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Andrew Gilleland is new VP of Scion, Murtha moves to Toyota

Scion is getting some fresh blood at the top as Andrew Gilleland (pictured above) becomes the new vice president to take over for Doug Murtha. Gilleland is no stranger to the division, and served as the national field operations manager early in the brand's launch. Murtha moves to take leadership of corporate strategy and planning for Toyota in North America. "Now it's Andrew's charge to spread the message of the style and value of the iM and iA, as well as a third new vehicle that will be added to the lineup," Toyota division group vice president Bill Fay said in the announcement. Gilleland moves up from being general manager of Toyota's central Atlantic regional office. He takes the reins at Scion at a potential turning point for the division. Sales volume for the year through August is down 22.1 percent to 32,691 vehicles, but some big changes are afoot. The long-lived xB is likely about to bow out, and the brand is launching two new products with the iM and iA. They're getting some celebrity advertising, too. Spy shots also suggest the FR-S might get a refresh soon. Plus, the third model Fay teases is expected to be a compact crossover, possibly with styling inspiration from the Toyota C-HR concept. Scion could get a big boost by having an entry in that booming segment. New Products, Previous Player - Scion Introduces New Vice President Andrew Gilleland Returns to Youth Brand September 24, 2015 TORRANCE, Calif. (Sept. 24, 2015) – In the early days of Scion, when xAs and xBs were flying out of dealers' showrooms, Andrew Gilleland was the National Field Operations Manager for the youth brand. He was responsible for working with dealers to ensure they embraced the new products and processes Scion offered. Now, Scion is entering its teen years, and Gilleland is back as Vice President of Scion, once again encouraging dealers to sell its new models and investigate new methods to attract young buyers. "Scion has sold nearly a million vehicles since I left in 2005 and I'm excited to be back leading this team," said Gilleland. "The iM 5-door hatchback and iA sports sedan arrived at dealerships earlier this month and the response has been great.

Scion FR-S Convertible (in Toyota GT86 form) spied in South Africa

Though the eventual existence of a convertible version of the Toyota GT86 (and its Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ versions for America) is a no-brainer, we've yet to get a glimpse of the real-deal car until now.
Spotted in Cape Town, South Africa, of all places, this completely undisguised GT86 convertible seems to be in a remarkably advanced state of development. The image seen here was obviously sniped from quite a distance and without the aid of a powerful lens, but we can still make out a production-ready looking piece of rear bodywork for the convertible top to hide away in, as well as a functioning trunk lid. It's hard to make out with any certainty, based on this evidence, but there does seem to be space retained behind the front seats for two, small rear chairs.
With the first car spotted, we'd expect to seem some more and better images of it flow through in the near future, and if not, Toyota has already confirmed a concept version for next month's Geneva Motor Show, dubbed FT-86 Open, so stay tuned. For now, click through to the FT86Club.com forum to have a slightly closer look at the images.

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.