1995 Toyota Supra on 2040-cars

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Toyota recalling 342k Tacomas due to faulty seatbelt pretensioners

Toyota is voluntarily recalling 342,000 Tacoma Access Cab pickups, produced between 2004 and 2011. The wide-ranging recall is due to faults in the screws that attach the belt pre-tensioner to the belt retractor. There are concerns that the screws can loosen themselves over time, especially if the access door is opened and closed with too much force. It's important to note that the recall only covers the driver and front passenger seat, and is limited to just the Access Cab trucks. Other body styles aren't affected.
If the screws come loose, the pre-tensioner and retractor spring could separate from the belt entirely, which would be bad news in a crash. There's no mention of injuries or accidents due to the faulty pre-tensioners. Owners affected by the recall will be notified soon, and asked to come in for recall service.

2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid

People, us included, make a big stink about the importance of family sedans. There's no doubt they're critical - they represent a huge slice of the market's annual sales and profits. However, despite accounting for far fewer transactions than the midsize sedan segment, the fullsize sedan is getting attention from manufacturers now that our market's entire lineup of those (slightly) smaller four-doors has turned over in the last two years or so. As most of the fullsize segment's mainstays derive a fair bit of their platform and powertrain technologies from their midsize cousins, these larger four-doors offer the potential for fatter profit margins, too. And with the newly stylish duds found on many of the industry's most successful midsize sedans, it's only right that automakers no longer think about fullsizers as big, squishy, vanilla family haulers with flat seats, vague steering and a thin layer of 'luxury' in the form of faux wood trim.
As manufacturers have again started diving into large sedans feet-first, the cars themselves have become sharper. The interiors are now of a higher quality and loaded with tech, while the exteriors have become further extensions of each manufacturer's design language. There's perhaps no greater example of this than the Chevrolet Impala and Ford Taurus, two models that evolved from subpar offerings into market leaders. This segment-wide transformation happened quite quickly, whether because of coincidental timing or because manufacturers are trying to get more out of their big cars, recognizing they account for a small portion of overall sales (just 3.5 percent of the new-car market in the first half of 2013).
The 2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid is one such vehicle. We remarked on the changes to the V6 variant last year, and while we previously had a quick steer of the gas-electric hybrid, we figured the new model was worth a closer week-long look.

BMW, Toyota outline new tech joint venture, new sports car

Back in June, Toyota and BMW announced a "memorandum of understanding" outlining plans for the two companies to join forces on future products and technology development. On Thursday, they signed a more formal and binding agreement that goes further into detail about the partnership, and it all sounds pretty exciting. The two announced they will work together in four main areas:
Joint development of a fuel cell system
"Set up a feasibility study to define a joint platform concept for a mid-size sports vehicle"