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More problems for Toyota

Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:16:16 +0000

More problems for Toyota with a runaway Prius in California!

From the Detroit Free Press:

LOS ANGELES — The driver of a Toyota Prius who called 911 on Monday to report his accelerator was stuck finally got the car stopped after about half hour with the help of the California Highway Patrol, law officers said.

“He was reaching speeds over 90 miles per hour,” CHP Officer Larry Landeros said of the driver, James Sikes.

A Toyota spokesman on Monday evening said the company was sending a representative to investigate the cause of the incident, which took place on Interstate 8 in San Diego County.

Read the full article here.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Toyota looking to expand Prius

Staff — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:15:33 +0000

Sometimes figuring out how to handle something so successful as the Prius can make or break a brand.

From the Free Press:

Can Toyota clone its golden goose? Or does the automaker’s plan to expand the Prius from a single model into a whole family of cars hold pitfalls for the brand and its most-acclaimed vehicle?

The Prius is the most-successful new nameplate of the 21st Century. Its styling and technology generated immense goodwill for Toyota.

Read the full article here.

Six insurgent automakers outmaneuvering “Big Three”

Staff — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:40:02 +0000

These six insurgent automakers are outmaneuvering the “Big Three” to shape the future of the automobile. No one knows what the future holds, but some great ideas are coming out of this last recession and near collapse of the domestic auto industry. Will any of these companies ever become household names?

From Money.CNN.com:

Paul Guzyk and Daniel Sherwood are computer geeks who co-founded 3Prong Power, a Berkeley business that transforms standard Toyota Priuses into all-electric green machines.

In 1999, Guzyk moved to California and rediscovered an old passion for cars after tinkering with a Prius. He found that in many ways the Toyota hybrid was more like a computer than an automobile. Notably, it ran on recognizable computer standards similar to those found in an office network.

“I found that modifying the Prius is like getting your computer to do what you want it to do,” says Guzyk.

Read the full article here.