As Hearings Loom, Toyota And Congress Gear Up For Battle

February 9, 2010

Toyota heads up to Capital Hill tomorrow to face the ire of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a hearing that’s been subtly named “Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?” A memo by committee staff [via the WSJ] sets a paranoid tone for the hearing, as the NHTSA investigation

Read the full article →

State Farm Warned Regulators About Toyota Unintended Acceleration As Early As 2007

February 9, 2010

State Farm, the US’ largest automotive insurance company, began warning federal regulators in 2007 about unintended acceleration in Toyotas, the Washington Post reports. Yet the National Highway Traffic Safety did not begin to act for more than a year after State Farm’s initial alerts. This revelation follows by more than a decade the insurer’s warnings about Ford

Read the full article →

Toyota Issues Voluntary Brake Fix Recall in U.S. for 2010 Prius, Lexus HS 250h

February 9, 2010

Some 2010 Camry Models Also Recalled as Toyota Scrambles to Repair Image Owners of most of the 2010 Prius and Lexus HS 250h hybrids sold in the U.S. since those models were introduced last year will be asked soon to bring them in to a local dealer for a software update to fix a brake system problem the automaker says it has known about for more than a month. ———- 2010 Lexus HS 250h is being recalled along with 2010 Priuses for a brake software fix. ———- And, as the company ratchets up efforts to repair a badly damaged image for customer care, it also has ordered a separate and unrelated recall of some early 2010 Camry models for a power steering hose inspection. That recall is the fourth for Toyota since November, when the company said that the accelerator pedals on more than 5 million models sold over a period of several years could be jammed open by loose floor mats. That recall, to modify the pedal to widen the gap between it and the floor of the cars, was followed late last month by a recall of more than 3 million various models to repair a potentially sticky accelerator pedal – a problem not related to the floor mat issue. The latest major recall, for the hybrids' brake system, affects what has become Toyota's signature model, ad was ordered just hours after company executives in Japan instituted a similar recall for the 2010 Prius, HS 250h and Japanese-market Toyota Sai hybrids in Japan and Europe. In all, some 437,000 Toyota and Lexus hybrid models are being recalled globallly.

Read the full article →

Project Better Place Birthwatch: Visiting Hours

February 9, 2010

Optimism and food were the two abundant commodities at Better Place’s press conference yesterday morning, announcing the company’s first Visitor Center, established – how ironically – inside what used to be an oil tank in Pi Glilot, a former gas depot. It seems that the entire event and the resounding optimism around it were eclipsed

Read the full article →

Japanese Government Worried About Toyota Backlash

February 9, 2010

The Japanese government is getting increasingly worried that the Toyota debacle might turn into a worldwide backlash against Japanese cars, or even all Japanese products. As the world’s 4th largest export nation, Japan has a lot to worry about. Today, large parts of the Japanese cabinet came down hard on Toyota, says the Nikkei [sub]. Prime Minister

Read the full article →

In Houston And Tel Aviv, Cities Shift Toward An EV Future

February 9, 2010

Electric vehicles have been discussed for decades, but it wasn’t until the mid-aughts of this century that EVs gained traction within the broader auto industry. Today, nearly every automaker on the planet has some form of battery-powered vehicle on the drawing board, but research and development is only half the battle for manufacturers. To ensure…

Read the full article →

Hammer Time: Quality Work

February 9, 2010

Yesterday I sold a 1992 Lexus LS400. It was a well kept model with all the bells and whistles for it’s time. Hands-free cell phone. 250 horsepower V8. Sunroof, ABS, plenty of wood interior accents. For 195,000 miles it was a really great car. At the time it drove off I was speaking to a

Read the full article →

What’s Wrong With This Picture: Lost In Translation Edition

February 9, 2010

Scion shows off the tC “Release Series Six” edition, which boasts a 70s muscle car-inspired graphics package, complete with a not-in-any-way-indicative-of-engine-displacement “6.0″ on the flank. Think of the look as Yee-haw meets Ichiban, but because it’s a Scion tC it’s neither cool nor particularly fast. Poor Scion…

Read the full article →

Toyota Class-Action Lawsuits “A Little Cottage Industry Of Its Own”

February 9, 2010

The legal angle to the Toyota recall story has been a source of constant amusement, from an early attempt to prevent Toyota from enacting its gas pedal fix, to news today [via Reuters] that at least 30 class-action suits have been filed since the recall began. “This is going to a little cottage industry all

Read the full article →