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Ed Begely, Jr's RAV4 EV taken off eBay, moved to Craigslist

You may recall earlier this month that noted environmentalist and celebrated actor Ed Begley, Jr. was auctioning his own 2002 Toyota RAV4 EV on eBay. Bidding got up to $13,655 without meeting the reserve, and the auction ended on June 12 without a sale. Now, though, the well-loved electric Toyota has found its way to Craigslist with a new, set price of $17,500. The car sold for $42,000 in 2002, and has been maintained by the same dealership where Mr. Begley purchased it. The odometer shows 119,000 miles, but its battery was replaced in 2011, and shouldn't need to be replaced for another seven or eight years. Begley appears to have taken great care of his RAV4 EV, and it shows just your average cosmetic wear and tear on its white and charcoal interior. It gets about 85 miles on a full charge, and comes with the white decal that lets solo drivers use the HOV lane in California. As with the eBay deal, had that gone through, the buyer will get a chance to meet Ed Begley, Jr., and can even have him autograph the inside of the RAV4 EV's hood. Many of you may be curious as to what Begley's next daily driver will be. According to the actor's own Twitter account, he'll continue using electrons to get around, this time in a leased Nissan Leaf. As an actor, Ed Begley Jr. is known for many roles, including an Emmy-nominated role on St. Elsewhere. He also appeared on Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, Veronica Mars and in the films Pineapple Express and This Is Spinal Tap. In his decades as an environmentalist, he has appeared in his own web series On Begley Street, created his own line of environmentally friendly cleaning products, is in an ongoing competition with Bill Nye to have the lowest carbon footprint, has authored books and has been active in numerous environmental organizations.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and more collaborating to increase fuel efficiency

Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Daihatsu have announced an alliance that will see a push to improve fuel economy from both gas-powered and diesel-powered engines by as much as 30 percent before the end of the decade.
The newly assembled Research Association of Automotive Internal Combustion Engines put the roughly $20-million project together, with the Japanese government committing to half the cost while the eight manufacturers will chip in the rest.
According to Automotive News, the automakers will team up and share basic research on internal-combustion engines in a bid to cut costs. Eventually, the results of the research will find its way into a production vehicle, although it's unclear just when we'll see the fruits of this partnership on the road.

Toyota recalls 690,000 Tacoma trucks for rusty leaf springs, fire risk

Toyota has announced that it will be issuing a recall of 690,000 Tacoma pickups from model years 2005 through 2011. The affected vehicles include both the four-wheel-drive model and the two-wheel-drive PreRunner (but not the standard 4x2 pickups), which may have a rather serious problem with their rear suspensions.
In some cases, corrosion and stress could cause one of the three or four leaves in the rear suspension's leaf springs to fracture. While the trucks can still be driven with a broken leaf, Toyota is concerned that it could move out of position and impact other components in the rear of the truck, with a particular focus on the fuel tank. Needless to say, but a piece of metal continuously impacting anything, let alone the fuel tank, is cause for concern.
As of this writing, there have been no reports of crashes, injuries, fires or deaths due to this problem, although that won't stop Toyota from informing all affected customers of the issue. Those 690,000 owners will need to report in to dealers for inspections and, if necessary, repairs.