One of my Subaru-driving autocross friends described it as “The best Fast and Furious movie, hands down!” Tongue-in-cheek hyperbole? Perhaps, but, in this case, he was absolutely right. The object of our admiration was an animated short barely 7 minutes in length that is, for diehard car nuts, the best in the series of Mater’s […]

To date, Lexus has been adamant that they would only build 500 copies of the LFA supercar, split 450 of the “regular” version (insofar as you can consider the LFA a regular car) and 50 equipped with the Nürburgring Package. Yet, Japanese rumormonger Best Car magazine begs to differ, and insists that an extra 100 […]

Back in 17 September 2010, at the British Embassy in Tokyo, an event rife with symbolism took place: Lotus Cars CEO Dany Bahar gave Toyota president Akio Toyoda a white Lotus Elise R powered by Toyota’s last Yamaha-designed 1.8-liter 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i 4-cylinder engine. The event was a Lotus/Toyota mutual admiration lovefest, as reported by Autoblog, […]

Toyota’s Global and USA Newsrooms recently informed us that post-earthquake Toyota and Lexus production boosts in Japan and North America would happen sooner than expected, starting in June instead of July and August as earlier predicted. But what about Europe? Fortunately, news from there is even better, as a press release from the Toyota Motor […]

As the world marks the grim 2-month anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and its ensuing aftermath, it is time for us at Kaizen Factor to offer an overview of where Toyota and its multiple affiliates stand in their efforts to return to a semblance of normalcy. A month ago our focus seemed to […]

If the Toyota Prius Alpha sounds vaguely familiar to you, it’s because back in November 2010 it was predicted in a number of reports as the model name given to the new “squareback” larger Toyota Prius variant. Frankly, this author questioned the name, given its potential for confusion with Alfa Romeo. And, indeed, that line […]

What is the value of the Toyota and Lexus brands? Since 2006, Millward Brown, a global research agency specializing in advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research with 78 offices in 54 countries, has joined forces with BrandZ, a brand equity database that utilizes data from over 650,000 consumers and professionals across 31 countries […]

Lately, it seems that Toyota can’t catch a break from Mother Nature’s wrath and fury. We’ve certainly been diligent in reporting on the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami and aftershocks that followed, and now, half a world away, another Toyota facility is down but not out because of a natural […]

An all-too-brief article by Mark Rechtin of Automotive News titled Why a Scion? Because scion said so contains a couple of interesting bits on the whole Scion vs Toyota branding debate surrounding the upcoming FR-S coupe engineered in conjunction with Subaru. For one, the decision went all the way to the top, to company scion […]

With Toyota having set its pared-down post-earthquakes and tsunami Japan production schedule all the way until Friday 3 June, it is hardly surprising that the carmaker’s other production locales would soon follow suit. Here is how those plans currently stand: North America News releases on both the USA and Global Toyota Newsrooms extend North America […]

The last time we checked in on Toyota, Scion and Lexus’ Japan production schedule, the plan was set until the end of the traditional annual Golden Week holiday date of Monday 9 May. On Friday 15 April, however, Toyota announced via both its USA and Global Newsrooms that production will resume at all of Toyota’s […]

No sooner had we posted our 1-month anniversary update on the Japanese natural disasters’ aftermath and repercussions on Toyota and Subaru production that more news came our way. Here’s the latest information: TOYOTA Following on the Thursday 7 April cancellation of planned overtime at Toyota’s United Kingdom facilities, Toyota Europe announced that production would be […]

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the next “FUN” car to come from Toyota. Just last month  Toyota unveiled the Toyota FT-86 II Concept at the Geneva Motor Show. We’ve always wondered if we would get the FT-86 as a Toyota or something else. With this newest video teaser, it looks like Scion may get the highly […]

On Friday 11 March, northeastern Japan was hit by the double whammy of a 9.0 earthquake, among the five strongest ever recorded, plus the numerous aftershocks and intense tsunami it unleashed. The repercussions were almost innumerable, and today, a month later, are still being felt, and undoubtedly will be for many more months to come. […]

Amidst the recalls and drama that plagued Toyota and their #1 selling hybrid icon, they have announced the sale of their 1 Millionth Prius in the United States. This is a huge milestone in the Prius’ 10+ year existence in the US! The Prius has literally become the next “Corolla” as their best selling “hybrid” […]