Topic: Toyota / Lexus Tidbits

[ArticSteve]

Launch clean-diesel V-8 versions of the Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV within the next 24 months.   For Artic 

I do appreciate that. 

I have attempted numerous times to inform my brethren that the Tundras are coming with a Hino I6.  The whole Tundra mega investment was not to supply 200,000 or so gas V8s, but to DOMINATE the lite truck (1/2 tons. 3/4 tons, 1 tons) market with a reasonable cost diesel(s) that WORK.  The only players in this game will have an Inline 6.  Something that is fuel efficient, clean and SERVICEABLE.  V8s need not apply to this game.  The market shift will be like something never seen because the demand will be huge.   

[Snowman]

IMO cheaper direct injection gas engines will burst that bubble.

[barrie1]

Ya and GM's new Diesel will only take over from this market if the need is there anyways for the diesel designed engines. Who would trust a Comapny who does not have recalls that effect 15,000 trucks at a time and refuse to admit it when everybody already knows. Still don't see any Tundras on a worksite as they are too expensive to start with and doubtfully will hold up as well under real heavy work conditions also. Besides they are ugly as well in their design IMHO. 

[ArticSteve]

IMO cheaper direct injection gas engines will burst that bubble.

They won't have the torque requirements and DI's won't be any cheaper not to mention fuel.

[Snowman]

IMO cheaper direct injection gas engines will burst that bubble.

They won't have the torque requirements and DI's won't be any cheaper not to mention fuel.

The bulk of truck sales are light duty so I’m having a hard time understanding how the extra $6k-$8k for a diesel truck is cheaper. I would take 10 years to recover the capital cost.

[Ex-airbalancer]

IMO cheaper direct injection gas engines will burst that bubble.

They won't have the torque requirements and DI's won't be any cheaper not to mention fuel.

Will the DI engines need 91 to run on?
One thing in the States is in most areas diesel is the same cost of 91 or more costly

[safristi]

 Hino Hino No Nay Nay...........................wait and see the Torque of the TOWN...when these babies show up around...............

[Allen]

Toyota delays plant opening
GREG KEENAN

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

January 29, 2008 at 9:04 PM EST

The start of production at the new Toyota Motor Corp. assembly plant in Woodstock, Ont., will be delayed several weeks as the auto maker tries to make sure the vehicles it produces meet high quality standards.

“We're very optimistic that we're going to have a good ramp up but I'm going to go slow,” Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., said in an interview. “Quality first before anything.”

The new plant was originally scheduled to begin cranking out RAV4 crossover utility vehicles in September. Production will still begin this fall, Mr. Tanguay said, but the Canadian manufacturing division of Toyota wants improvements to environmentally friendly painting technology that has been used in the existing RAV4 plant in Japan.

Toyota is still optimistic about the state of the North American market and the prospects for the 150,000 vehicles that will come out of the $1.1-billion plant, he said.

Nonetheless, other Toyota officials have scaled back their expectations of the company's sales in the U.S. market to growth of about 1 per cent this year from earlier predictions of 3 per cent or more.

Toyota, which is vying with General Motors Corp. for the title of the world's largest auto maker, has mounted a renewed focus on quality after a record number of recalls in the U.S. market in 2005, when the company was required to fix defects on 2.3 million vehicles.

Last year, Consumer Reports magazine ended a practice of automatically recommending Toyota vehicles to its readers even before drivers submitted data on the vehicles.

“Quality is the essential aspect of Toyota as a car maker,” Katsuaki Watanabe, chief executive officer of Toyota Motor, told reporters in Detroit earlier this month at the North American International Auto Show.

The company has gone back to the basics to address the quality issues, Mr. Watanabe said.

The focus on quality has also caused the company to slow down its aggressive growth in North America.

Until recently, Toyota was on pace for a new plant almost annually. It opened a pickup truck factory in Texas in 2006, began producing Camry mid-sized cars at a plant it shares with Subaru in Indiana last year and will start Woodstock production this year.

A plant in Mississippi is scheduled to begin producing Highlander sport utility vehicles in 2010.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

NHTSA investigates Pontiac, Toyota cars for shattered glass

Ryan Beene
Automotive News
February 22, 2008 - 2:45 pm ET

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation to determine if front windows are prone to shattering on the Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Matrix and Corolla cars.

The side front widows on the cars could shatter while being used normally, according to NHTSA. The vehicles being investigated were built in 2003 and 2004. More than 900,000 of the vehicles -- mostly Corollas -- were built in those years.

NHTSA has received 503 consumer complaints about the vehicles' windows, along with 36 injury reports stemming from broken glass.

Toyota, who NHTSA said is responsible for responding to the investigation, says the problem may be caused by loose window regulator bolts, or interference of the side window glass with a part of the door hinge called the check link.

The platform-sharing Vibe, Matrix and Corolla are built at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. in Fremont, Calif.

[Cord]

NHTSA investigates Pontiac, Toyota cars for shattered glass

Ryan Beene
Automotive News
February 22, 2008 - 2:45 pm ET

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation to determine if front windows are prone to shattering on the Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Matrix and Corolla cars.

The side front widows on the cars could shatter while being used normally, according to NHTSA. The vehicles being investigated were built in 2003 and 2004. More than 900,000 of the vehicles -- mostly Corollas -- were built in those years.

NHTSA has received 503 consumer complaints about the vehicles' windows, along with 36 injury reports stemming from broken glass.

Toyota, who NHTSA said is responsible for responding to the investigation, says the problem may be caused by loose window regulator bolts, or interference of the side window glass with a part of the door hinge called the check link.

The platform-sharing Vibe, Matrix and Corolla are built at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. in Fremont, Calif.

If I thought this would reach the mainstream media, I'd expect to see the following headline: PONTIAC CAR WINDOWS SHATTERING.
 

[Mitlov]

If I thought this would reach the mainstream media, I'd expect to see the following headline: PONTIAC CAR WINDOWS SHATTERING.
 

Actually, I think I'd see "Bob Lutz personally throws broken glass at toddlers; says he 'doesn't give a damn'"...

[Mitlov]

Scion sales tanking: decreasing sales numbers in the States for 16 months straight.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/03/scion-sales-hit-the-wall-bigger-is-not-better/

There's two problems here.  (1)  There's more competition in the subcompact market than when the original xA and xB debuted.  (2)  The new xB and xD have given up on the light, cheap, ultra-fuel-efficient, and JDM-performance-part-friendly formula that made the original xA and xB such successes.  The new xB is actually more like a Honda Element than a Honda Fit.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Toyota backs off Tundra, Sequoia output

Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News
March 13, 2008 - 4:25 pm ET

Toyota Motor Corp. will ratchet back its production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs in Indiana and Texas in response to slow sales.

The reduction in volume -- rare move for Toyota in North America -- will begin in late spring, according to Mike Goss, spokesman for Toyota’s North American production company. He said Toyota has no plan to layoff workers at either plant.

He declined to say how many fewer trucks it will produce this year as a result of the scale-back.

The slow-down will not affect production of the Sienna minivan, which is built on a separate line at the Tundra/Sequoia plant in Princeton, Ind.

Toyota launched its second Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio in late 2006 in a bid to compete head-on with the Detroit 3 for full-size pickup customers.

The Texas plant gave Toyota annual capacity to build 300,000 Tundras a year, or about 25,000 a month. In February, the company sold 14,400.

For the first two months of this year, light truck sales declined by 103,558 from the first two months of 2007.

Toyota will achieve the reduction by slowing down its production cycle. Normally, Toyota and other automakers rigorously build up the number of vehicles per hour their assembly workers can build.

Slowing down the cycle can take weeks to orchestrate, because individual jobs performed throughout an auto factory are performed at the same tempo and must be slowed down in unison.

After the slowdown begins, a quick uptick in truck sales would not be a problem for the plants, because they can schedule overtime to fill orders, Goss said.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Toyota faces union vote in Canada

Machinists union scheduled to vote Thursday at Cambridge, Ont.

David Barkholz
and Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News
March 17, 2008 - 4:31 pm ET

DETROIT -- A union vote is set for Thursday at Toyota's Canadian assembly plant.

The Canada branch of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union is trying to organize about 3,100 workers at the assembly plant in Cambridge, Ontario. The plant is about an hour west of Toronto.

The union is optimistic about the vote in light of a reduction in new-hire wages and other benefit cuts over the past several months, said Ian Morland, lead organizer for the union's Canada branch.

Toyota produces the Corolla, Matrix, and Lexus RX350 in Cambridge. The automaker also plans to open an assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario, this autumn to produce the RAV4.

Toyota could not be immediately reached for comment on the situation this afternoon.

The Canadian Auto Workers union have tried and failed on numerous occasions to organize the plant in Cambridge. The last effort was in 2000.

Similarly, the UAW has been trying to organize Toyota's U.S. plants -- particularly the sprawling assembly operations in Georgetown, Ky. The UAW Web site has been maintaining a " Support Toyota Workers!" link for several months.

In Cambridge, Morland said the Machinists union set the stage for the vote by collecting signatures of more than 40 percent of the plant workers.

Toyota in September cut new hire wages from $30 an hour (Canadian) to $25 an hour, he said. Workers also have faced more out-of-pocket costs for their supplemental health care coverage, he said.

Workers are worried that Toyota will try to take advantage of new-hire UAW wage reductions negotiated by the Detroit 3 to drive down wages even further, Morland said.

He said results of the vote probably would not be available until after the weekend.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Machinists call off Toyota union vote

Organizers say campaign will continue

Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News
March 20, 2008 - 12:01 am ET
UPDATED: 3/20/08 10:12 a.m. EDT

Organizers have called off their Thursday union election at Toyota Motor Corp.'s assembly plant in Cambridge, Ontario, following Toyota's complaint that the union incorrectly estimated the number of eligible voters.

A statement released Wednesday afternoon by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union acknowledged that the union did not have enough signed union membership cards to officially call for an election.

Under Canadian law, a union can quickly call for an election after receiving signed cards of support from 40 percent of a workforce. But the machinists union had estimated that the total workforce in Cambridge was 3,100.

The plant makes the Corolla, Matrix and Lexus RX 350.

The statement by machinist organizer Ian Morland said it became clear after Toyota submitted a list of 900 additional employee names that the union did not have enough signed cards.

The same scene played out in 2000 after the Canadian Auto Workers union called for a vote at the Cambridge plant. Ontario authorities ruled after the plant election that the CAW had not counted eligible workers correctly, and the results of the election were never tabulated.

The union called the situation a " temporary roadblock" and said it would continue the organizing drive.

"We want to make sure the ground for certification is ready and right now it isn't, so the campaign will continue until it is ready," Morland said in the statement. "The workers here approached us for union representation and we intend to honor that request."

No Toyota plant has been unionized in North America since it began assembling cars at a General Motors plant already represented by the UAW in California in 1984.

Global Insight automotive analyst Aaron Bragman said, "It would not be in Toyota's interests for the plant to unionize."

Bragman said that if the Toyota plant were to unionize, it could affect future investments in Canada by Toyota or any of the Asian auto manufacturers.

The Canadian auto industry has been struggling recently as a stronger Canadian dollar has increased costs and the downturn in the U.S. market has hurt demand.

Also, a new contract between U.S.-based automakers and the UAW has made Canadian plants less competitive.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Jim Press creates PR mess for Toyota and Chrysler

Debate over Japanese r&d subsidies continues

Philip Nussel
and Mark Rechtin
Automotive News
April 3, 2008 - 11:11 am ET

Chrysler LLC co-President Jim Press has a PR problem -- and so does his former employer, Toyota Motor Corp.

In an interview published Thursday, March 24, Press told BusinessWeek that the Japanese government " paid for 100 percent of the development of the battery and hybrid system that went into the Toyota Prius."

On March 14, 2007 -- when he was still Toyota's top U.S. executive -- Press told something else to a subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee. U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, questioned Press about the seven years of r&d that went into Toyota's hybrid technology:

Burgess asked: " That seven-year interval, was any of that research and development funded by the government?

Press answered: " No, sir."

Burgess responded: " So that was all just done under your own initiative."

Press said: " Yes."

All this chatter created a public relations challenge Wednesday, April 2, for both Toyota and Chrysler, which hired Press late last summer when he ended his long and successful career at Toyota.

'Absolutely no support'

" I can say 100 percent that Toyota received absolutely no support -- no money, no grants -- from the Japanese government for the development of the Prius," Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco told the Associated Press in Tokyo.

According to the AP report, Nolasco said Toyota received no public money for developing the battery or any other part of the Prius.

Toyota amplified that position later Wednesday. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. spokesman Mike Michels gave Automotive News this statement:

" For the first Prius project, we used a nickel-metal hydride battery that Toyota developed internally. There was no subsidy whatsoever received from the government for either the development of the car or for the battery.

" Currently, for lithium ion and other advanced batteries, the Japanese government is subsidizing some research and development. But mostly that is at the academic level, just like the governments are doing in Europe and the U.S."

The statement also noted consumer tax credits for car buyers in Japan.

Chrysler weighs in

Chrysler, for its part, seemed to downplay Press' remarks, saying he was " not speaking negatively" of Toyota in the BusinessWeek interview.

" In a recent interview, he referenced the close cooperation between the Japanese government and Japanese industry," Chrysler said in a statement released Wednesday evening. " He said the Japanese government strongly supported r&d investment in battery development, and the Prius and other Japanese models benefited from that investment in industry.

" He cited this as an example of cooperation between government and industry working together on public policy issues. He went on to say that he would like to see similar cooperation in the United States in order to find technological improvements that help give U.S. companies a competitive advantage."

BusinessWeek is standing by its story.

" In the interview with Businessweek, Press was clearly talking about direct subsidy by the Japanese government, not consumer tax credits," reporter David Kiley wrote Wednesday on his blog. " I stand by my account of the story, as does BusinessWeek."

[sailor723]

I guess it all depends who is signing your paycheque this month.

[safristi]

...and they were still selling them at a purported LOSS....

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Toyota and GM recall 660,000 cars for window defect

Corollas, Matrixes and Vibes from 2003-04 model year included

Harry Stoffer
Automotive News
April 9, 2008 - 2:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc and General Motors are recalling more than 660,000 cars built for the 2003-04 model years to repair side window hardware.

The recall involves nearly 540,000 Toyota Matrixes and Corollas and nearly 123,000 Pontiac Vibes, the companies said today.

Dealers are to replace bolts that hold driver and front passenger door glass in vehicles equipped with power windows. The bolts may loosen and detach, Toyota said in a statement.

Federal safety officials had been investigating complaints about the windows in the Toyotas and in similar Vibes, built by GM in a joint venture with Toyota.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in February that some side windows became inoperable or made popping noises and occasionally shattered.

The agency and the automakers together had collected more than 500 complaints, including 36 claimed injuries and one reported crash. There were also more than 12,000 possibly related warranty claims, according to NHTSA records.

[sailor723]

I noticed an article in Automotive News that Toyota had their fourth straight month that sales declined in the US last month. They made a bit of a deal about it as it's the first time it's happened in 13 years. I guess it's another sign of just how bad the US economy has become?