At this point I know I'm not the only one a little bit suspicious of the incidents surrounding Prius recall incidents.  Specifically referring to the out of control Prius doing 80 down the freeway in San Diego.  It all kind of smells like Balloon Boy and people looking to taste nano second fame in the wake of Toyota's woes.

In San Diego a guy claimed that he couldn't get his Prius to stop because of a stuck accelerator pedal.  However, analysts are quick to point out that shifting into neutral, standing on the brakes, shutting the car off, or all of the above should have brought the car to a stop.  Slowly but surely the above should have worked and if not there are a lot more problems at stake here than just a stubborn gas pedal.  Of course that doesn't make an interesting news headline, nor damaging enough to the foreign manufacturers name.

Again, I'm not the only one making the Balloon Boy reference, but it's the most fitting.  Perhaps it's even worse, maybe the goal of the media and guilty parties is to damage a name, rather than just a chance to be on TV.  It's a volatile economic market and if we can burn Toyota at the stake it can only make our domestic manufacturers stronger.  We all know underhanded deals go on everyday with big time corporations, maybe this is an operation involving damaging a corporate name.  Toyota presented an opening for criticism and guilty parties took notice and are not exploiting it as much as possible.

Toyota has been spending a metric butt load of money on advertising and claiming to have the fix in place for their accelerator problems.  The recalls have been widely televised, dealers have been compensated, and you can get online without seeing an advertisement featuring a Toyota owner pleased with their cars safety record.  Toyota knows what's going on, they see the writing on the wall, and I suspect it will be a long time before they ever make it back to the top of the sales charts in the US.

It's not a bad thing that domestic car manufacturers retake the top sales figures again, I just hope that it's done without any fancy business.  It's been pointed out that Ford has been making huge gains in quality, leadership, and efficiency for a few years now, which has helped place them where they are.  Let's focus on the good things our country has to offer in the automotive industry and leave Toyota to clean up it's own mess, consumers will still be around when they are done.

It began as a rumor, but now confirmed by Toyota, the Lexus CT 200h will not becoming to the US market any time soon.  A spokesman for Toyota was quoted as saying, "There are no plans, at present, to bring this vehicle to the U.S."

The CT 200h will be the first and only full hybrid luxury compact on the market.  My guess is because there really isn't a market, at least in this economy.  Who needs a status symbol in the drive way when you can have something much nicer for half as much?

Toyota can keep their Lexus CT 200h.

By now, if you follow automotive news at all, you've heard of the 2.3 million vehicles recalled by Toyota.  It's not like other car manufacturers don't have recalls, but Toyota's is massive, and involves a very serious component of the vehicles.  Toyota's recall affects the gas pedal, which can be extremely dangerous if it fails, unlike the Camaro battery cable recall.

Affected Toyota Recall Vehicles:

• 2009-2010 Rav 4
• 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• 2007-2010 Camry
• 2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

Ignore the immediate millions of dollars needed to actually fix these vehicles, imagine the consumer backlash of not trusting Toyota vehicles in the future.  What kind of affect will this Toyota recall have on future sales?  In an attempt to keep dealerships happy, Toyota has agreed to pay up to $75,000 per dealership to cover incidentals involved with this recall.  It's money to keep dealerships from jumping ship and switching manufacturers.

In January alone it's estimated that Toyota dealerships have lost more than 20,000 unit sales.  Couple the gas pedal scare with the latest news of brake problems with the Prius in Japan and you have the right mixture to create consumer hatred for a long time to come.  Perhaps if Toyota would have responded faster to eradicate acceleration faster, as far back as 2002, they wouldn't be in the mess they are in now.

In Japan, shouldn't the CEO go fall on a sword?

Toyota's gift to India in 2010 is not 5 golden rings, rather the Etios a family car.  Recently the Etios was unveiled at the New Delhi Auto Show, with a taste of arrogance.  The Etios is aimed at promoting a sense of advanced status to those who own the family car.

The 2010 Etios will only be for sale in India, as it was specifically designed to meet the growing car market found in India.  Specifically Toyota sells 70,000 cars per year and they hope the Etios exclusive will help grow these numbers.  I'm not so sure a new family car is what Indians need, but I wasn't the one footing the bill for 2,000 engineers to find out.

2010 Toyota Etios

Toyota announced that they will be showing off their latest in green technology at the Frnakfurt Auto Show with the Plug-In Prius hybrid.  The all new Prius is known as the 2010 PHV or plug-in hybrid vehicle will be released later this year, with Toyota promising 500 sold to fleets world wide.

Unlike other traditional Plug-In style electric cars, the 2010 Prius PHV will only have a limited distance of 12 miles to run on battery alone.  After reaching a distance of 12 miles the plug-in battery is depleted and the Prius returns to standard hybrid mode.  The hybrid mode of this PHV is similar to that of what's found in existing model Toyota Prius's.

No.

There have been a number of people speculating about the all new hybrid coming from Lexus and it's relation to the wildly popular Toyota Prius.  Most of  the speculation claims that the Lexus HS 250h is as similar to the Toyota Prius as the Ford Ranger is to the Mazda pickup.  Thankfully for those in the market, this isn't true.

There is a single shared component between the HS 250h and Prius, which is the hybrid technology.  The name of  the system is the series/parallel and refers to the technology, not the actual components.  The series/parallel type hybrid means that the traditional engine component can drive the wheels directly and be disconnected from the drive train to allow the electric motor component to drive the wheels.  This type of system is used in the Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid, and soon Lexus HS 250h.

The rest of the HS 250h is completely different than the Prius.  Some of the main component differences is the 2.4 l engine, double wishbone suspension, and a ton of electronic creature comforts.  There will nothing to confuse onlookers as to what type of car it is, the Toyota or the Lexus.

Fuel Efficient Sports Cars

Enthusiasts are already starting to demand a higher performance from their hybrid and ultra high efficienct cars.  Already there are some players in the market that are looking to push the envelope in regards to power in a hybrid and looks that really scream sports car.  Ultimately, and this is just my opinion, a hybrid car will only become truly popular when you don't look at it and automatically know it's a hybrid.

Fisker Karma has already started working on a sports car based on a plug-in type hybrid system.  Also most recently Rasser created a 100 mpg Hummer, that proves you can have the looks of a traditional car with the efficiency of a hybrid.  With advacements like this it begs the question of what the big boys will be bringing to the hybrid sport car market.

Toyota has debuted a prototype of what might develop into a full on hybrid sports car.  The FT-HS Concept is a short wheel base boxster inspired hybrid sports car.  Depending on who you believe, the FT-HS pictured below may be the launching point from reviving the Toyota Supra.  Yes, the next generation Toyota Supra may live on, as a hybrid sports car.

Toyota has had to ramp up production of their hybrid Prius, especially after the recent launch of the second generation.  According to industry analysts Toyota has already received orders for 80,000 new Prius's, which will require increases in production to 7,000 more units per month.

Contributing factors to the increase in demand would be the new Prius lower price.  No doubt this is in response to the Honda Insight being released to compete in the passenger car hybrid market.  Also, in response to slumping sales in Japan, Toyota has revamped the last generation Prius to help compete with the newer advanced base model.

Hopefully this increase in Prius production is a sign that world economies are starting to turn around.  I'd love to start reading some positive automotive news in the near future.

Any day now the 2010 Toyota Tundra should be available for ordering or purchase at your local Toyota dealership.  However, finding good 2010 Tundra pictures has proved difficult, even for those of us savy in the ways of the web.  Below are a few pictures of the 2010 Tundra assembled from various press releases and industry analysts.

To me, the 2010 Tundra looks like more of the same and possibly emphasis on the more.  In a market that is currently trying to get away from V8 power and look more green, why would Toyota still produce this work horse?  Oh that's right, because people still buy them and because you can't haul 500 lbs of tools around in the back of a Prius.  Oh yeah, how many trips does it take to help a buddy move their furniture in a compact?

As a bonus, here is video from the 2009 San Diego Auto Show, where the 2010 Toyota Tundra was on exhibit.

World markets are a tricky thing and staying in the customers good graces can be a balancing act.  That's why, at least vocally, Toyota hopes that GM will succeed and are constantly sending good wishes their way.  But why would a competitor, in a ever growing cut-throat market, want it's biggest competitor to succeed?

Let's look at history, even a few short decades ago.  In the 80's and before there was huge hatred toward the foreign market.  The perceived quality of foreign vehicles had not yet been established, so Toyota like other brands were just trying to prove themselves.  Another challenge they were trying to overcome was the general publics patriotism, the hope, and want for an American company to dominate the industry.

How far have we come?  Obviously Toyota took over GM as the largest car manufacturer in the world, owed largely to it's ever increasing US market share.  So what does Toyota risk, if they don't actively support it's domestic competitors?  In a sensitive market, walking on egg shells may be the only thing that keeps Toyota from slipping back into the early 80's in the eyes of American car buyers.

Consider the devastation to Toyota domestically if the American people decide to rally against foreign competitors and strongly support their domestic car manufacturers again.  Potentially, all the work Toyota had done to generate brand quality would be destroyed.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but there is a reason the owl wants the rabbits to mate.