1991 Toyota Supra Turbo Targa Top (light Damage) on 2040-cars

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Toyota, Lexus expanding Takata airbag recall, re-notifying customers

Toyota is re-notifying owners and expanding its Takata airbag inflator recall for some regions. The renewed campaign covers 247,000 examples of the Toyota Corolla, Matrix, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus SC430 that are located in southern Florida, along the Gulf Coast, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa. All of the models come from the 2001-2004 model years and have potentially faulty Takata-made inflators on the front passenger side. According to the company, testing shows the problem warrants "immediate action," and its press release says, "this action intensifies Toyota's efforts to reach customers and remedy previously recalled vehicles, and a small number of newly included vehicles."
According to Toyota, it submitted some recalled inflators to Takata for testing, and it found a high probability of rupturing in high humidity areas. The automaker said it had no reports yet of injuries or fatalities related to the problem.
This is Toyota's third inflator recall this year. In June, it called in for repair the same vehicles from the 2003-2005 model years in high-humidity areas, and it conducted a separate campaign nationwide for the parts in additional models. In April 2013, it also announced a fix campaign for 1.73-million vehicles worldwide for the same issue.

Rod Millen to face Monster Tajima in Electric Division of Pikes Peak Hill Climb

The 91st running of the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb is scheduled to begin on June 30. Like last year's event, the 12.42 mile course - fully paved these days - starts at 9,390 feet elevation and doesn't stop climbing until it reaches an impressive 14,110 feet (the air is so thin up there that the FAA requires pilots to use oxygen at that altitude).
There will be an assortment of internal combustion machines racing to the summit, entries from France, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Belgium, but all eyes will be on the electric showdown between Rod Millen and Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, from Japan. 61-year-old Millen is a familiar name to Toyota racing fans, and he will be driving the Toyota TMG EV P002 (it won the Electric title last year), while Tajima will be again piloting the Monster Sport E-Runner (which was forced out of the field last year after a fire broke out).
Other entrants include Rhys Millen driving a 2013 Hyundai PM58OT and Paul Dallenbach, who will be driving Millen's Hyundai Genesis Coupe (it set the all-time speed mark last year).

VW is world's second-best-selling automaker, GM falls to third

Every year when we start talking about which automaker is the biggest in the world, there always seems to be at least a little bit of controversy. For 2013, Toyota handily took the top spot with 9.98 million sales, but it's the runner up spot between General Motors and Volkswagen that is starting to create a stir.
Based on our earlier report, GM's 9.71 million vehicles put it in second place ahead of VW's 9.5-million-vehicle effort. Now, The Detroit News is reporting that VW is claiming a tally of 9.73 million sales, including figures from MAN and Scania - heavy-duty truck divisions under the VW AG family. The article points out that Toyota's sales figure includes its Hino line of trucks, but these might still be considered light-duty vehicles while MAN and Scania build tractor trailers.