to discuss whether the eco-friendly cars should be installed with compulsory noise-making devices. "We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles...

In a recent op-ed piece published in The Wall Street Journal, Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute starts by making a few decent points about fuel taxation and fuel economy rules. Unfortunately, he undermines himself with some blatant errors and misinformation. In discussing how Detroit automakers will deal with new fuel efficiency requirements, he makes the all-too-common mistake of referring to Ford's hybrid system as licensed from Toyota ("Similarly, Ford has the Toyota-licensed hybrid Fusion and will soon produce the European Ford Fiesta in Mexico"). The reality is that Ford independently developed its own hybrid system at the same time...

So, it's the Fourth of July, and you're feeling a little more patriotic than usual. Sounds like a great time to buy a domestic car, right? Well, first you need to answer the question: "what is a domestic car?" Is a Chevy built in South Korea domestic, or how about a Hyundai assembled in Alabama? Since that debate is not likely to be settled anytime soon, we've decided to keep it simple and list the top 10 domestic cars based strictly on content, as compiled by the National Highway and Transportation Administration. Of course NHTSA's definition of "domestic" includes Canadian-sourced...

Two of the biggest car makers in America, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co., called a bottom to the long decline in U.S. auto sales as the industry reported its smallest monthly sales drop this year. New-vehicle sales in June fell 28% from a year earlier to 860,000 cars and light trucks, according to the market-research firm Autodata Corp. That would be the smallest decline in any month this year.

James Bond screeches around hairpin bends in them with a beautiful woman at his side, while they are the car of choice for European royalty in which to parade themselves around the Continent’s more opulent capitals. Now, at last, the opportunity to pop out to the supermarket behind the wheel of an Aston Martin will be opened to the more conventional motorist. The Aston Martin Cygnet — a new “luxury commuter concept” car, according to its marketeers — is to be built on the base of Toyota’s existing iQ city car and is likely to be available for less than...

As Ford looks to reinvent itself with smaller, energy efficient vehicles they are faced with the stark reality that as of late May their Ford F-150 series continues to outsell the Toyota Camry. Let that sink in for a moment. The best-selling truck in the U.S. still outsells the best-selling car, according to a report by the American Institute for Economic Research. New car sales have generally declined through the 1990's to the present, while truck sales rose precipitously from the 70s until just a few years ago. Annual car and truck sales are now virtually even. President Obama last...

General Motors has announced that it will quit its joint venture auto manufacturing plant, operated with Toyota, leaving the unionized facility's future in Toyota's hands. Toyota already sells 80% of the products built there, but the workforce is organized by the UAW, so if Toyota were to keep the facility open under its own management, it would find itself sitting across the bargaining table from the very union that seeks to organize its other plants in North America. New United Motor Manufacturing Company (NUMMI - pronounced "new me") is the sole remaining automobile manufacturing facility on the West Coast, and...

GM to pull out of joint venture with Toyota at California plant General Motors says it and Toyota can't agree on what vehicle to build at the NUMMI plant in Fremont. The move jeopardizes the future of the last vehicle assembly plant in California. By Ken Bensinger and Julie Strack June 30, 2009 Reporting from Los Angeles and Fremont -- America's auto crisis has stretched beyond the Midwest all the way to California. The state's last automobile plant is facing potential closure after General Motors Corp. said Monday that it would drop out of the joint venture with Toyota Motor...

He did not use solar cells in his modification, but managed to stretch out his Prius and insert a row of seating to accommodate all his children. The result is a Prius SUV Limo contraption. I sure as hell would rather see this thing rolling around town instead of a gas guzzling juggernaut such as the stretch Hummer! This would probably catch on pretty well for the environmentalist hedonists in Portland. Lobbyists might actually feel good renting these things out to ferry legislators around the state or city. Apparently the car still is able to achieve 50mpg! From the guy...