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2014 Toyota Corolla and Tundra production underway

After months of leaked photos and speculative reports, Toyota finally unveiled its 2014 Corolla to the world in early July at a star-studded California party. The confetti has been swept up and the champagne flutes washed and stored, and now the real work can begin: production. Toyota has announced that its new C-segment player has begun rolling off the lines at its plants in Mississippi and Ontario, Canada this week ahead of the planned start of sales in September. What's more, the refreshed 2014 Tundra pickup has also segued into production in San Antonio, Texas.
Corolla production in Mississippi is still a relatively recent phenomenon, with the plant having begun assembly of the outgoing model in the fourth quarter of 2011, while Toyota's Cambridge, Ontario plant has been churning out the compact volume king since 1988. Conversely, the Tundra has been in production at the Texas facility since 2006, and Toyota projects that the plant will build its milestone one-millionth new vehicle in September, right around the time the reworked fullsize pickup goes on sale.

Toyota C-HR stays sharp from prototype to production

Scion is dead. While the troubled brand was given 13 years to make a case for itself, it never quite succeeded. And that's a shame, because we're pretty confident that this, the production-spec Toyota C-HR would have been one of its biggest hits. Instead, when it arrives in the US, it will be as a Toyota... where it will still likely be a big hit. The new small CUV made its debut after literally years of teasing concepts, the most recent of which was shown late last year in Los Angeles, where it was badged as a Scion. After seeing that car, it's quite clear that Toyota has strained itself to translate its style to the real world. Up front, there's clear inspiration from the Toyota Auris/Scion iM. But aside from the front, the C-HR's biggest inspiration appears to be the Nissan Juke. View 14 Photos It's like Toyota has tried to go even further, though. Its wheel arches are flared even more aggressively and they feed into a strong character line on the lower portion of the doors. In back, Toyota's designers seem to have just rotated the Juke's taillights 180 degrees while they sit below an extremely fast rear window. Said window is integrated into today's latest design trend, a floating roof. Mechanically, the C-HR rides atop Toyota's New Global Architecture, which is Japan's answer to Volkswagen's MQB architecture. Power comes from a hybrid drivetrain, good for a relaxed 120 horsepower. If you don't want hybrid power, Toyota will sell the C-HR with the Euro-market Auris' turbo 1.2-liter engine, but we almost certainly won't see that here in the US. Instead, American drivers will probably be left with nothing but a 2.0-liter, naturally aspirated four-cylinder. That engine will be exclusively paired with a continuously variable transmission that sends power to either the front- or to all four wheels. So there's Juke inspiration, but not in the driving character. Toyota says it will build the C-HR Hybrid in Turkey. We don't know if that facility will handle US-market vehicles or just Europe, but we wouldn't be surprised to see additional facilities come online to produce this stylish little bugger. Related Video: TOYOTA C-HR Toyota's Fresh New Take on the Crossover 2016 Toyota Motorshow Geneva Making its world debut at the 2016 Geneva motor show, the C-HR gives Toyota a powerful new presence in the crossover market.

Toyota to pay $11 million after trial for fatal Camry crash

Years after Toyota's unintended acceleration fiasco, the company is still making headlines for cars with sticky gas pedals. A federal jury in Minnesota decided yesterday that Toyota should pay $11 million for its role in the crash of a 1996 Camry that resulted in three deaths and sent a man to jail. A stuck pedal caused the Camry of Koua Fong Lee to accelerate uncontrollably and impact an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, killing its driver and his nine-year-old son, and paralyzing a six-year-old girl, who later died of her injuries. Two other passengers in the Olds were seriously injured. Lee spent nearly three years in prison on a charge of vehicular homicide, until the unintended acceleration recall erupted. He filed a motion for a new trial and won, and then joined the suit against Toyota filed by the victims and their families of the 2006 crash that left him imprisoned. The jury found Toyota 60 percent responsible for the accident, with the remaining 40 percent of blame going to Lee. Toyota has denied that the 1996 Camry, which wasn't included in the company's sweeping accelerator pedal recalls, was at fault. Toyota released a statement saying the company respects the jury's decision but believes the evidence clearly showed the vehicle wasn't the accident's cause. The company said it will study the record and consider its legal options. Under Minnesota law, the way the jury allocated fault means Toyota is responsible for paying all damages, minus 40 percent of the amount awarded to Lee, said Lee's attorney, Bob Hilliard. That brings Toyota's total liability to $10.94 million. Lee will receive $750,000 of that total. During the trial, Hilliard, told jurors there was a defect in the car's design. He said the Camry's auto-drive assembly could stick, and when tapped or pushed while stuck, it could stick again at a higher speed. He also accused Toyota of never conducting reliability tests on nylon resin pulleys that could be damaged under heat and cause the throttle to stick. "This is what makes the car go. This is what turns it into a torpedo, a missile, a deadly weapon," Hilliard said during his closing argument. Toyota said there was no defect in the design of the 1996 Camry. The company's attorney, David Graves, suggested that Lee was an inexperienced driver and mistook the gas pedal for the brake. Toyota also noted that Lee's car was never subject to the recalls of later-model Toyotas.