All Entries in the "Auto News" Category
Toyota Hiring More US Autoworkers, Yet Criticism Abounds
Yesterday, Toyota officially began hiring at their soon-to-open Blue Springs, Mississippi assembly plant. It is expected that Toyota will directly employ 2,000 workers, with thousands of other new jobs being created as a result of new investment. While this is great news for Mississippi – one of the poorest states in the US – this move is not without criticism.
Toyota's new plant will employ 2,000 directly and thousands more indirectly at suppliers co-located in Blue Ridge
Toyota critics argue that Toyota’s 2,000 new hires aren’t actually “new” at all – that they are just cheaper replacements for NUMMI workers who were let go earlier this year.
2011 Tundra Tow Ratings Decrease
A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the 2011 Tundra was going to adopt the new SAE J2807 towing rating standards. This new standard – which likely won’t be adopted by most manufacturers until 2013 – will force all manufacturers to use the exact same tests and criteria to come up with an official tow rating.
Last Friday, PickupTrucks.com published the new Tundra tow ratings. As you can see in the table below, they’ve dropped as much as 11% on some configurations:
Summarizing The HD Truck Comparison From PickupTrucks.com
If you haven’t already seen it, on Monday PickupTrucks.com published a massive, comprehensive test of HD trucks from GM, Ford, and Ram. The goal of this comparison was to find out who made the best 3/4 ton gas truck, 3/4 ton diesel, and 1 ton dually diesel.
You can read the full comparison here, and if you have the time I highly recommend it. It’s a great insight into all three trucks as well as a fantastic example of what it takes to complete a true, exact comparison.
It also raises an interesting question: If all the trucks are essentially equivalent, how do you pick the right truck?
$7500 On F150, Toyota Leads Reliability Survey, and Tragic Off-Road Racing Accident
Racing Accident Kills 8
First, my heart goes out to the friends and family of dozens of people today that were either killed, injured, or witness to a really awful racing accident. The video below tells the story:
The driver, according to a few opinions I trust, was doing what he was supposed to be doing (racing) and his truck got away from him. There are people trying to find someone to blame right now – the BLM, for example, has said that their use permit required drivers to slow to 15mph when they were within 50′ of spectators – but anyone who watches these races will tell you that’s a rule that is not followed. The fans were too close, and there are no easy answers as to how to solve this problem. Frankly, it’s a little surprising something like this hasn’t happened before.
Toyota Marketing Smartly Shifting
If you ask the average person what words come to mind when they think “Toyota,” there’s a pretty good chance they’ll say “quality and reliability.” Since the 1970’s, Toyota has garnered a strong reputation for building quality, reliable vehicles. While some would argue that this reputation is undeserved, that’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is popular perception.
