The auto sector's ongoing malaise has battered even the healthiest of automakers, models and market segments. But probably no segment has endured a deeper or more protracted decay than midsize pickup trucks. It started long prior to the nation's late-2008 economic collapse: the midsize pickup segment has been slipping precipitously for more than a decade – and now the industry's sales collapse has brought the midsize pickup market to the brink. If that sounds a little dramatic, know that combined sales of the segment's seven major players – Dodge Dakota, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon, Honda Ridgeline, Nissan Frontier and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Tacoma – were 763,553 in the year 2000. Last year, those same seven players combined for 265,513 sales. Two-thirds of the segment's

Hefty incentives offered by Toyota to rejuvenate sales and market share — and copied by some competitors – sent U.S. industry sales soaring in the early going of March, according to Edmunds.com's forecast. In the first eight days of March, the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of U.S. sales climbed to 12.5 million units, the highest level

And the Oscar

With prime rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. stumbling into 2010, surging Hyundai Motor America Inc. isn't planning to give them – or anybody else – a breather: the company is launching seven completely new products in the next 24 months, starting with the formidable and all-new 2010 Tucson compact crossover. Like just about everything else Hyundai's doing these days, the Tucson is almost certain to give its competitors fits.

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Hyundai Keeps the Heat on Toyota, Honda with New Tucson

February marked the first month since August, 1998, that Ford Motor Co.'s monthly sales topped those of chief rival General Motors Co., providing an unexpected jolt in a month when the broad industry was handicapped by severe winter weather in the northeast regions of the country – and by the spillover from Toyota's safety-recall debacle. Total U.S. auto sales for the month were 779,743 units, an increase of about 13.5 percent from year-earlier sales of 687,182, when the American automotive market was at the very bottom of one of its biggest slumps ever. And the February pace represented a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 10.4 million units, a number at the upper middle of most SAAR projections. “The good underlying news is that the industry hasn't gone into reverse in terms of its recovery,” said Jessica Caldwell, senior industry analyst for Edmunds.com.

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Even Blizzards Can’t Obscure This: Ford Tops GM in February Sales

Despite Toyota's recall woes and snowy weather covering most of the country, February vehicle sales will be higher this February than last year's dismal

Other than apologizing to a raft of House of Representatives lawmakers for accidents involving their constituents and pledging to improve the company's quality, communications and transparency, Akio Toyoda, president and CEO of embattled Toyota Motor Corp., didn't give Congress much to chew on after a day of exhaustive testimony in Washington, DC. Testifying for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform along with Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO of Toyota Motor North America, Toyoda was hampered by the need to mostly speak through an interpreter and by delivering

Of the Big Six automakers selling vehicles in the United States, Toyota – as a manufacturer and as an individual brand – has the most consumer complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for unintended acceleration, according to an Edmunds.com analysis of the government safety agency's data bases. Unintended acceleration will be the hot topic of Congressional hearings Tuesday and Wednesday on Toyota's recalls for sticking accelerator pedals and floormats that can trap the gas pedal. Both situations have the potential to cause unintended acceleration.

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Toyota Leads in NHTSA Unintended Acceleration Complaints, Edmunds.com Analysis Shows

Toyota Motor Corp., girding for what is certain to be a combative inquest from two separate House of Representatives committees this week, will not be starting off on the right foot after leaks of internal memos that could be construed as gloating about coercing favorable regulatory reaction to reports about potentially unsafe vehicles. Most damning, perhaps, is a memo outlining a presentation in which a company executive lists as a “win” efforts that negotiated a fairly low-level recall of some 55,000 vehicles in 2007 to replace floormats.

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On Eve of Congressional Hearings, Internal Memos Cast Toyota in Unsavory Light

This week, Toyota President Akio Toyoda and other Toyota executives