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New Honda Insight: cheapest hybrid car to battle Toyota Prius

Honda has launched the world’s cheapest hybrid car, the Insight. Honda hopes that the cheap price will be enough to win motorists because of the high price of fuel. Honda hopes to sell the new insight between £13,000 and £15,000. This will undercut the Toyota Prius by £3,000.

Honda expects to sell about 200,000 Insights a year around the world; this is a lot more than the 280,000 that they sold over ten years. The new model will be unveiled officially at next month’s Paris motor show.

The five door family hatchback should be able to deliver 60 miles to the gallon. The new Honda Insight will go on sale around the world in the spring and forms part of the four new hybrid cars from Honda.

Source – The Telegraph

Oil prices force Toyota to Cut 2009 Sales Forecast

Toyota Motor Corp. has had to make the decision to cut their sales figures for 2009. The have reduced the sales forecast by 6.7 percent as a result of current oil prices, as gasoline is nearing the $4 a gallon mark.

The biggest blow for Toyota, the world’s second-largest automaker, is that the demand for trucks has dropped massively. It seems that it is now smaller cars that Americans are wanting. Read more

New DiamondBack-X Truck Cover Reinforced with LINE-X

This is the new DiamondBack-X Truck Cover that’s reinforced with LINE-X, and the product has been made possible thanks to a partnership between DiamondBack Truck Covers and the industry leader in truck bed protection (LINE-X). Read the press release below for the full details Read more

2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner earn 5-star rating

The 2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner compact sport utility vehicles added to Ford’s leading number of top-safety-rated vehicles by earning five stars in each of the government’s crash-worthiness tests. The results top the Toyota RAV-4 and, with the 2009 Escape’s improved fuel efficiency, offer better combined safety and fuel efficiency ratings than the Honda CR-V Read more

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.

Step aside Segway: Make way for Toyota’s Winglet

Toyota has announced a new personal transporter designed to help people move about more easily in public areas.

Dubbed the ‘Winglet’, it is the first gadget to use the same navigation system, currently used by Dean Kamen’s Segway Transporter with the technology allowing self-balancing through gyroscopic sensors which detect the gentle directional tilts of a rider..sounds cool eh.

In terms of speed, the Winglet can reach a dizzy 3.7 miles per hour, which isn’t fast at all when compared to the Segway’s 12.5 MPH. Toyota will begin a testing period for this product at a few Japanese airports, and further distribution of the scooter will rely on positive feedback from its customers. It seems Toyota have had their hands busy since acquiring the robotics division from Sony last year.

To check out more photos of this gadget and a video with the scooter in action, follow the link below.

Source: Read

Toyota lowers forecast as gasoline prices affects SUV sales

Toyota Motor Corp. has had to lower their sales and production forecast, this has been blamed on the high price of gasoline. The continuing increase in gasoline prices means that Americans are less willing to purchase SUV’s and pickups, which is having an affect on Toyota’s sales targets.

Toyota is expecting to sell 9.5 million vehicles worldwide by the end of the year, that is 3.6 percent down on the 9.85 million target, or 350,000 units. Last year Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles.

The price of a gallon of gasoline topped $4 last month, this immediately dented SUV sales and Pickups. It was not just Toyota who was affected by this; even General Motors saw sales in SUV’s drop.

As a result Toyota had to suspend production of the Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs for three months from August.

Source

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

2010 Lotus Evora: information and photos

Lotus has finally released the full information and a gallery of pictures for their latest sports car. The 2010 Lotus Evora was given the codename of Eagle, but the car has now been revealed at the British auto show. Read more

Toyota plans solar-powered air conditioning in Prius hybrid

Back in May we reported that the Toyota Prius Hybrid had achieved over one million car sales, this was great news for global warming and today we have heard some more news about Toyota’s efforts in this area.

Toyota are planning to put solar-powered air conditioning in high-end Prius hybrid models, this new feature will show that the Prius is a car that wants to be good for the environment.

The third-generation Toyota Prius will launch in 2009 and Kyocera solar panels will be used to generate between two and five kilowatts of electricity.

While Toyota has not commented officially on this news, it is believed to be a solid rumor.

With oil prices rising we will all have to look towards cars that use less oil and give more kilometers per gallon, this is one reason why the sales of Prius have been increasing.

How have oil prices affected you and will you be looking towards hybrid cars in the near future?

Source: Read

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.

Toyota Prius Hybrid Car sales hit over 1 million: Surely this eases global warming

The demand for hybrid cars are increasing worldwide and with the Toyota Prius gasoline/hybrid car hitting sales of over I million worldwide this surely has to ease global warming. The Toyota Prius Hybrid is definitely a winner and we can see sales keep on going, Toyota have said the figure of Prius sales so far is 1,028,000 last month when their sales rocked 67 percent amid record gas prices and that also claims that the cars have eased global warming by producing around about 4.5 million tons less C02 when compared with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same class.

Even though Toyota have impressive sales figures it is said that Hybrids are still pretty low at 2.3 percent of the U.S market, we all know that in time people will dump their high guzzling gas motors for hybrids, hybrid sales have in fact at the moment rose 38 percent last year even as overall vehicle sales fell and we know with gas prices rising to very high costs Toyota are indeed having troubles keeping up with demands for the Prius.

Buyers are in fact paying much more for the Toyota Prius because they are hard to get a hold of and are getting much harder to find in showrooms, John Hanson a spokesman for Toyota said “Right now, U.S. customers can get a Prius. Next month or the month after that, it’s tough to say.”

With supplies falling and high demands from customers Toyota has cut incentives and raised prices (Now we knew that was coming) and the Toyota Prius on an average costs $25,274 which has risen $869 from a year ago. It seems that the Prius is in high demand and that is without a doubt because it is an eco-friendly vehicle and we all know that customers are going down the Hybrid road, Toyota has expanded their line to include the Highlander and Camry. Toyota are going to unveil the next generation model of the Prius at the Detroit auto show in January and it will apparently be cleaner, bigger and much more fuel efficient, they are also developing a plug-in version that could be in showrooms by 2010. Oh just so you know they are going down the convertible line as well, but no word on this yet.

Source

Li-Ion Batteries helps extend range of Chevrolet Volt to 40 miles

General Motors have been working hard on their lithium-ion battery technology, and the automaker are making great progress as they have now managed to achieve a range of 40 miles on their Chevrolet Volt test vehicle, this is a great achievement and will help the company in their effort to getting the production vehicle made by 2010. Bob Lutz who is the company Vice Chairman has said that this new gas-electric hybrid drivetrain which is being tested on the Chevrolet Volt is reliable and is meeting its objectives, this is key to the development process for improving the range of these batteries.

It seems that the company is very confidant about the new Li-Ion Battery as Lutz has said that the development of the battery is the least of their problems. GM now have a tough challenge ahead, as the automaker needs to be able to integrate the battery drivetrain as well as the gasoline engine smoothly. The new Volt will be different to other Hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius as the wheels will be driven entirely by electricity, the gasoline engine will help to power the generator which will help to charge the batteries.

The team behind the development of the Volt still has a lot of questions that they need to address first, like how will the car deal with cold conditions, or when will the engine cut out. GM are hoping to be able to achieve a range of at least 640 miles, the company are very confidant that this can be achieved by 2010.

Source

Toyota Prius Price Increase: paying $400 more for greener environment

Toyota has announced that they are to increase the price of their ever popular Prius by $400 as well as some of their other vehicles; this is so that the Japanese automaker can prop up their profits. This seems a stupid idea, ok I agree that if they need to increase profits increase the price of their cars that run just on gas, but they should keep the price down on the Hybrid Prius so that sales can increase. Toyota should make greener cars more affordable as people do not want to pay over the top to achieve a greener environment.

The price for the Prius hybrid will now cost $22,160 while the hybrid Camry will now set you back $25,650. The Yaris sedan will now cost $13,085 with the hatchback costing $12,210. However it is the price of 2008 FJ Cruiser SUV that has increased the most, the vehicle will now cost $23,730 that’s an increase of $500. Toyota are a very strange company, some American automakers are having trouble shifting some of their cars and as such makers like Chrysler has offered a gas subsidy for those who choose fuel-efficient models, however Toyota are not so bothered about this.

Source - Consumeraffairs

Do you think that Toyota is correct to increase the price of the Prius?

Review of the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid: Environmentally friendly SUV

Ok so we know that when it comes to making traditional gas and diesel cars BMW are one of the best in the world, however it seems that when it comes to Hybrids the German automaker is a little behind their rivals Honda and Toyota. Well that is until now as BMW have been working on the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid, and unlike their rivals does not use the traditional gasoline-electric hybrid power source.

The 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid uses high-performance capacitors or Super Caps as they are now calling it. This system stores the supply of electric and then sends it to the transmission. The Active Transmission uses BMW’s electric motor as well as a straight-six gasoline engine which is mounted to a conventional six-speed automatic gearbox.

The power that is produced from the BMW electric motor is 80HP, and when that is added to the gasoline engine things then get livelier. I do worry that BMW are still playing catch up to their rival and that they could end up going in the wrong direction. When it comes to Hybrid vehicles nothing comes close to the Toyota Pirus, and with the launch of a new one the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid could be left behind. However, BMW have a huge following and it is that market that the German automaker will tap into that market.

Source – Auto Mobile Mag

Review of the 2009 Toyota Venza Crossover Sedan

The new 2009 Toyota Venza looks as though it could be a winner for the Japanese car manufacturer, it seems that the time of the old station wagon is almost gone as these type of crossover sedans take over. The Venza is supposed to be like a sport-utility vehicle; however the vehicle is much more of a car than a CUV. No matter what you call it the 2009 Toyota Venza looks as though it will is a winner.

The car was unveiled at the Detroit International Auto show in January and it seemed to generate a lot of attention to its stand, if you were to ask the question “what does the 2009 Toyota Venza remind us off,” I would have to say like the Ford Edge crossover. As you would expect Toyota seems to lean heavily on Lexus to get the car looking sleek and give it a more luxury fell. The Venza looks a little like the Lexus RX350, however the Venza sits lower to the ground even though the vehicle comes with 19-inch alloys as standard however, if that is not enough as an option you can choose a set of 20-inch alloys.

The 2009 Toyota Venza is very roomy inside and will seat five adults comfortably, however as it is higher than a standard sedan the Venza offers a little more head room. When it comes to storage space in the rear the 2009 Toyota Venza seems to come up a little small, you will get the same amount of storage as you would in a Camery or a Highlander.

The basic engine is big at 2.7 liter, however if you want more grunt then the 3.5 liter V6 is a great choice. That engine will push out 268 horsepower and is mounted to a six-speed automatic transmission. Toyota will offer you the choice of either a front wheel drive or an all four wheel drive.

Toyota have worked on the safety features and has given the 2009 Toyota Venza front, side and head-protection airbags as well as a little knee-protection bag for the driver. Also included is the new Toyota STAR active safety system, this includes anti-lock brakes, brake assist, electronic brake-force distribution, stability control as well as traction control. You could not be in a safer environment.

There are a range of models in the 2009 Toyota Venza Crossover Sedan range even the lowest model comes with cruise control, automatic dual-zone air conditioning, electro-chromatic rearview mirror with compass, six-CD changer, remote keyless entry and a lot more. So you do not have to break the bank in getting some extra gadgets in your car.

Source – City Auto World

Top Secret Supra twin turbo V12 reaches 222mph or 358 km/h

Remember the old day with the cool but not so great Toyota Supra, well it seems as if the car has been given a new lease of life. Smokey Nagata decided to take out his tuned up Top Secret Supra twin turbo V12 out for a spin on the Nardo Ring test track in Italy, which makes a change as he normally tries out his cars on the road.

Well the guy managed to take his car up to 222 mph (358 km/h) on the race track; however Nagata was not pleased with the top speed as he was targeting a speed of 248 mph (400 km/h). The Top Secret Supra uses a V12 twin turbo which instead of the standard 276 horsepower, manages to pump out over 1000hp thanks to all the unique tuning.

Source – Bespoke Ventures via AutoBlog

Toyota and General Motors Recall: Corolla, Matrix and Pontiac Vibe’s

Today we are hearing that Toyota and General Motors have issued a recall of 662,093 small cars in the U.S. The cars being recalled include 122,593 Pontiac Vibes from GM, 539,500 of Toyota’s 2004 and 2003 model Matrix and Corolla cars.

The reason given for the recall was because of “a flaw that could cause power windows to fail” and Bloomberg reported, “In some cases, bolts in the driver and front-passenger doors may fail and allow the window glass to come loose”.

Even though this is the case, we are hearing that it will not be to the end of the month when Toyota will begin notifying owners by mail.

Microsoft to sponsor Ken Schrader’s NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway

It seems strange why Microsoft have never sponsored motorsport, however that is about to change after the software giant worked with Formula 1 team McLaren to come up with a standard management unit for all the teams, as they are now not allowed to use traction control.

Well it has been reported that Microsoft is about to enter the world of NASCAR by sponsoring Ken Schrader’s #49 Toyota Camry at the Martinsville Speedway this weekend. Microsoft will then Read more

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