Toyota

Describes motivation process for creativity with emphasis on intrinsic motivation by Corey K Katir

As the spotlight has shifted to battery-powered cars, other promising alternative fuels have been left in the dark. That’s especially true for yesterday’s transportation stars, fuel-cell vehicles. But that doesn’t mean progress has stopped. California is still planning to get…

To kick its addiction to oil, the United States needs a raft of alternatives; no single alternative is likely to replace such an entrenched market any time soon. But electric car advocates at the Electric Vehicle Symposium held recently in…

With long charge times and charging stations few and far between, government agencies, Google, and others have gone to great lengths to maintain lists of every charging station in America and make it available via smart phones. But EV drivers…

We’re heading into the busy summer travel season and if a road trip is in your getaway plans, a used SUV may be a good choice to fit the family and gear. As we have been reminded by our recent…

Even with their low cost of ownership, some have speculated that the electric car movement is being driven more by regulations than by consumer demand. Specifically, they’re referring to regulations in the state of California that demand major automakers sell…

There are two kinds of electric cars at this year’s electric vehicle symposium, fondly known as EVS26: Purpose-built electric cars, and those that have been built from standard gasoline cars. The difference could not be more stark. Cars that have…

How much do you hate going to a gas station? Would plugging your car in every night be even more of a pain? Or would it become a simple routine, much like plugging in your cell phone at night? Those…

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and if a new car is on the wish list, there are many choices from which to select the perfect one. Whether she is a mother with young children or teens, has an…

If the Toyota Prius plug-in is not electric enough for you, soon you’ll be able to have a pure-electric Toyota RAV4. Toyota has been developing an electric RAV4 for years, starting with the first-generation RAV4. And at the 2010 LA…

On this edition of Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen and colleague Manny J. Valdez Jr. welcome Attorney John Gomez, a nationally recognized trial attorney at the Gomez Law firm, to discuss the latest in Toyota litigation. Attorney Gomez talks about his involvement in these Toyota cases, his participation in the congressional hearings and getting justice for the victims and the families of victims involved.

Toyota has been plagued by serious safety issues in cars leaving many customers in danger or even injured. In Part Two of our series on mediation, Ringler Radio host, Larry Cohen and colleague, Carmella A. Limongelli, welcome certified mediator, Attorney Mark J. Bunim, to look at potential lawsuits and future settlements involving these Toyota cases. Larry, Carmella and Mark look at the role mediation and a structured settlement will likely play in Toyota cases, the mediation process and ultimately the end result for the client.

Car giant Toyota ordered a global recall of 400,000 Priuses for brake problems. This comes on the heels of earlier incidents where reported gas pedals were becoming stuck in floor mats in different makes and models of Toyotas. On Lawyer2Lawyer, co-hosts and attorneys J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Attorney Dee Miles from the law firm, Beasley Allen and Mike Rozembajgier, Director of Recalls for ExpertRECALLaC/, to discuss the latest. They take a look at the Toyota recall, the legal troubles that surround this recall and how the recall will impact customers and ultimately Toyota.

When NASA released the results of a 10-month study on Toyota vehicles on Feb. 8 concluding that the automaker’s cars did not have an electronics problem that caused unintended acceleration, one of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s columnists said the media owed the company an apology. There is no ghost in the machine and the intense media coverage caused a frenzy, Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Ed Wallace wrote. I know Ed personally and have tremendous respect for him. But I must part ways on this issue.

Toyota may not have had electronic throttle issues. But certainly the company had plenty of other problems. Just today, Toyota announced its biggest recall in a year. The Japanese auto giant recalled 2.17 million vehicles because of carpet and floor mat flaws that could jam gas pedals. Toyota has recalled more than 12 million vehicles globally since November 2009, many of them related to unintended acceleration claims. Of those actions, 5.3 million vehicles were recalled to fix floor mat problems. Some of the cars were recalled because of a sticking accelerator pedal. It may not have been electronics, but there were problems.

Toyota has had other investigations and recalls not related to unintended acceleration. Last week, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2006 Highlander hybrid amid claims that the SUV stalls frequently. In January, Toyota voluntarily recalled 1.7 million vehicles for potential defects in fuel pipes and pumps, Bloomberg reported. On Jan. 10, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda told reporters that the recalls have inflicted “big damage” on the company, but he maintained that its cars are safe, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Back to the apology. While it’s clear that there is no mystery magnetic glitch in Toyota’s cars and that they are as safe as anyone else’s vehicles, forget the apology. First of all, investigations are news. So long as the media reports the conclusion, it’s in the public’s interest to know what’s happening. Second, Toyota’s lost its once-astute focus on quality. Rapid expansion of its model lines and sprawling archipelago of factories has made it difficult to mind every detail, which was a principal tenet of the company.

Consumer Reports has found a decline in the quality of interior finishes in Toyotas for the past three or four years, David Champion, the magazine’s director of automotive testing, told Bloomberg for a Jan. 12 story. The company whose customers once relied on Toyota for bullet-proof quality and reliability suddenly suffered a rash of problems. In fairness to my old pal Ed, some media reports accepted the unintended acceleration claims as gospel. But that alone does not exonerate Toyota. Sorry Ed, but it’s the customers – not Toyota – who deserve the apology. Toyota’s executives have apologized, and justifiably so.

Think small. Think fuel efficient. That is the theme at this year’s Detroit auto show, also known by the official name North American International Auto Show. This year’s expo does not have the kind of heart-pounding displays of horsepower and luxury of past years. But there are some very significant models that tell us where higher fuel prices and tougher emissions regulations are pushing the cars of tomorrow.
Judging by the new models and concepts on display, carmakers are trying to make the case that you can have a hot car and a bit of fun driving it but without having a panic attack at the pump. There are compact Buicks and a subcompact from Chevrolet. Ford has a small people mover. Honda has the new Civic and both Mini and Hyundai are trying to give us more fun in a small package. Here are seven cars worth checking out.

Most significant: Honda showed off a new concept car that is, more or less, going to be the new 2012 Civic when it goes on sale this spring. You can tell by the aggressive curves in the car that Honda is trying to get its mojo back. Honda’s market share fell to 10.6% in 2010 from 11% the year before. The Civic is a perennial winner for the company and vital to its success. Styling has never been the Civic’s calling card. This one takes a bold step with a fast backward-sloping roofline and some curves in the side panels that reminded me a bit of a Hyundai Tiburon. More important for Hondaphiles, the car has the company’s vaunted i-VTEC engine and a hybrid option will be available. We’ll see if its bold new look will get any love from outside Honda’s loyal followers.

Biggest turnabout: You’ve heard the clichA(c) “as big as a Buick.” It comes from a description of a spider in Woody Allen’s film “annie Hall.” I doubt anyone will say “as small as a Buick” when the compact Verano goes on sale late this year, but the 2012 Verano compact tells us where carmakers think the market is headed. General Motors figures fuel will only get more expensive and that luxury buyers will want creature comforts without shelling out a fortune for gasoline. The car’s 177-horsepower engine will get 31 miles per gallon on the highway with the 2.4-liter engine. A 2-liter turbo model comes later. The Verano will be an interesting test. Can Buick, which grew 52% last year, sell small cars to younger luxury buyers? On the surface it’s a tough sell. But who would have thought a year ago that the Lacrosse sedan would be one of the hottest cars on the market?

Pick of the show: The Mini Paceman is my pick for the best design at the show. It’s Mini’s future crossover SUV and it probably it is dead one for the brand. It’s stylish, sporty, has a bit more space than a Mini Cooper but can go off-road. Stylistically, the two-door Paceman is an athletic version of the Countryman, Mini’s existing crossover suv. The two-door Paceman doesn’t look as upright as its more practical forebear. In the rear, it has haunches like it’s going to pounce. The concept had Mini’s 1.6-liter turbo engine used in the John Cooper Works performance cars and the ALL4 all-wheel drive system. That’s a strong hint that the Paceman will offer both as options. That will make it an off-roader with tire-burning potential. One bonus: They will probably ditch the Paceman name. Mini USA President Jim McDowell said in an interview that, onfortunately, consumers associate it with ’80s video-game sensation Pac Man.

The comeback kid: Beating up on Toyota is a favorite pastime these days, what with their quality woes, lost market share and fallen image. I’ll give the company some accolades. The Prius c concept takes a hybrid franchise known for its egg-shaped fuel sippers and takes it out on the edge. The car leans forward like it’s in motion. The headlights are pushed up the hood and closer to the windshield as if the car is barreling down the highway. The car has shoulders, which makes it look more muscular. This car will come to market in the first half of 2012. One word of caution: There is no telling how much of the concept car’s edgy design will make it to the showroom.

Ford gets in the game: Nissan and GM have a jump on Ford in the green-car game. Next year, Ford will make a big statement with the C-Max Energi, a five-passenger plug-in hybrid small SUV that the automaker says will get better fuel economy that the Chevy Volt. Untested fuel economy ratings are always suspect; the Volt gets 37 mpg if it runs the gas tank dry. GM may even upgrade the Volt before the C-Max Energi goes to market. But it still looks like a good package. It’s more spacious that the other EVs and hybrids on the market and can go 500 miles using a full battery charge and tank of gas.

Hyundai makes a bold statement: The Hyundai Veloster will go on sale in 2012 as a boldly-styled three-door coupe that promises to be a fun ride that gets 40 mpg on the highway. It doesn’t need a hybrid-electric system to do it, either. It mates a dual-clutch transmission with a direct-injection 1.6-liter engine to maximize fuel economy. The interior is inspired by sporty motorcycles. This could be a hit with younger buyers given the curvy styling and fuel economy. Hyundai has moved well beyond selling just on price.

Biggest snoozer: And last, the new Volkswagen Passat is the German carmaker’s attempt to offer more value and become a big-volume seller in the U.S. market. The company only has 2.2% of the market, so it is dropping the price of the Passat by some $7,000 to get close to $20,000. The cabin looks like a VW, with well-crafted appointments and a certain German precision to the construction. On the outside? There isn’t much to it. The sides of the car are pretty flat. The back end reminds me of a Saab. Overall, the Passat is undistinctive. The selling point is affordable German engineering with options like a 2-liter diesel engine that is expected to get 43 mpg on the highway. That will have to win buyers because the design won’t turn many heads.

Chevrolet started rolling the first Volts off the assembly line and onto car haulers on Dec. 13, sending them off to anxious customers who have been waiting months for their electric car, or advanced hybrid or whatever you like to call the Volt. That same day, Nissan delivered its first Leaf electric car to a customer in San Diego. Normally, handing over the keys of a new model’s first buyer is about as scintillating as ribbon-cutting ceremonies photographed in community newspapers.

In this case, the first deliveries kicked off a closely-watched sales race that will begin to answer some big questions about fuel-efficient technology and what consumers really want. General Motors has argued that the Volt is the way to go. You’ll never get stranded in a car that recharges the battery using a gasoline engine. Nissan differs, of course. As long as there’s a tailpipe, it’s not the genuine green article. As an aside, Toyota’s Prius is no longer in the conversation. Unless the Leaf and Volt end up with major quality or performance problems, Toyota has dithered away its position as the unquestioned technology kingpin.

Which car will win? The Leaf is the cheaper option, costing almost $33,000 before federal tax incentives, compared with $41,000 for the Volt. But I think the Volt is a better proposition for most consumers. Nissan says the Leaf can go 100 miles on a charge. But if you drive a pure EV hard on the highway, where the regenerative brakes will do less recharging, you can get a lot less. If the driver has a lead foot or if the weather is especially cold, that will also drop the car’s range. For consumers with a short commute–and if they only drive to work and back everyday–it’s a great option. For the rest of us, that just won’t do. The Volt can go 379 miles on a tank of gas and a full battery charge.

There’s something else about the Volt. If you strip away the green allure and techno-geek appeal, it’s just a really good car. I tested it out last month. It’s smooth, quiet and handles nicely. The Volt is not a car for smoky burnouts, but it has a nice amount of zip. Its interior has a certain Star Trek appeal. The flat control panel that turns on the audio or environmental control with a touch, as opposed to pushing a button, is very avant garde. The two video screens provide all kinds of information and the graphics that show the flow of power from the engine to the battery to the wheels and motors is nicely done. There is one flaw. GM has a ball on one screen that moves up and down and when you’re driving most efficiently, it hovers in the middle. It was confusing. But overall, the car has the kind of futuristic feel you’d expect from this kind of car.

I have not tested a Leaf. But I have driven a Mini E and felt the specter of range anxiety. I got the car with a full charge, which means it should go up to 156 miles. Like any electric car, it can be considerably less if you drive it more on the highway when you use more power and the regenerative braking system does less recharging. I drove it until the battery was down to 83%. The next day, I had a 10-mile trek of mostly suburban streets and it got down to 67%. The battery still had plenty of juice. The real problem is that you can’t just drive all day without planning out your trip and when you will recharge. You have to plan around range and allow some leeway in case you get fewer than 100 miles. That gives the Volt or any other hybrid a huge advantage for most car buyers.

This gets hotly debated in the green blogosphere. I think the Volt will be more successful. Now, let’s sit back and watch.

To hear one critic tell it, General Motors got caught in an out-and-out lie when the company described labeled the Chevrolet Volt an extended-range electric vehicle. Edmunds.com said in a headline that “GM Lied.” The Volt is really a hybrid-electric vehicle like the Toyota Prius, Edmunds said. Critics from Motor Trend and Popular Mechanics made a similar argument, though they stopped short of saying GM was dishonest. In any case, there is an electric dust up over the Volt and what to call it. Is it a hybrid or an EV?

The argument goes like this. When the Volt is driving hard, say, over 70 miles per hour or it’s climbing hills, the gasoline engine will directly power the car’s second electric motor, which then turns the wheels. This came as a surprise because GM has billed the car as an electric vehicle that uses the gasoline engine to charge the battery. The company has said that the car’s electric motors draw power straight from the battery. That gasoline engine is only there to charge the battery. GM’s engineers didn’t reveal until recently that the engine can power a secondary electric motor that turns the wheels. Critics say this new revelation makes the Volt a hybrid, because the Prius does drive in a similar way. GM counters that there is no direct mechanical linkage from the gasoline engine to the wheels. So it’s an electric vehicle.

GM opened itself up to this kind of criticism. They should have just explained how it worked in the first place. If GM had just explained in more detail how the Volt worked during the three years of hype leading up to the introduction, the technology geeks, the technology geeks, auto buff magazine writers and green commentariat would have hashed over whether it’s a hybrid or an extended-range EV and been done with it. The debate wouldn’t be making headlines a couple of weeks before GM starts selling the car. But GM was trying to distinguish the Volt from the Prius and establish a leadership position. In point of fact, the Volt is different and more advanced regardless of its label.

That said, I doubt most consumers will care what label anyone slaps on the Volt. This is inside baseball. Eric Noble, whose auto consulting firm The CarLab in Orange (Calif.) interviews consumers about car technology routinely, told me that they don’t care about labels, or when the engine powers the car or the gasoline engine. They ask about battery range, mileage, plug-in requirements and battery durability. They want to know if the fuel savings justifies the extra cost of the car. I also called Dan Becker, who heads up the environmental activist group Safe Climate Campaign. He didn’t care, either. So long as it gets high mileage and delivers low emissions, “I don’t care what you call it,” Becker told me. So this is much ado about nothing. It’s also a flare up that GM could have avoided.

Some big questions are being asked of the Chevrolet Cruze compact, which is just about hit the market. First, will its conservative styling draw showroom traffic? Will GM’s new marketing minds–namely new marketing Vice President Joel Ewanick and his hand-picked Chevrolet marketing chief Chris Perry, both Hyundai veterans–come up with a way to get consumers interested in this car and the Chevy brand. And will consumers, who are accustomed to shopping Chevy for a low-priced compact, pay up for the $17,000 Cruze? The outgoing Cobalt sold for $1,300 less, though Chevy says the new car has more content and therefore is still a good value.

Every one of those questions will pose a challenge for a car that GM absolutely needs to be successful as the automaker tries to rebuild the Chevy brand. Make no mistake, this will be a big marketing challenge. Chevy has never really had a good compact. The Cobalt was an also-ran, and that’s very generous. The Cavalier before that was also a cut-priced loser. When people think of Chevy, they think of trucks, SUVs, Camaros, maybe the Impala, maybe the Corvette. Small cars have never been the brand’s raison d’etre. So now they are trying to get fatter pricing on a pretty conservative car sold by a brand with no reputation for selling small cars.

The good news is that if GM can get people to give the car a look, the Cruze has some great selling points. I sat in the car at a Chevy event yesterday. The cabin is first rate with attractive design, solid materials in the dash and comfortable seating. Chevy brags that if you load up competing models like the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Ford Focus with comparable options, the base model Cruze LS is anywhere from $635 to $1,770 better value.

The best news Chevy has may be the Eco version of the Cruze. A regular Cruze gets 36 miles per gallon on the highway, 2 mpg more than the Focus. The Eco model gets 40 mpg. There’s no hybrid system or high-tech solution. GM’s engineers just wrung out weight, made a few aerodynamic tweaks, added a gear to the manual transmission and gave it some low-rolling resistance tires. It was an old-tech solution to a long-standing problem. At highway speeds, for example, a shutter closes and blocks part of the grille. That cuts wind flow under the can and makes the Cruze slicker in the wind. Simplicity.

Will enough buyers take notice? That’s going to be the real challenge. Sometimes in the car business it takes a few generations of good models before consumers realize that the brand selling them is worth a look. Ewanick and Perry experienced that with Hyundai. They may have to do the same with Chevy.

GM to build next generation Astra compact in Britain after workers at its factory in Ellesmere Port, northwest England, agreed to new labour deal

Initial sales reports for 2012 suggest the Japanese brand, which was badly hit by natural disasters last year, is outselling American rival GM

If you can live with merely average fuel economy, you will be rewarded with a car that thinks itas a sport sedan

Personal Injury Lawyer Los Angeles – FREE CONSULTATION by Personal Injury Attorney Los Angeles – Legal Defenders, Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers – Law Offices of Burg and Brock, who have won over $100 million in verdicts and settlements for clients

Page took 3 seconds to load.

 ');