2005 Toyota Tundra Limited Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 4.7l on 2040-cars

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Toyota expands airbag recall to 2.27M vehicles worldwide

Was your Toyota inspected under the company's recall campaign for faulty airbag inflators last year? You might have another trip ahead to have it repaired again. The automotive giant says that it found "the involved serial numbers provided by the supplier were incomplete, and did not include all of the potentially involved inflators," according to its official announcement. That means more replacements are needed.
Toyota's April 2013 inflator recall covered the Corolla, Matrix and Tundra from the 2003 and 2004 model years, the Sequoia from 2002 to 2004 and the Lexus SC 430 from 2002 to 2004. At the time, the company said it would need to inspect about 510,000 vehicles in the US but only expected to replace around 170,000 inflators.
However, the latest announcement increases that figure to about 766,300 vehicles in the US. Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight told Autoblog that the new amount is the combination of owners who need to have their vehicle looked at again and those who didn't come in for the initial recall. The company learned about the problem when Takata, the supplier, provided it with an improved list of the faulty part's serial numbers. According to The Detroit News, the latest recall affects about 2.27 million vehicles from them worldwide. Knight said owners would receive notification of the problem around the end of the month but repairs would come in phases because the automaker doesn't have all of the necessary parts at the moment.

Toyota ups Prius incentives to $3,000 for some Californians

So, Southern Californians, here's a little math question for you. If Toyota is offering about $3,000 in incentives on the Prius in San Francisco and just $2,500 in perks in Los Angeles, is it worth it to take the trip up? Yes, but barely. Looking to goose sales in by far its largest US market, Toyota is continuing many of the incentives it started in April to reverse the trend of falling year-over-year Prius sales, according to Green Car Reports. Specifically, Toyota is offering discounts worth about $3,000 in San Francisco, though many of those incentives expire May 26, Green Car Reports says, citing Cars Direct. Down in LA, those incentives are worth about $2,500, though they do extend until June 1. While US Prius sales fell last year, they did rise two percent in California. Through April, the four Prius variants combined for sales of 15,235 units, down 15 percent from a year earlier. And for those looking to do a little comparison shopping, a one-way flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco is running about $200, while that drive down will cost about $30 in gas (it is a Prius, after all). Factoring in the rides to and from the airports, though, we'll call it a wash.

2014 Toyota Prius crash test rating drops to four stars

If nothing has changed, then how come something changed? That's the question behind the recent drop from five to four stars in the crash test rating for the Toyota Prius. As you can see on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website, the 2014 Prius gets four stars overall while the 2013 got five. The two cars are basically identical, so what gives? Toyota says it is not sure why NHTSA rated the Prius a four this time. Starting with the 2011 model year, NHTSA updated its rating system and says in a FAQ that vehicles that had four- or five-star ratings could get lower ratings "even if no changes have been made to the vehicle." Green Car Reports says that the issue is a new set of frontal barrier tests that were conducted on the 2014 Prius last month and that resulted in the first new bits of crash test data for the car in years. The 2012 and 2013 Prius models were rated based on tests done in February 2011 on a 2011 Prius. All of these are variants of the third-generation model. The next-gen Prius is expected in 2015. Jana Hartline, environmental communication manager at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, told AutoblogGreen that the company doesn't quite know what's going on with the drop in crash test scores: There have been no changes in the test standards and no changes in the car, other than minor reinforcement for small overlap crash test which we believe did not compromise integrity. We are not sure why it rated a 4 this time. We are looking at the test results and we are confident the new generation will move back to 5 stars. 2014 Prius still has a five-star rating for the side crash test and four in the rollover test. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.