Due to some adroit planning, important auto shows in the world’s largest market and the world’s second largest fall in the same week this year. CEOs of the world’s top automakers have a dilemma: Shanghai or New York? (Read More…)

Has it really been a year since the United States tore itself apart in a frenzy over the possibility that Toyota’s might suddenly accelerate out of control? So intense was the furor over Toyota’s alleged misdeeds, that it seems like the whole scandal occurred only yesterday, yet the brevity of the crisis already gives it the distance of ancient history. Now, just a year after the height of the hysteria, the first major book on the subject has arrived, casting a clear light on the events of the recall. Serving as a history of the scandal, a case study in Toyota’s responses to it, and a cutting critique of the media’s coverage of the recall, Toyota Under Fire is a powerful reminder of the many lessons that emerged from one of the most intense and unexpected automotive industry events in recent years.

(Read More…)

On paper, the Toyota MR2 should be an excellent choice for a low-buck endurance racer… but 24 Hours of LeMons racing has a way of shattering such preconceptions like a connecting rod hurtling through the side of a 4AGE block. In fact, the MR2 has been one of the least reliable LeMons cars, even worse than such good-on-paper-but-terrible-in-practice endurance machines as the Nissan Z and Porsche 944; we’ve seen dozens of them race in LeMons over the years, and nearly all have failed miserably… until today. Today, the Dai Mondai II car was the first MR2 to take the win on laps in the 24 Hours of LeMons. (Read More…)

The March 11 tsunami is having long term effects on Japanese car production. Toyota, the world’s and by far Japan’s largest car company, is severely impacted. Toyota just announced that vehicle production from May 10 to June 3 will proceed at approximately 50 percent of normal. (Read More…)

The waves of the March 11 tsunami did not really impact Australia. But the aftershocks do – in a big way. Toyota Australia will cut production at its factory in Altona, Victoria state, in half for a whopping two months because of missing parts, says The Nikkei [sub].

Toyota’s is not alone: Ford announced today that it will cut back Australian vehicle production by 20 percent, and will lay off 240 workers. (Read More…)

Production of Legacy, Outback and Tribeca Subarus in Lafayette, Ind. will pause on Friday, April 15, Monday, April 18 and Monday, April 25 while Subaru sorts out supplies from Japan, Subaru of Indiana spokeswoman spokeswoman Jennifer McGarvey told Automotive News [sub]. (Read More…)

In a memo that surprises no-one that has followed TTAC’s extended coverage of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Toyota’s U.S. chief  Bob Carter warns dealers that deliveries of parts and cars could be severely restricted for months to come. “What we don’t know are vehicle production levels for May through July,” Bob Carter wrote in a memo. “The potential exists that supply of new vehicles could be significantly impacted this summer.” You have seen this coming. (Read More…)

Better get used to this: Barely had Toyota announced that it will reopen its Japanese plants, then Toyota U.S.A. chimes in and says: “We are shutting down.” Welcome to the supply chain gang. Toyota is running its N.A. vehicle plants on what they call “a reduced schedule.”

Meaning: (Read More…)

It is the morning after a 7.4 magnitude tremor,the strongest aftershock so far, located in approximately the same area as the devastating March 11 quake, rattled northern Japan. Most of the increasingly quake-blasé Japan shrugged it off.

Then in the late Japanese morning, a bit of good news from and for the automotive sector. Toyota Japan will re-open for business on April 18. (Read More…)

Nobody dares to say it aloud, but parts of the “Buy American” contingent are secretly high-fifing when bad news from Japan is on TV or on the net. U.S. car companies themselves aren’t so sure, one missing chip, or an absent acceleration sensor can bring a whole line down. And of course they won’t be caught saying something reprehensible. Leave it to the Deutsche Bank and The Nikkei to end the (dis)grace period and to come out with their analysis of which carmaker might gain from the Tohoku tsunami. (Read More…)

Everybody thinks the Japanese auto industry will re-open for business next week, and will happily produce away. This is clearly not the case. What will be opened will proceed very carefully through the minefields of missing parts and cut power. A lot will not be re-opened at all.

When we reported yesterday about the flash message that Toyota will restart the Corolla production at the Sagamihara plant, we deduced that this could mean a prolonged outage for their new Miyagi plant up north. As often, there is a bigger story lurking in a smaller story. (Read More…)

Paul Nolasco at Toyota sends us a message saying that Toyota has “decided to resume production at the Sagamihara Plant of Central Motor.  Production is to start on April 11.”

Why should this impact the Yaris? Please bear with us.

It is too late to reach anyone at Toyota to find out the exact significance of the message. What follows is an educated guess until we can update you with firsthand information. (Read More…)

Not very unexpectedly, ratings agency Moody’s is looking into taking it’s view of Toyota’s long-term debt down a notch. Usually reliable Reuters says that Moody’s “put its credit rating on Toyota Motor Corp on review for a possible downgrade.” For the obvious reasons, namely disruptions to Toyota’s supply chain from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent power cuts. Even if bond ratings put you to sleep, you might be interested in Moody’s views on the resumption on normal car production. (Read More…)

“Toyota will not be resuming vehicle production at most of its plants next week, contrary to what has been reported.”

This was Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco’s answer when we reached him this (Tokyo) morning for a comment on a story that had appeared in The Nikkei [sub] at 2 a.m. last night. (Emphasis ours.) Without quoting sources, the Nikkei had written that “Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to reopen most of its domestic automobile plants as early as next week to start churning out a limited number of models.” This is clearly humbug. The Nikkei has done it again. (Read More…)