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Toyota, Mazda drop Takata as Mitsubishi, Subaru weigh options

It's not a very good time to be Takata right now. Fresh on the heels of longtime partner Honda ditching them, Toyota and Mazda have both come out and said they will not use the company's airbag inflators if they continue to rely on ammonium nitrate. Bloomberg reports that Subaru and Mitsubishi are also contemplating a divorce. "The inflator using ammonium nitrate produced by Takata will not be adopted by Toyota," President Akio Toyoda said during a briefing today. "What's most important above anything else is the safety and peace of mind of customers." Mazda echoed that position, simply saying it "will not use Takata airbag inflators which contain ammonium nitrate in our new cars." When you lose three huge OEM accounts in as many days, it's certainly going to have a deleterious effect on your fortunes. In Takata's case, that's meant a staggering 39-percent drop in their share price over the last three days. Yesterday alone, the company saw a 6.2-percent fall, Bloomberg reports. As the business publication reports, though, Takata isn't going down without a fight. The company is "considering some plans to survive," including a fundraising plan that will see it potentially offer up additional shares for sale. Still, at least one analyst doesn't see whatever company survives staying involved in the airbag inflator business. "I really don't see how they're going to be able to survive as an inflator manufacturer," Valient Market Research founder Scott Upham told Bloomberg. "When your major clients publicly come out and say that they're not going to use your products anymore, it makes this very difficult to sustain your business." News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Carlos Osorio / AP Honda Mazda Mitsubishi Subaru Toyota Safety supplier

Toyota reveals updated TS040 Hybrid LMP1 for 2015 [w/videos]

Toyota has yet to defeat Audi at Le Mans. In fact, nobody has in the past fifteen years except for Peugeot (which won in 2009) and Audi's own sister company Bentley (which took the checkered flag in 2003). But Toyota did win the broader FIA World Endurance Championship last season, beating its German rivals in five out of eight rounds. That means the Japanese automaker is returning to top-level endurance racing this season as the reigning champions, and this is the car with which it aims to defend its title. The 2015 Toyota TS040 Hybrid is closely based on last year's winning version, but has been updated to comply with the latest tweaks to the regulations. A new crash structure meant redesigning the front end, the aerodynamics package has been thoroughly revised, the suspension reconfigured and extra weight has been cut. All told, Toyota says it redesigned 80 percent of the parts on board. Each team running a hybrid prototype has an array of choices over what combination of internal-combustion and electric boost it will run, but Toyota opted to stay in the 6MJ category for 2015, the electric boost working in tandem with the 3.7-liter V8 to give the TS040 a combined output of over 1,000 horsepower. The team also developed two aero kits: one for high-speed circuits like La Sarthe that warrant reduced drag, and the other for tighter tracks requiring increased downforce. The revised TS040 has already undergone over 15,000 miles of testing in southern Europe over the winter. But the real test will come at Silverstone in two weeks for the opening round of the 2015 championship when it will have to fend off a two-pronged German assault from both Audi and Porsche ahead of the headline event at Le Mans in June. We'll be watching to see who comes out on top this year, but for now you can watch footage of Toyota's latest in the pair of videos below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Mar. 26, 2015 A New Era for the World Champions Toyota Racing enters the 2015 World Endurance Championship ready to start a new era with the defence of its two titles. Toyota became the first Japanese company to win the World Championship during a very successful 2014 season, which saw Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi also win the drivers' title.

Zombie cars roundup: Dodge has sold 3 new Vipers this year

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.