1997 Toyota Tacoma on 2040-cars

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Subaru Indiana plant to stop building Toyota Camry

Subaru may be set to end production of the Toyota Camry at its Lafayette, IN facility by 2017, according to a report from the Louisville Journal-Courier and a CBS affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina. Speaking to the plant's Executive Vice President Tom Easterday, the whole affair sounds like a done deal.
"Based on changes in Toyota's production plans, they have decided that the award-winning Camry production contract will not be renewed," Easterday said. Easterday was quick to emphasize that just because Camry production would end, doesn't mean jobs will be lost. "There will be no loss of jobs at SIA as a result of this," he said, before adding that the loss of Camry production will have no impact Subaru's $400 million investment to ready the plant for Impreza production in 2016. That said, adding a promised 900 jobs may take longer than originally planned, as Camry production staff are set to be retrained on Subaru production.
SIA currently has the capacity to produce 100,000 Camrys per year, and began production of the family sedan in 2007 alongside production of the Subaru Outback, Legacy and eventually, the soon-to-be-discontinued Tribeca.

2013 Toyota RAV4 earns 'poor' rating in IIHS small overlap crash test [w/video]

When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested a batch of SUVs in its small overlap frontal crash test earlier this year, it held off on putting the Toyota RAV4 in the blender because the new, 2013 model was due to arrive shortly after the test. The new crossover might be better than it was before, but it could still only manage a rating of "Poor" in the test that has been a bugbear for a number of manufacturers.
Among other issues, the IIHS noted that the steering column moved seven inches to the right causing the crash test dummy to practically miss the airbag, the dummy's left foot was trapped in deformed sheetmetal and the dummy's head hit the instrument panel.
The 2013 RAV4 earned the Top Safety Pick rating by scoring well in the Institute's four other tests. A good score in this particular test would have earned it the Top Safety Pick+ rating that is so far only claimed by the 2014 Subaru Forester and 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport in the SUV category. There's a press release below with more details and a video of the test.

Manga stylized Toyota Aygo takes on Godzilla

Japan has given the world so much to enthuse over. We're not sure the Toyota Aygo is necessarily one of them as much as, say, the Scion FR-S or Lexus LFA (especially since it's actually made in Europe), but for many Nipponophiles, the centuries-old artistic discipline of Manga certainly is. And now the two have come together in this two-and-a-half-minute animated short.
In Toyota's own take on the classic narrative, an Aygo animated by celebrated artist Sonia Leong takes on Godzilla. As in, a giant lizard rampaging through a Japanese city, not the Nissan GT-R, against which the little Toyota would certainly stand even less of a chance by any metric other than affordability, fuel economy or ability to park in tight spots.
In any case, watch this Manga-fied video above, and feel free to read through the related press release below.