These three men have been charged with criminal damage of property after vandalizing seven 2011 model-year Toyotas at the Chicago Auto Show, reports the Southtown Star.

Police said they caused about $30,000 worth of damage to the vehicles, which had speakers cut open, dashboards ripped apart, seats sliced and windshields scratched.

Responding officers caught the three in a blue Toyota Camry, damaging the interior with razor knives and flathead screwdrivers, according to police.

They said other Toyotas were found in the immediate area with similar damage, and the three were taken into custody by McCormick Place security personnel, who contacted Chicago police. The men told police they were angry about American jobs going overseas. [emphasis added]

Read More >

There is one area where the feared Chinese export machine is way behind, and this is cars. According to data published by the China Association of Automobile manufacturers CAAM, 566,200 units were exported in 2010. At and in the same time, China imported 813,600 units. Read More >

Chrysler got so much buzz out of its “Imported From Detroit” Super Bowl ad that it sold out of apparel bearing the tagline “within hours” and even had GM Marketing boss Joel Ewanick admitting

Yeah, we’re getting our butts kicked.

Now Chrysler is literally wrapping itself in the tagline, covering its Auburn Hills headquarters with the semi-ironic (what with ChryCo headquarters being located in Auburn Hills and all) phrase. And Chrysler’s ad agency is even exploring ways to remake Chrysler’s dealerships into “Detroit Embassies.” AdAge quotes the Creative Director for Chrysler’s ad agency Wieden + Kennedy as saying

One of things we’ve been working on for last couple of days is a dealer kit. How can we make dealers around America feel like Detroit embassies? How can we put this feeling about Detroit and its optimistic resurgence in dealerships? We’ll help them keep that stuff rolling.

But will it make a difference?

Read More >

TTAC’s march towards media domination continues, as Bertel Schmitt’s excellent piece on Toyota’s factory of the future has been picked up for syndication by Fortune Magazine online. Read it here, read it there… just read it!

They say blogging doesn’t pay, but in this case, it pays. When the incomparable Bertel Schmitt wrote his Toyota exoneration story, none of us knew that he was just one quick sex-change operation away from scoring a $10 Amazon gift card. It’s true. A marketing organization with no connection to Toyota (chuckle) has decided to comp “mommybloggers” free gift cards for getting the word out about Toyota’s exoneration.

Details, and a photo of the mommyblogger who blew the whistle on the whole sordid operation, after the jump.

Read More >

Last year, Toyota invested $50 million into Tesla. Tesla turned around and spent $42 million of the new money and bought the land and buildings of site 2 of NUMMI in Freemont, CA. As it turns out, the deal did not include the fixtures. Nothing another $17 million could not fix. Read More >

Here at TTAC we often find ourselves bemoaning the lack of compact pickups on the US market, and trying to determine if that fact is due to weak demand or a lack of OEM investment into the segment. But now Chrysler has announced a new entry-level Ram 1500, codenamed “Adventurer,” which proves that full-sizers are the reason  compact pickups are doomed in the US. According to ChryCo’s release, the “Adventurer” is

a value-priced, HEMI®-powered Ram 1500 regular cab truck that appeals to a cost-conscious, new-vehicle buyer who doesn’t want to give up performance and capability. The unnamed new Ram 1500, like the Ram Tradesman, offers buyers a standard HEMI V8 engine with its 20 mpg rating for the same price competitors are charging for their V6 engines.

The price? $23,830, including destination charge. That’s less than a V6, automatic 2WD Toyota Tacoma and nearly identical to a V6, automatic, 2WD Nissan Frontier. And at 20 MPG hwy, the Adventurer’s efficiency tradeoff is relatively small considering the performance advantages of its 390 HP HEMI V8. Though we applaud Ram’s decision to bring an entry-level, utilitarian pickup to the table, we bemoan the fact that this makes selling a compact pickup that much harder.

Today, I saw a new, and so far the finest specimen of Japan’s new export products: A car factory. Remember when the Nikkei wrote about a new Toyota factory in the Miyagi Prefecture with a U-shaped assembly line where the assembly time is cut down to a third? Not only did they get it wrong. They missed the best part of the story: Budget car factories, ready for export. Of course, that’s not how it was sold to the natives.

Ohira is a little village near Sendai. Sendai is a town two Shinkansen hours north of Tokyo. The area is famous for its beef tongue, not the hottest export item. Ohira was known for exactly nothing until Toyota decided in 2007 to relocate their factory from Sagamihara, in the outskirts of Tokyo, up into the woods of Ohira.

A year later, the whole region went into shock: Read More >

The thing that got me hooked on LeMons racing was the mentality that makes a statement such as “Hey, I’d like to install a 540-cubic-inch, five-cylinder radial aircraft engine in the back of a Toyota MR2, then try to make it run all weekend in a grueling endurance race” seem totally sensible. The craziest most devoted racers find themselves locked into an arms race for the Unununium, and this is the result. Read More >

Despite launching a frothy IPO, EV maker Tesla’s net loss nearly tripled last year, losing more than $154m compared to a $55.7m loss in 2009. Total revenues were up nearly $5m, but only due to a nearly $20m bump in “development services” income. Revenue from “automotive sales” was down by around $15m. R&D costs skyrocketed from $19.3m to nearly $93m, while “selling, general and administrative” costs doubled to $84m. Still, CEO Elon Musk is all optimism in the firm’s press release, crowing

We are very pleased to report continued revenue growth, improving margins and a steady progression in our Roadster and powertrain activities,. Our powertrain team delivered solid results, with an increase in orders and record deliveries of battery packs and chargers for the Daimler Smart fortwo electric drive, the completion of our development program for the Daimler A-Class, and the commencement of the phase 1 development program for the Toyota RAV4 EV.

Musk noted that the firm is on-track to start delivery of its forthcoming Model S sports sedan in mid-2012. It had better be, because Tesla’s clearly not going to sustain itself on Roadsters.

American car ads of the early 1980s came up short in several departments: Burning rubber, jet-engine-grade turbocharger sound, and blatantly sped-up film that made the cars appear to be going 300 MPH. Oh, and they also lacked James Bond! Read More >

Time was Toyota thoroughly redesigned its cars every four years. Then every five. And lately not even that often. Consequently, for its sixth model year the second-generation Lexus IS received just a few tweaks. The most notable: at long last all-wheel-drive is available with an engine torquey enough to take advantage of its additional traction, namely the IS 350’s 306-horsepower, 277-foot-pounds direct-injected 3.5-liter V6.

Read More >

The owner of a family van was surprised to receive a ticket in the mail from police in the southern Italian town of Oria accusing him of driving 1230 km/h (764 MPH). The Lizzanello resident had been driving his Fiat Doblo on the SS7 in the province of Brindisi on November 6 and weeks later received a letter demanding that he pay 165 euros (US $223).

Italian tickets allow a five percent tolerance to account for the possibility of error. At 1230 km/h, the motorist exceeded the 90 km/h (56 MPH) speed limit with an adjusted velocity of 1078 km/h (669 MPH), according to the notice signed by two officers (view ticket). Oria police insist that the camera managed by the private firm Sodi Scientifica SpA is perfectly accurate. Officials blamed the incident “clerical error” in a statement issued Thursday.

Read More >

For quite some time, we have been tracking a growing trend in China: Chinese cars. Well, Chinese cars, made by joint ventures with foreign carmakers. Here could be a new one, with a twist: Toyota so far has been hesitant following Nissan and others on the plugin bandwagon. Its Chinese joint venture, FAW-Toyota, will change that. They will come out with a Chinese-branded car that is a Toyota on the outside, and a Chinese-developed EV on the inside. If the information of BJNews (via Gasgoo) is correct, that is. Read More >