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Toyota adds 1.6m cars to Takata inflator recall list

As part of the Takata airbag inflator recall expansion announced by NHTSA earlier this month, Toyota has listed an additional 1.6 million cars that will need to have inflators or airbag assemblies replaced. This brings the total of recalled Toyota, Scion, and Lexus vehicles to 4.73 million. Other automakers will announce their expanded recall lists this week as well. This round of recalls affects some but not all vehicles with the following model names and years: 2009–2011 Toyota Corolla and Matrix 2006–2011 Toyota Yaris 2010–2011 Toyota 4Runner 2011 Toyota Sienna 2008–2011 Scion xB 2007–2011 Lexus ES 2010–2011 Lexus GX 2006–2011 Lexus IS To see if your specific vehicle falls under recall, write down your VIN and go to toyota.com/recall; you can also check any recalls, Takata or otherwise, at safercar.gov/vin. Toyota will inform owners of affected vehicles by mail. Depending on the model, either the inflator or the entire airbag assembly will have to be replaced. Due to the number of vehicles that have already been recalled, it may take some time for the necessary parts to be available. A total of 11 deaths have been attributed to the faulty Takata inflators, and federal investigators now know why the parts are prone to failure. The state of Hawaii was the first to sue the auto supplier, with more states expected to follow. The 17 other automakers are required to announce their additions resulting from the May 4 expansion this week, so expect more of the 35 to 40 million vehicles to be listed soon. Related Video: Image Credit: Reuters Recalls Lexus Scion Toyota Takata airbag recall lexus is toyota sienna toyota 4runner toyota matrix lexus es lexus gx

Dubai Police conscript 467-hp Lexus RC F into high-performance stable

The Dubai Police Department has added yet another... um, let's call it unconventional, cop car to its ranks. But rather than an ultra-exotic, mid-engined masterpiece, it's the V8-powered Lexus RC F. Finished in the white-and-green color scheme typical of Dubai's fuzz, the RC F was purchased alongside another Toyota product, a utilitarian Toyota Land Cruiser. While the off-road-ready SUV's purpose seems clear, enforcing the emirate's laws in the areas outside the city, the 467-horsepower Lexus will likely follow in the lead of Dubai's other high-performance offerings, appearing more for publicity and public relations than actual law enforcement. Check out a couple shots of the new cop car up top.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.