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Toyota Profit hits five year low: Down 28 percent

Toyota Motor Corp. has seen a huge drop in their profit, the biggest in five years. The world’s second-largest carmaker has blamed poor sales of sport-utility vehicles and trucks, due to high fuel prices.

Toyota has reported that their net income has fallen by 28 percent to 353.7 billion yen or $3.2 billion, shares are now just 112.28 yen a share. The year earlier net income was 491.5 billion yen, or 153.89 yen per share.

According to Bloomberg, Toyota’s operating profit in North America feel by 57 percent, as we mentioned it is the sale of larger vehicles that have seen the biggest drop. Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota Motor Corp. has had to halt the production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs for three months as a result of high oil prices.

Toyota has always been known for their larger vehicles, where Honda seems to produce smaller and fuel-efficient cars. This has seen an 8.1 percent gain for the automaker.

It is not just Toyota who is being hit with huge profit losses; Ford and GM are two more to add to that list. Automakers are now facing a fork in the road; they now have some tough decisions to make. One thing is certain; they will all have to think about producing smaller fuel-efficient cars.

10 examples of Ford successes already achieved

Ford continues to make great strides toward achieving its goal of best-in-class quality. The following ten examples show some of the successes already achieved along the way.

1. Now shoulder-to-shoulder with industry leaders in initial quality - The quality of Ford brand vehicles soared to the top of the charts equaling that of Toyota and Honda, according to the second quarter 2008 U.S. Global Quality Research System (GQRS) study conducted by RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The study showed Ford brand improved 6.5 percent versus last year with a combined average of 1343 things-gone-wrong (TGW) per 1,000 vehicles during the first three months of ownership. This performance is statistically equivalent at the 95% confidence level to the TGW levels of Honda and Toyota Read more

U.S. auto sales hits 15 year low: more fuel-efficient cars needed

It looks as though the current price of a barrel of oil is now having a profound affect on U.S. auto sales, which have now hit a 15 year low. The rest of 2008 does not like it will be any better, now automakers are working hard to meet the demand for smaller fuel-efficient cars. So it now shows that the current credit crisis is not just causing problems for the housing market.

Many automakers in the U.S. are now cutting the production of trucks; they are now scrambling to increase production of fuel-efficient cars as it is these that are now showing more sales strength. Auto sales for North America are down 18.3 percent from June 2007, this is now the worst half year sales performance since 1993. Autodata Corp has released some data stating that U.S. consumers purchased just 7.41 million vehicles in the first half of 2008.

According to Freep, some automakers are having worse sales figures than others, Chrysler LLC is 35.9% down, Ford Motor Co. is down by 27.8%, and Toyota Motor Corp. is down by 21.4%. Also down is Nissan Motor Co. by 17.7% as well as General Motors Corp. who are down 18.2%.

However Honda Motor Co. has bucked the market by reporting a 1.1% sales increase; this is a result of their more affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles.

It is not just in the U.S that people are wanting more fuel-efficient cars, in the UK they have to pay £5.40 a liter, that about $10.69. Also they are being taxed for having larger cars, so more people want to sell their larger cars and swap them for smaller cars.

Honda to mass produce and lease FCX Clarity fuel-cell car

Honda have announced that they are to mass produce their FCX Clarity fuel-cell car, they hope to be able to do this within the next ten years. Honda, who are Japans second largest automaker after Toyota, are looking for ways to meet public demand for more fuel efficient car models, and they might just have the answer with the Honda FCX Clarity.

Honda President Takeo Fukui, has said “If we can bring costs down by a certain amount, I think we can start mass-production.” Honda have now started production of these more environmentally friendly cars today, and hope to be able to lease at least 200 of these FCX Clarity’s vehicles in the US and Japan over the next three years. Honda already have five customers for these new vehicles in the US.
According to Bloomberg, the Honda FCX Clarity will be available in California, US, in the beginning of July as they already have plans for a range of hydrogen fueling stations across the state. This new Honda has a top speed of 105 miles per hours, which is more than fast enough, well we are not meant to drive that fast anyway.

Honda along with a number of other major automakers are now adding a number of new low-pollution models to their car range, like fuel-cell and gasoline-electric hybrids. These hybrids had a slow start as the public did not know much about this new kind of technology. However; as the price of oil is increasing almost everyday, hybrid cars is a technology that is growing fast and this technology will only get better.

2009 Honda Pilot: check out these spy shots

I’m not convinced about the new 2009 Honda Pilot, just check out these spy shots and you will see what I mean. That front grille looks so ugly, according to AutoBlog they think that it has been inspired by a bulldog.

This 2009 Honda Pilot spy shot looks much like the prototype that was shown in Detroit. If that grille does not put you off, then the 2009 Honda Pilot will be available later this year. The SUV will come with a V6 engine and will be able to take up to 8 passengers.

The interior looks much better than the exterior; the center stack is huge giving it a very butch look.

Source - AutoBlog

Vin Diesel damages Honda S2000 filming The Fast and the Furious 4

While on the set of The Fast and the Furious 4, Vin Diesel was filming a scene in the Honda S2000. However things did not go according to plan as he damaged the car, maybe he was trying a bit too hard to get the scene to look cool.

The damage that Vin Diesel caused on the Honda S2000 was a damaged headlight, hood, bumper and fender. Looks like the crew will be working hard to get the car ready for the next scene. Let us hope that this film will be better than the previous two, as the Fast and the Furious movies lost a little something when Vin Diesel moved on to other projects.

Source - bespokeventures.com

Honda Fit recalled: due to a faulty sensor

Honda are recalling 34,000 of the Fit, the reason for this is due to a faulty sensor. The sensor which has the fault is the one that will detect a child seat or if a passenger is out of position. The 34,000 Honda Fit’s are in the U.S. and the fault is caused by Read more

Honda issue recall for 43′000 Acura’s: 2005 to 2008 Acura has steering hose problems

Seems like it the year for car recalls as Honda has just announced that 43’000 of their Acura’s has a power steering hose problem. The recall affects Acura sedan models from 2005 to 2008, the reason is that the V6 engine produces a high temperature which is perfectly fine but as Read more

2008 Cadillac CTS Bestselling 08 Car: Outselling Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Honda Accord

If you were to ask somebody what they thought was the best selling 2008 car many would say the Honda Accord or maybe the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, well they would be wrong as the best selling 08 car is in fact the Cadillac CTS. Over at Kicking Tires they said that looking at the Read more

New Honda Accord hoping to sell over 400,000 of these flagship cars

Japanese automaker Honda are hoping that their new flagship 2008 Honda Accord will help them achieve a milestone which is to sell over 400,000 a year of their luxury sedan and Read more

2008 Honda Accord Sedan and Coupe Review

We all know that the Japanese offer a perfect balance of style and engineering sophistication when it comes to their cars, this is true when you look at the new 2008 Honda Accord which comes in two variations the Sedan and a Coupe. Here we will Read more

2008 Honda Accord interior spyshots: Evolution or Revolution

The Mags Report has been able to give us some sneaky spyshots of the new 2008 Honda Accord interior, it seems as if the photos were taken by someone who was Read more

Honda Acura to get low-emission diesel engines by 2010

We already know that Honda announced that they are to introduce a new 2.2L four cylinder clean diesel engine to the US market, and it will likely go into the Read more

Diesel Honda Accord gets 62.8 MPG: Even better than a Hybrid

Who would have thought it, while everybody has been going on about how great a Hybrid car is a Honda Diesel has just gone and made Hybrids look stupid. A diesel Honda Accord has managed to get Read more