Crewmax 5.7l V8 6-speed Automatic Bargain Corner Low Miles 4 Dr Crew Cab Truck A on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Toyota restructuring US operations, possibly moving to Texas

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Toyota is poised to announce Monday that it is restructuring its US operations, which may include plans to relocate some of its operations to Texas. Toyota Motor Sales has been located in California since 1957, and is responsible for North American sales, marketing, and distribution for Toyota, Lexus and Scion. According to Toyota literature, its Torrance operations presently employs 6,156 workers and represents a $2.3-billion investment.
Workers in Toyota's Torrance offices were abuzz about the possible relocation to Texas. One young offspring of a Toyota employee even posted to Twitter that her parents warned about the upcoming move, and she said she's refusing to go.
Rumors at one point had Toyota settling in Richardson, TX, just outside Plano. But Autoblog talked to Richardson Mayor Laura Maczka, who said she would be thrilled if that were true, but has not heard anything on the subject. Autoblog also emailed with Bill Sutherland, a city councilman in Torrance, CA, who said, "To date the only info I have is what I have read in the paper expecting a press release Monday."

Toyota's $1.6B unintended acceleration settlement approved

Toyota is now one step closer to putting its unintended acceleration woes behind it as it has received approval from the US District Court for the Central District of California to settle loss-of-value claims to vehicles associated with the 2009-2010 recalls.
As we reported back in May, the Toyota settlement is worth $1.63 billion, which, according to Bloomberg, includes a payout of $757 million to affected owners, $227 million to attorneys and an additional $875 million for vehicle upgrades. (We did the math, too, and that totals $1.859 billion, but there is no justification for the discrepancy. Fuzzy math, eh?)
Based on the estimated 22.6 million vehicles said to be included in this suit, that would make the average payment about $33.49 per vehicle, but the article says that owners, lessees and even renters will receive varying amounts ranging from $9.74 up to as much as $10,000. This settlement does not affect suits filed for personal injury or wrongful death.

Toyota Matrix not long for this world?

According to a report from AutoGuide, Toyota doesn't have plans to replace the aging Matrix hatchback in the United States after this year. If true, the timing coincides with the replacement for the Corolla, on which the Matrix is based, with that car slated to get its first complete redesign since 2006 (2008 in the US market).
We'd love to tell you how many Matrix models were sold by Toyota in the United States last year, but the automaker chooses to bundle Matrix sales with Corolla sales, so we have no idea. That said, we have to assume sales of the hatchback don't contribute much overall to the total number of Corolla-based machines.
We're also unsure if Toyota will choose to exit the youth-oriented compact hatchback market entirely, or if the automaker will rely instead on its hybrid Prius line and Scion models like the xB and xD.