They are a familiar sight – and sound – at Nissan factories and those of other OEMs around the world: Little machines that truck around the factory floor while belting out “Mary had a little lamb,” or other distinguished ditties. Now, they star in their own YouTube video. Read More >

Usually, we are not big on COTY’s, but this one is too good to pass up. According to lore, which is sometimes parroted in the comments at TTAC, there is mutual hate between Koreans and Japanese. This did not stop Korean journalists from crowning a Japanese car as Korea’s Car of the year: The Toyota Camry.  This was so momentous that Toyota Korea president Hisao Nakabayashi broke into tears when the award was presented at a Seoul hotel. Read More >

America, land of wide open roads and big cars, listen up: On the sidelines of Nissan showing its new day care center at its Yokohama headquarters to reporters, Nissan’s COO Toshiyuki Shiga made a comment that should resonate well with American customers: Read More >

Yesterday, I took you on a visit to Tokyo, to the Japan Classic Car Association’s New Year Meeting, and on a tour of imported cars in Japan. If you believe the propaganda, there aren’t any imported cars in Japan. But it is not true.

The history of car imports to Japan is a history of Yanase, Japan’s premiere car importer. Yanase was founded in 1915 as an importer of Buicks and Cadillacs to Japan. One of his big customers was the Imperial Navy which “had nothing but Buicks,” as Jiro Yanase told a reporter. The Japanese Navy also put Yanase nearly out of business, in December of 1941.

During the war, Yanase kept the Buick and Cadillac signs up to attract service business. After the war, Yanase became GM’s sole importer to Japan. Soon, he became the world’s go-to man for car imports to Japan.

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Guangzhou Autos is reporting that 2012 profits are down as much as 80 percent, thanks to the dispute with Japan over a few islands in some godforsaken corner of the world.

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Just married: Toyoda, Reithofer

Ever since Toyota and BMW started their trial marriage a year ago while sharing secrets and the occasional good time, things went very well for the Japanese/Bavarian couple. Japanese and Bavarians (and I can say that from years of experience) love to have fun, but also are stickler for form. In summer, the happy couple was formally engaged via a Memorandum of Understanding. In the rural parts of old style Bavaria and old style Japan, formal marriage often did not commence until there was proof that the arrangement would indeed be fruitful. With successful fertilization having been achieved, today, papers were signed for a formal and official alliance between Toyota and BMW. Read More >

Takeshi Uchiyamada, not really meaning it

Toyota “appears set to choose Vice Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada as its next chairman,” The Nikkei [sub] writes today. Uchiyamada used to be Toyota’s R&D Chief, and is celebrated as the “father of the Prius.”  He was made Vice Chairman last year. If confirmed, he would replace the 75 year old Fujio Cho.  A Chairman at Toyota has more of an oversight role. The executive power rests at President and CEO Akio Toyoda. Read More >

At the sidelines of the Detroit Motor Show, GM conceded what we had said all along: Toyota is the world’s largest Automaker again, with GM in #2, and – surprise – Volkswagen right behind GM.

After Toyota had announced, on a preliminary basis,  that they had produced 9.92 million units in 2012, and sold 9.7 million, Volkswagen announced on Monday global deliveries of 9.1 million for the year.  We expected  GM to announce, as usual, when they surrender the report for their last quarter.
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Johan de Nysschen, at home in Hong Kong

New Infiniti-boss and former Audi U.S. chief Johan de Nysschen wants to bring Infiniti home to Japan. He had said this to me last September in his office in Hong Kong, and he reiterated it again in Detroit when talking to the Wall Street Journal’s man in Japan, Chester Dawson. Back home in Yokohama, people are sucking air through their teeth. “Muzukashi desu ne.” This will be difficult. Read More >

Toyota sold 236,659 Prii (all kinds) in the U.S. alone in 2012, all of them imported from high-yen Japan. This is a major drag on the car’s profitability. Long import routes are a hindrance, offshore production also tends to impact the granularity of options and trims. U.S. production of the Prius was expected for last year, it did not happen. Yesterday, Shigeki Terashi, head of Toyota Motor North America Inc. came as close to announcing as possible that Toyota plans to produce the Prius in North America. He didn’t really say it, and you needed to be Japanese to hear it. Read More >

This used to be a harmless Mazda RX7. Now it’s a car … well, it certainly won’t pass pedestrian protection regs in civilized countries.
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Sound Quality is a small specialty store in Chiba, across Tokyo Bay. They equipped a small Smart with sound so big that you can hear it on Ginza when they turn it on in Chiba. Read More >

It’s been a lost in translation situation, but from what I could develop here at the Tokyo Auto Salon, the oddly shaped and oddly named 555TES Minute-S is a “three-wheel compact commuter” powered by a Yamaha 250-cc engine coupled to a Toyota Aqua hybrid drive. Here it is in motion: Read More >

Tokyo Auto Salon HUMMER

The Tokyo Auto Salon  is not just a preserve of doe-eyed kawaii girls, and a host of hachi-roku. It also proves that you can’t kill the HUMMER. Read More >

This is a short preview of our customary feature where we celebrate the hard working product specialists at major auto shows.
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