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Mazda and Toyota formally announce plans to 'make cars better'

Following Monday's report that Toyota and Mazda could be expanding their cooperation, the two Japanese automakers have made it official, issuing a joint press release announcing a "mutually beneficial long-term partnership" that will "make cars better." The two companies will set up a joint committee to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each party. As we explained yesterday, that likely means Mazda will benefit from Toyota's plug-in-hybrid and fuel-cell tech, while the world's largest automaker can take advantage of the Zoom-Zoom automaker's line of efficient Skyactiv engines. "I am delighted that our two companies can share the same vision and work together to make cars better. I can think of nothing more wonderful than showing the world – together – that the next 100 years of cars will be just as fun as the first," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in the attached joint statement. Mazda President and CEO Masamichi Kogai echoed that sentiment, saying: "I hope that by working together to make cars better, we can raise the value of cars in the eyes of consumers while also enhancing the manufacturing capabilities of our home, Hiroshima, and all the communities we are involved in as well." Scroll down for the official joint press release. Toyota and Mazda Team Up to Make Cars Better Tokyo, Japan, May 13, 2015-Toyota Motor Corporation and Mazda Motor Corporation today entered an agreement to build a mutually beneficial long term partnership. By leveraging the resources of both companies to complement and enhance each other's products and technologies, the partnership will result in more appealing cars that meet the diverse needs and tastes of customers all over the world. A joint committee will now be set up to evaluate how best to utilize each company's respective strengths. The committee will encourage broad and meaningful collaboration across a range of fields, including environmental and advanced safety technologies. Marking the agreement, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said: "As evidenced by their SKYACTIV Technologies and KODO-Soul of Motion design, Mazda has proven that it always thinks of what is coming next for vehicles and technology, while still managing to stay true to its basic carmaking roots. In this way, Mazda very much practices what Toyota holds dear: making ever-better cars. I am delighted that our two companies can share the same vision and work together to make cars better.

Toyota wants improved crash scores with midcycle facelifts

The performances of some Toyotas in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) regimen of crash tests leave something to be desired. Consider the small overlap frontal crash test: only six Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles have undergone the new test, yet all but one of them received a poor rating. Osama Nagata, CEO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., says midcycle vehicle updates are in the works to address the safety issues brought to light by the IIHS test, Automotive News reports. He confirmed that the RAV4 is getting safety updates following its crash test performance last month, but he didn't name any other models.
All three Toyotas that were tested - 2013 RAV4, 2012-2013 Prius V, 2012-2013 Camry - received poor ratings. The 2007-2012 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-2013 IS 250/350 also received poor ratings. The only other Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle to score better than poor is the 2014 Scion TC. It received an acceptable rating in the small overlap frontal crash test and is the only recent vehicle in Toyota's line-up to get the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating.
The small overlap front crash test measures the safety of a car when its front left corner is strikes an object during an accident, bypassing traditional crumple zones, which deform in a way to protect passengers. In 2009, automakers were alerted to the forthcoming addition of the test, which was first implemented last year, IIHS spokesman Russ Rader says. They responded with differing intensity, he says, pointing out that Subaru and Honda started incorporating design changes early on so their cars would perform well in the tests.

Honda may recall up to 1M vehicles for airbag issue, following Toyota's lead

It seems Toyota won't be the only one recalling the faulty Takata airbag inflators for long. Honda insiders in Japan claim that the company is getting close to announcing its own worldwide campaign that would begin before the end of June.
Unnamed sources close to Honda in Japan tell Automotive News that the company is pursuing an internal investigation into possibly affected models and is working with Takata to gather more information. They claim that it could involve even more than the 1.14 million cars worldwide that the automaker covered under the first recall for the problem in April 2013, including 561,000 vehicles in the US.
Toyota jumpstarted this process last week when it recalled over 2 million cars worldwide, including 844,277 in the US. Soon after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a preliminary evaluation into the issue following six reported incidents, and started assembling data about potentially affected models from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Chrysler. NHTSA also began investigating Takata itself.