1996 Toyota Land Cruiser Base Sport Utility 4-door 4.5l on 2040-cars

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McLaren, Koenigsegg, Toyota, Ford, Dodge and Corvette Lego kits announced for 2021

Lego has announced a slew of car-themed sets for 2021. The six kits comprise nine vehicles and fall under the brick pusher's Speed Champion line of official OEM-licensed kits. News of their arrival comes from German toy retailer JB Spielwaren's pre-order listings, which show three single-car sets and three dual-car sets of matched marques. Starting with the McLaren Elva roadster, the kit consists of 263 pieces and is finished in blue. It seems to have a difficult time capturing the curves of the real-life Elva, but there's only so much you can do with a bunch of plastic blocks. Lego has made several other McLaren kits before, including the Senna, 720S, and a more advanced Senna GTR for the Technics line. Next up is the Koenigsegg Jesko, made up of 280 pieces and finished in white. Though the real-life Jesko is still curvy, this kit does a better job of replicating its aggressive maw, vents and cantilevered rear wing. Rounding out the single-car sets is the 299-piece Toyota GR Supra in yellow. This marks the first time Toyota has lent their license to Lego. Again, it struggles a bit to represent the curvy Supra, relying on printed details like logos and headlights to identify. On the other hand, the Chevrolet two-car does a stupendous job with the 1968 Corvette. The C3 is instantly recognizable as such. The C8-R race car it's paired with suffers from the same issues as some of the previous cars, though. The set contains 512 pieces, and funnily enough the C8 driver has short hair while the C3 driver sports a period-correct wavy mane. The next set is a 627-piece Mopar-themed pair, including a purple (Plum Crazy?) 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A and an SRT top fuel dragster. The race car is spot on, but the Challenger was probably tough to make given the width restrictions. It looks a couple of pegs too narrow compared to the wide proportions of the real deal. Last but not least, the Ford set contains a Bronco R and Ford GT Heritage Edition. Consisting of 660 pieces, the set does an excellent job of representing both cars. The GT looks faithful in its Gulf livery, and the Bronco R looks more like a real Bronco than the actual Bronco R race truck. All in all, it's always fun to see more Lego sets with real cars, and we're glad to see more manufacturers added to the roster. The single-car sets are recommended for ages 7 and up, while the double-car sets have an 8 years and up rating. Price in U.S.

Airbag recall adds 85k Pontiac Vibes to tally

The repairs needed for the faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata continue to expand. Toyota initially announced a recall of 766,300 vehicles equipped with the bad part on June 11 as a followup to a campaign from 2013. Soon after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation into five automakers who also used the component in their models. Now, NHTSA has released the official announcement of the latest Toyota recall listing 844,277 affected cars, including the newly added 2003-2004 Pontiac Vibe.
While NHTSA's document didn't include a model-by-model breakdown, General Motors spokesperson Alan Adler estimated to Autoblog that roughly 85,000 Vibes in the US would be covered under the latest recall. Like the rest of the affected models, the airbag inflator could rupture in a crash causing the bag not to work correctly, possibly spraying metal fragments at the occupant.
Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight told Autoblog that the reason for the disparity between the earlier press release and NHTSA document was that Toyota was continuing to comb through VINs to create a list of affected vehicles. The original number was an estimate of that process at the time. Scroll down to the recall report from NHTSA.

Recharge Wrap-up: First EV to attempt Dakar Rally, Mazda makes bioplastic parts

Zap and Jonway Auto brought their Urbee EV and their new Falcon A-380 SUV to the Peru Motor Show in Lima. Jonway sells its SUV and minivan in Lima through Dai-Ichi Motors, which displayed the cars at the show. According to the companies, their cars "received tremendous interest from the public," including private citizens as well as groups who would use the EVs for security guard service or campus use. Read more in the press release below. California is the US leader when it comes to EVs. In 2013, California had 70,000 battery electric and 104,000 plug-in hybrids. The state boasts almost half of the country's electric vehicles, thanks largely to state and local EV incentives that go beyond the federal tax rebate. California also leads the way in legislation, and nine other states have adopted California's ZEV mandate. Washington, Maryland, Georgia and DC also have their own EV incentives, while some utility companies also offer benefits for EV owners in other states. Still, EV sales have only made up about 0.7 percent of new vehicle sales in 2014. Read more at the US Energy Information Administration website. Toyota will be using landfill gas to help power its Kentucky manufacturing facility. Beginning in 2015, Toyota's Georgetown assembly plant will use electricity converted from landfill-sourced methane gas from Waste Services of the Bluegrass. It will provide enough energy to produce 10,000 vehicles each year. Plus it diverts methane - a greenhouse gas - from entering the atmosphere and helps improve the local air quality. Learn more in the video or Toyota's press release below. Mazda has developed a plant-derived bioplastic for making exterior and interior parts. The dyed plastic doesn't require painting, and it reduces petroleum consumption and carbon emissions in the manufacturing process. The bioplastic will be used for interior parts in the all-new MX-5 before being put into use on the exterior of future vehicles. Mazda will display prototype parts at the Eco-Products 2014 exhibit in Tokyo. Read more in the press release below. Acciona will enter the first-ever zero-emissions vehicle (pictured) to compete in the Dakar Rally. The vehicle uses an electric motor and lithium ion batteries, as well as solar panels to power telemetry and security systems. The Dakar Rally will take place from January 4 through 17 through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. See Acciona's Dakar EV in the video and read more in the press release below.