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How Toyota's neighbor delayed 23,000 of its deliveries

Don't you just hate when your neighbors' mess becomes your problem? Toyota certainly has good reason to be upset, after an dirty mishap at a steel mill delayed thousands of vehicle exports from its nearby port in Nagoya, Japan, (pictured above) by as much as a month.
The messy situation occurred on June 22 when the mill near the port lost power and had to burn off an excess buildup of coke oven gas - which isn't exactly a situation friendly to living beings or the environment. According to Automotive News, it caused a massive amount of smoke to emit from the plant that fell as soot and tar on about 23,000 vehicles that were waiting to be shipped out. Getting the models properly cleaned off has been quite a task. A team of 5,000 workers were at the port until this week getting them gleaming again.
Potential Toyota buyers in North America have no need to fret about getting a sullied car, though. A Toyota spokesperson told Automotive News that none of the vehicles were bound for this continent. The automaker is reportedly considering asking the mill's owners for reimbursement for the cost of the weeks of cleanup. Paying for the mistake is, after all, the neighborly thing to do.

Next-gen Toyota Tacoma to debut at Detroit Auto Show

Toyota's confirmation comes on the heels of General Motors' successful launch of its own midsize pickups. The next generation of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck will be revealed in January at the Detroit Auto Show, a top executive confirmed Thursday. Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota, offered no other details, but the new version of the pickup is expected to have significant upgrades compared with the aging model on sale now. Our spy shooters caught a prototype testing this summer, and rumors of the new generation have been swirling for months. We've also previously reported that Toyota is planning to ramp up production next April at a factory in Mexico that builds the Tacoma. Toyota's confirmation comes on the heels of General Motors' successful launch of its own midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, which have garnered awards, positive reviews and solid sales since they arrived in showrooms this fall. It's unclear how large the new Tacoma will be, especially considering that the Canyon and Colorado flirt with fullsize territory. The Tacoma was last updated in 2012, and the segment has changed dramatically since then with the addition of the GM trucks. Another Tacoma competitor, Honda's aging Ridgeline, is also expected to re-launch in 2015, which would leave the Nissan Frontier as the oldest truck in the field. Tacoma sales have slipped 4.1 percent to 140,757 units this year, though they posted a 3.3-percent gain in November. Meanwhile, Carter also said Lexus will reveal two performance vehicles, though he didn't elaborate. "I'll leave it at that, but I promise you'll enjoy it," he said coyly. Lexus just showed the LF-C2 convertible concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Toyota delves into the history of its Land Cruiser

One of the longest-produced, most widely distributed vehicles in all of automotive history is also one of its most rugged: the Toyota Land Cruiser. With 60 years of continuous production, 14 different model lines and thousands of variations of the Jeep-like sports utility vehicle, the Land Cruiser became a success worldwide and developed a cult following among enthusiasts here in the US.
We'll be the first to admit that tracing the vehicle's lineage from its humble beginnings as a prototype for Japan's National Police Reserve in 1951 to what it is today isn't an easy task, especially when one considers that the types of Land Cruisers produced traditionally have varied from market to market. For example, the Land Cruiser sold in the US is very different from the US-only 40 series Land Cruiser-inspired FJ Cruiser, which is itself different from the Land Cruiser Prado sold in other world markets.
To cover the Land Cruiser's sixty-plus year history from start to present, someone over at Toyota UK was thoughtful enough to devote a plus-size blog post to it. It's worth a read if you have a spare 10 or 15 minutes - and even if you don't, you can check out our historical gallery above. Enjoy!