Toyota Motor Co., the world’s largest automaker, has been producing cars for more than 70 years. It wasn’t until after World War II, however, that production started to pick up. Toyota went from making 8,500 cars a year in 1955 to 600,000 in 1965. Models like the Toyopet and Land Cruiser hit the United States in 1957. Today Toyota is among the leaders when it comes to hybrid technology.
Should Volkswagen management miss its self-prescribed and audacious target of becoming the world’s largest automaker by 2018, as of today it would have someone else to blame than itself: Bernd Osterloh, chief of Volkswagen’s works council and therefore vice chairman of Volkswagen’s supervisory board, is against further acquisitions in the foreseeable future. “We are twelve brands now, and we need to stabilize the group first,” Osterloh told Germany’s Handelsblatt in an interview. Osterloh is especially against buying Proton (and with it Lotus): “As important as distribution and production in South-East Asia may be: Labor does not support an acquisition of Proton in Malaysia.” Read More >
Brazil was once VW’s home away from home. Here, it felt loved and welcome. It controlled 50 percent of the market. Time passed. An Italian upstart arrived and eventually robbed it of first place by being more agile. VW meanwhile grew bigger appetites and found a new home in China. Brazil, the ex-favorite, the dark, mysterious, tropical, big bosomed former love affair relies on the crumbs that fall off the table of the slanted-eye enchantress. Read More >
“President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors. That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again.” Sounds like our august founder, Robert Farago, sounding off about American Leyland the New GM. Nope, it’s Forbes this time, and they come to bury the General, not to praise him.
U.S. Senators long have warned of an exodus of American know-how to China. Last year, Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin complained to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk about another attempt by China ”to illegally gain an unfair advantage over the U.S. automobile industry that will cost our country jobs. The United States must respond strongly to stand up for American businesses and working families.”
A year later, the exodus is in full swing, and it starts to hurt. This time, it pains automakers to see how Chinese companies are getting their hands on taxpayer-funded secrets. Read More >
The Japanese car industry found a way to soften the impact of the crushingly high yen on its books. It does what U.S. and European automakers have practiced for a long time: Import low-cost parts from abroad. It is a stop-gap measure while large parts of the Japanese car industry is packing. Read More >
Toyota Land Cruisers don’t last long in self-service wrecking yards, as we saw with this ’85 earlier in the summer. When I saw this ’71 FJ40 a few weeks later, I could see the scavengers circling overhead. Now look at it! Read More >
Remember the DIY Lamborghini? In a garage somewhere in the less picturesque parts of Beijing, a man built a Lamborghini Diablo replica, fiberglass on hand-welded frame. No industrious Chinese will allow something like that to be forgotten as a one-off lunatic hobby project. Half a year later … Read More >
In a heavy accent loaded with London grit, that was the response of the proprietor of the local—and at that point in time, quite vital—independent British Car garage, when I approached him to inquire as to whether he was in the market for hired help.
Not even twenty years of age, with a whopping one-year’s worth of experience servicing used cars for a BMC/Jaguar/Toyota dealership, just up the Pacific Coast Highway, I was still in the process of formulating an opinion as to what it took to make a success of wrenching (or should I call that “spannering?”) on things British. Read More >
Last month, Toyota invited the Japanese press to join them for “the opening ceremony for its new plant in Brazil on August 9,” a three day event in and around Sao Paulo. The excitement lowered considerably as the Fourth Estate ventured to the bottom of the invitation. There it said that “flight costs to and from Brazil and all accommodation costs will need to be covered by participants themselves.” That’s Toyota as we know and love it. If you have dreams of lavish press jaunts, don’t dream them in Japan. The event happened yesterday, without yours truly. The Nikkei [sub] hopefully sent its local stringer, and it reports what we know anyway: “Toyota Motor Corp. will kick off production of a strategic small car aimed at the emerging-market middle class next month at a new plant in Brazil.” And the new car is the Etios. Read More >
Bloomberg is reporting that House Republicans, led by California Congressman Darrell Issa, are set to produce a report that heavily criticizes CAFE as a politicized move designed to curry favor with bailed out auto makers and environmental groups.
So says Consumer Reports with respect to their list of “Five popular cars to avoid”. CR says that the vehicles “…didn’t perform well in our testing or they suffer from subpar reliability,” and that’s reason enough to stay away. I’m not entirely convinced.
The LS and I have had a long relationship. Back in 1993 I was an impressionable teenager nearing that holy-grail of ages: 16. This meant I dreamt of driving constantly. My parents were Oldsmobile and Chrysler folks, so my choices were a 1980 Custom Cruiser, a 1985 Cutlass Ciera, or a 1988 Grand Voyager. The Oldsmobiles were diesel. Need I say more? One day my best friend’s dad pulled up in a brand-new 1993 Lexus LS 400 for the school run. I had no idea cars could be assembled with that kind of precision and my world was changed forever. Needless to say, when the Lexus invited me to the unveiling of the fifth-generation LS, my expectations were set high.
There once was a song written by Johnny Cash about an auto worker who wanted a Cadillac but couldn’t afford it outright. Thus, he took parts off the line bit by bit until he finally had the car of his dreams.
The conventions of auto writing require that we come up with at least one labored metaphor for every comparison test, so here goes: You guys remember that movie It Might Get Loud? Obviously, the Scion FR-S is Jack White: deliberately stripped-down and retro, perhaps too self-consciously context-sensitive, adored without reservation by a bunch of people who have never signed a mortgage. The Genesis 2.0t R-Spec is the Edge: a lot of sharp edges and technical brilliance intended to cover up a fundamental deficit of talent.
Toyota Land Cruisers don’t last long in self-service wrecking yards, as we saw with 
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