Mountain States Toyota

When you're the CEO of a company, it must bring a sense of pride when a successful product is finally completed after years of hard work.

Steve Jobs over at Apple had great pride in every iPhone that was released, and probably had a huge sense of satisfaction not only using the product he helped develop, but seeing the benefits it has on all the people around him. Akio Toyoda, CEO and President of Toyota, must be extremely proud with their new GT 86 sports car, but boy does he reap all the benefits of being the head of one of the largest automakers in the world.

Toyoda got behind the wheel of their newest creation, but being the CEO means you get to do anything you want without having to answer to anybody. So what better way to really enjoy the newest toy your company has to offer than to take it out onto a dirt track and going sideways in it? Easy, take it out on a giant snow field and go drifting in it.

And judging by the huge smiles on Toyoda's face in the video, he loves the new GT 86 as much as we did. Autoguide had the opportunity to put the Scion FR-S to the test and we would certainly be proud of it if we were in charge of running the famous Japanese automaker. Too bad we didn't get the chance to take it sideways in the dirt and snow though.

Watch the video, that truly reminds us that the Toyota GT 86 / Scion FR-S will make it "Fun to drive: again."


Source:  AutoGuide.com

DETROIT -- The U.S. Department of Transportation said today that electric systems and electromagnetic interference did not play a role in unintended acceleration involving Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles.

It was a major victory for Toyota, which has sought to recover from a recall crisis and accidents allegedly linked to unintended acceleration in some of its top-selling models.

"There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today in a statement.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched the study 10 months ago at Congress' urging.

With the help of NASA engineers, the study sought to determine if cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles were caused by something other than sticky gas pedals and trapped floor mats.

NASA examined nine vehicles with alleged braking problems and subjected them to electromagnetic interference testing. Engineers also looked at software codes to detect any flaws that could disrupt the electronic throttle control.

?We hope this important study will help put to rest unsupported speculation about Toyota's electronic throttle control system,? Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America, said in a statement. ?We believe this rigorous scientific analysis by some of America's foremost engineers should further reinforce confidence in the safety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles.?

In August, the government said it had not found any problems with the software-driven electronic systems in Toyota vehicles during the first six months of the study.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110208/RETAIL05/110209749/1143#ixzz1DP8n7iMN

July 13th 2010- (Wall Street Journal)- The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration and found that at the time of the crashes, throttles were wide open and the brakes were not engaged, people familiar with the findings said.

The results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyota and Lexus vehicles surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes. But the findings don't exonerate Toyota from two known issues blamed for sudden acceleration in its vehicles: sticky accelerator pedals and floor mats that can trap accelerator pedals to the floor.

The findings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involve a sample of reports in which a driver of a Toyota vehicle said the brakes were depressed but failed to stop the car from accelerating and ultimately crashing.

The data recorders analyzed by NHTSA were selected by the agency, not Toyota, based on complaints the drivers had filed with the government.

The findings are consistent with a 1989 government-sponsored study that blamed similar driver mistakes for a rash of sudden-acceleration reports involving Audi 5000 sedans.

The Toyota findings, which haven't been released by NHTSA, support Toyota's position that sudden-acceleration reports involving its vehicles weren't caused by electronic glitches in computer-controlled throttle systems, as some safety advocates and plaintiffs' attorneys have alleged. More than 100 people have sued the auto maker claiming crashes were the result of faulty electronics.

For the complete Wall Street Journal story, click here



 

June 30th, 2010- Federal regulators have yet to find any electronic defects in Toyota vehicles, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) official today told a scientific panel appointed to study potential causes of unintended accelerations.

Some members of Congress, consumer advocates and product-liability plaintiff lawyers have said that electronic-throttle control systems may be responsible for reports of unintended acceleration.  Toyota has said its rigorous testing has not found any electronic defects that would cause unintended acceleration. Instead, the company has identified unsecured floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals as two causes.

"We have not actually been able to find a defect of electronic-throttle control systems" in Toyota vehicles, NHTSA's Dan Smith told the National Academy of Sciences panel. He added that NHTSA has identified the same two causes - floor mats and sticking pedals - as Toyota.

The head of NHTSA, David Strickland, told the panel that the problem of unintended acceleration is an industrywide issue. "Complaints of unintended acceleration are not - repeat not - exclusive to Toyota."

To read more click here- http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201006301304dowjonesdjonline000535&title=us-regulators-have-yet-to-find-electronic-defects-in-toyotas-nhtsa-official
 

June 28th, 2010- For the second year in a row, the Toyota Camry tops the list of the cars deemed most American by the editors at Cars.com.  The Camry, which is assembled in Georgetown, Ky. and Lafayette, Ind.; is followed by the Honda Accord and the Ford Escape, which rank No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. 

Cars.com's annual American-Made Index ranks the most-American vehicles based on percentage (by cost) of their parts that are made domestically, where they are assembled and how popular they are among U.S. buyers.

In addition to grabbing the No. 1 rank, Toyota also has the Tundra (No. 8) and the Sienna (No. 10) on the list, making Toyota the only manufacturer with three vehicles in the Top 10.

Source: Cars.com

Corolla owner sings praises of his auto's low maintenance-

June 5th, 2010- Scott Ose has a pretty common commuter car - if you discount the fact that it's racked up 603,500 miles in the past five years.

Now the world will learn about the St. Marys man's 2005 Toyota Corolla S, and the reason why he commutes about 230 miles each work day to and from his job in Savannah.

In a year when Toyota has gotten some bad press for brake and throttle problems and subsequent recalls, the fact that Toyota Connections magazine is doing an article on Ose and his marathon commute for the September issue is "great" according to its daily driver. He intends to hang on to it, for a number of reasons.

"It's so dependable, and quite honestly, I am still making payments on it. I still have a year, isn't that ironic?" said Ose, an aircraft certification inspector at Gulfstream Aerospace. "I will probably go and hang on to it. I want to break a million on it, or pass it down to the children."

Brian Cook, who is writing the "Me and My Toyota" column on Ose's Corolla, said he writes lots of stories about Toyota owners and their cars. This one is a bit different.

"This stuck out," he said. "He's a Toyota owner who had a pretty impressive track record, and it stuck out with the high mileage and the compelling story with his daughter."

The world record for high mileage on a car has been handed to retired New York teacher Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 Coupe, with 2.5 million miles on its original engine.

So Ose's vintage isn't fancy. The compact 4-door gets a 130-hp four-banger, cost about $14,000 when new, and can manage 30 mpg or more.

Ose said he bought it while living in Jacksonville, because he needed something cheap and thrifty for those daily commutes to Savannah. He endured the commute for his youngest daughter, Zoe, who has cystic fibrosis and needed to be near a care center at Nemours Children's Clinic in San Marco.

He works at Gulfstream Aerospace because no job locally has the pay and medical benefits his seniority brings him there. His only concession - moving about a year ago to St. Marys, 45 minutes closer to work, to save some gas and shorten a commute that still starts at 2 or 3 a.m.

So far the Corolla has only needed some rear axle work and "a lot of tires and maintenance," and doesn't burn any oil.

"Inside's great. The outside looks great, but it's a bit scraped from highway miles," he said.

Ose said he's amazed that Toyota Connections, a 10-year-old magazine published by Southeast Toyota Distributors and mailed to owners in its five-state Southeast region, is doing a story.

He believes they got the tip from his dealership, and now it will be memorialized in print.

"It is great," he said. "It is good for Toyota and good for us."

High mileage runs in the family - the minivan has 145,000 miles on it.

Toyota Connections is also readable online at www. toyotaconnections.com.

For 25 years, Toyota ran a unique joint venture with General Motors called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. That partnership ended when GM went bankrupt. And in April, Toyota shuttered the plant in Fremont, Calif., leaving about 4,700 workers jobless and looking for a miracle.

The agreement between Toyota and Tesla was announced by Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda, who promised to invest $50 million in Tesla. The fledgling electric carmaker will, in turn, buy the old NUMMI plant, a facility where Toyoda himself had once worked.

"I'm extremely happy that the DNA of car making that the NUMMI team developed over 25 years of production there will live on in an industry for the future," he said.

Going For A Drive

The impetus for the partnership came about six weeks ago when Toyoda visited Tesla CEO Elon Musk at his home in Southern California. The two men hit it off, especially after they went for a test-drive in a two-seat Tesla Roadster with Toyoda at the wheel.

"Not only was I impressed by Tesla technology, but I also felt their energy. Simply put, I felt the wind - the wind of the future," Toyoda said.

Toyota and Tesla will collaborate on an electric car. And at the same time, Tesla will use the NUMMI plant to build its new electric family-size sedan called the Model S.

"The Model S is initially only about a 20,000-vehicle production. So we're going to be occupying a little corner, but there's a lot of room for growth; and longer term, we intend to use the full capacity of NUMMI," Musk said.

A Boost For Electric Car Production

Car industry experts say the deal gives Tesla a major boost in mass-producing an electric car. And for $50 million, Toyota gets access to Tesla's powertrain technology. But Toyota may get something more, such as some goodwill from the public when it really needs it, according to Jeremy Anwyl, the CEO of Edmunds.com.

"I think they score a lot of political points by keeping that plant going. They may not say that, but my suspicion is that's their driving motivation, and I think that's a very smart move," Anwyl said.

IIHS- May 25th, 2010 - The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has announced that the '10 Toyota Corolla compact sedan, '10 Venza, '10 Highlander, '11 Toyota Avalon,  '11 Sienna, '10 Scion xB and '10 Lexus RX have each earned "Top Safety Pick" awards. More than any other automobile manufacturer.

The "Top Safety Pick" is the highest safety designation awarded by the IIHS. To qualify for the award, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of "good" in the IIHS' front, side, rollover, and rear impact tests and be equipped with electronic stability control. The IIHS testing was made more stringent in 2010 with the addition of the rollover test, but it did not stop the Corolla and xB from capturing their second consecutive "Top Safety Pick."

"'Top Safety Pick' recognizes the vehicles that afford buyers the best overall protection in common crashes," says IIIHS president Adrian Lund. "With more top performers, there's no reason to buy a small car with less than stellar crash test ratings."

The IIHS is an independent non-profit research and communications organization funded by auto insurance companies.

To earn a "good" rollover rating, a roof must be able to support the equivalent of four times the vehicle's weight compared with the current federal standard of 1.5. In the IIHS testing, the xB's roof withstood a force equal to 6.8 times its vehicle weight. The Corolla's weight withstood 5.1 times its vehicle weight.

All Toyota and Scion models meet or exceed the safety requirements of the federal government and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

*Includes Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models. For more details on 2010 Top Safety pick Awards, see www.iihs.org

San Antonio, TX - Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., (TMS) rewarded 100 high school seniors with $1 million in college scholarships for their commitment to education and community service at an awards banquet tonight.

The winners, who make up the 12th class of Toyota Community Scholars, were chosen from a pool of more than 8,000 students nationwide nominated by their schools. To be eligible, students must be proven leaders both in the classroom and in their communities.

Based on its accomplishments, the 2008 class learned at an early age that "giving back" to the community was not an obligation, but, rather, a way of life. As one Scholar, Jacob Rouse of Union, Ky., put it: "When helping others, an incredible feeling is instilled in your veins. This feeling allows you to believe you have meaning in the world."

For the 2008 class, their dreams of making a difference became reality through programs ranging from raising $120,000 for the American Cancer Society to collecting over 3,000 pounds of food that was distributed to youngsters at more than 160 schools. In addition, one scholar - a cancer survivor and amputee - has personally visited over 600 patients with the same afflictions, providing them with gift boxes.

"It is truly amazing to see what these 100 high school seniors have accomplished at such a young age," said Michael Rouse, TMS corporate manager of philanthropy and community affairs. "Their dedication both to academics and community service is an inspiration to all of us."

The scholarships are valued at $20,000 or $10,000 each, over four years, for study at a four-year college or university starting in the fall of 2008. Since the Toyota Community Scholars program began in 1997, TMS has awarded over $13 million in scholarships to 1,200 students across the U.S.

Kristen Allcorn, a Toyota Community Scholar from Sedalia, Mo., is a prime example of the dedication to community service exhibited by this year's class. As the founder of The Community Café, Allcorn and her group of volunteer students have provided over 11,000 free evening meals to needy residents in her hometown. Hot meals are served five nights a week, with plans to expand that to three meals each day, seven days a week.

All told, Allcorn and her group have raised over $13,000 to keep The Community Café operational.

Consequently, Allcorn, like many of the Scholars, found community service to be the roadmap to what she wants to do in the future. "I never imagined the impact The Community Café would have on my community or myself. The Community Café has influenced my career plans, and I have committed to living a life of service."

The Toyota Community Scholars program is administered by Educational Testing Services in Princeton, N.J. The 12 national winners ($20,000 each) and 88 regional winners ($10,000 each) were selected by a panel of college and university admissions officials from across the U.S.

The scholarship winners were guests of honor tonight at an awards banquet in San Antonio that was attended by education, community, business and government leaders. Liz Murray, subject of the Lifetime Television movie, From Homeless to Harvard, was the keynote speaker.

The two-and-a-half-day program included a tour of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc., in San Antonio, which builds the Tundra full-size pickup truck. In addition, the Scholars enjoyed an authentic Texas BBQ dinner, with games, entertainment and dancing at the Rio Cibolo Ranch.

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion in the United States, marketing products and services through a network of 1,427 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers in 49 states. Established in 1957, TMS and its subsidiaries also are involved in distribution logistics, motorsports, and research and development.

The future of our young people is closely tied to our ability to educate them in critical areas such as math and science. That's why Toyota is proud to support organizations that invest in the future of our teachers and young people.

The Toyota U.S.A. Foundation, a charitable endowment established in 1987 to support the teaching and learning of K-12 math, science and environmental education, recently announced $3.3 million in new grants for 12 organizations across the country.

The foundation places a high priority on innovative, cost-effective and diverse programs that are broad in scope, incorporate interdisciplinary learning and use real-world classroom applications.

The recent grantees include:

• MK Level Playing Field Institute, San Francisco, California -- Summer Math and Science Honors (SMASH) Academy, to support an intensive year-round math and science academy for low-income, high-achieving students of color in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   
• The After-School Corporation, New York, New York -- NYC Environmental Conservation Heroes Award, to create a demonstration project that will inspire young people, especially children of color and girls, to become scientists through participation in environmental conservation clubs in after-school programs in New York City, targeting children in grades 3-8.
   
• National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, DC -- EnvironMentors Teacher Training Program, to support the establishment of a high school teacher training component for the EnvironMentors program, which seeks to increase interest in the environment among under-represented youth by matching each participant to a mentor working in an environmental field.
   
• The Children's Aid Society, Flint, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio -- the CAS Environmental Education Curriculum, for the development and implementation of a school-based and an after-school environmental curriculum in these two school districts to enhance existing components of the Children's Aid Society's program for fifth- and sixth-grade students.
   
• Academy for Educational Development, New York, New York -- After-School Math Plus, to support a two-year after-school math-enrichment program for 1700 third- through eighth-grade American Indian students in the Wabanaki, Cherokee and Pueblo nations in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
   
• MIND Research Institute, Santa Ana, California -- Algebra I Curriculum Development Project, to adapt its highly effective non-language-based approach to teaching math for the development of an Algebra I curriculum, which will provide educators an alternate and successful approach to teaching this subject.
  
  For additional information about the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation, click here.

What if going to the grocery store or dinner with friends helped you earn points to redeem toward maintenance, parts and accessories for your Toyota? The time for wondering is over because the new Toyota Rewards Visa® is here!

The more you use it for everyday purchases, the more the points add up. Your Toyota rewards points can even be redeemed toward your next eligible Toyota purchase or lease at participating Toyota dealerships.

Whether you're shopping, vacationing or just getting your morning coffee, every swipe gets you closer to Toyota rewards.

To start earning your Toyota rewards points, please click here for more information or call 866-614-8845 ext. 86054

On approved credit. Terms, conditions, and restrictions apply and are fully described in the Toyota Rewards Visa Cardmember Agreement and the Toyota Rewards Program Terms and Conditions, as amended from time to time. You must have a valid permanent home address within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. The creditor and issuer of the Toyota Rewards Visa is Toyota Financial Savings Bank.

DETROIT -- The U.S. Department of Transportation said today that electric systems and electromagnetic interference did not play a role in unintended acceleration involving Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles.

It was a major victory for Toyota, which has sought to recover from a recall crisis and accidents allegedly linked to unintended acceleration in some of its top-selling models.

"There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today in a statement.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched the study 10 months ago at Congress' urging.

With the help of NASA engineers, the study sought to determine if cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles were caused by something other than sticky gas pedals and trapped floor mats.

NASA examined nine vehicles with alleged braking problems and subjected them to electromagnetic interference testing. Engineers also looked at software codes to detect any flaws that could disrupt the electronic throttle control.

?We hope this important study will help put to rest unsupported speculation about Toyota's electronic throttle control system,? Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America, said in a statement. ?We believe this rigorous scientific analysis by some of America's foremost engineers should further reinforce confidence in the safety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles.?

In August, the government said it had not found any problems with the software-driven electronic systems in Toyota vehicles during the first six months of the study.