Orange County D.A. Suing Toyota

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has announced his office will partner with a local private law firm to sue Toyota USA for selling defective vehicles and deceptive business practices. Here’s what Rackauckas is arguing: Read more…

Toyota Expands Tundra Frame Rust Recall

UPDATE: As of May 2010, Toyota has extended the warranty on 2000-2003 Tundra frames. Please see Toyota Tundra Frame Replacement Program for more details.

Earlier this week, Toyota announced a special service campaign for all 2000-2003 Tundras to replace or repair certain frame components that suffer from rust. Specifically, the campaign covers the rear cross member, the brake line attachment points, and the fuel tank straps, and it supposed to be a national expansion of the existing regional Tundra frame rust recall for the U.S. North East.

However, according to comments from numerous 2000-2003 Tundra owners, Toyota’s existing recall is lacking in transparency and consistency. Read more…

Tundra Targeted By Catalytic Converter Thieves

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a ring of catalytic converter thieves who targeted new Toyota Tundras has been broken up. While this is good news for a number of Toyota dealerships in the Houston area, it underscores the seriousness of catalytic converter thefts. To many thieves, stealing a catalytic converter is “easy money,” yet for vehicle owners (and their insurance companies) it’s an incredibly expensive problem. Read more…

This Is One On Point 2008 Tundra

Kansas gets a bad rap. People joke about the flat land, wheat fields, and the Kansas City Royals, but we’re guessing these people don’t know about the world-class bird hunting in Kansas, not to mention Kansas City Barbecue. If you live in Kansas and you enjoy bird-hunting, you need five things: Read more…

Toyota Offers NUMMI Workers $250 Million Severance

We’ve been following the closure of NUMMI for a few months now, and it seems that the story is just about done. Earlier today, Toyota announced that they are giving NUMMI workers a $250 million dollar “transition” fund that could be used to pay out bonuses to NUMMI employees, as well as offer career counseling and training.

While it’s obviously not this simple, $250 million divided up amongst 4,500 workers (plus or minus) is about $55k per person. While this severance isn’t tremendous, it’s certainly nothing to sniff at…especially considering Toyota was forced to close NUMMI when GM filed bankruptcy. Read more…