Toyota

Toyota's advertising slogan is "Moving Forward." But the company's U.S.-based executives keep moving out. James D. Farley, head of Toyota's Lexus division and a driving force behind the popular Scion brand, has left to run Ford Motor Co.'s global marketing operation, Ford said yesterday. He is the third high-level executive to leave Toyota's North American business since August. Last month, James E. Press, Toyota's top U.S. executive and former head of Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., quit to take a job at Chrysler, which earlier had hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, then head of marketing for Lexus, Toyota's luxury brand.

Have no fear for the resilience of the automotive industry. It has confronted the ominously obvious and said: Poppycock. Gas prices are soaring again toward the high discomfort zone. Detroit's reliance on energy hogs hurt sales enough to drop longtime global leader General Motors to second place behind more fuel-efficient Toyota. Wasting fossil fuel is now viewed as a threat to national security as well as environmental health. And the technology to substantially ease the problem lies moldering on the shelf.

A Baltimore police officer fired three shots at a stolen car yesterday after the driver tried to run him down, police said.A 13-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder and armed carjacking in the incident, said Sgt. Scott Rowe, a police spokesman.Rowe said a 66-year-old woman was about to enter her 1993 Toyota Camry about 3: 30 p.m. in the 6700 block of Park Heights Ave. when a youth shoved her aside, grabbed the keys and drove away. The woman was not injured, Rowe said.A few minutes later, Rowe said, Officer Francis Davidson of the Northwestern District was in a patrol car in the 4300 block of Liberty Heights Ave. when he saw the Toyota heading toward him from the 3500 block of Eldorado Ave.Rowe said Davidson blocked the intersection with his vehicle and stood near it. He said Davidson ordered the Toyota to stop.

A Westminster man was killed and four people were injured early yesterday in a two-vehicle collision on Route 27 in Mount Airy, state police said.Braden D. Mann, 18, of the 2300 block of Beren Lane, a rear-seat passenger in a Toyota Corolla, was pronounced dead at the scene soon after the crash at 12: 11 a.m. on Route 27 at East Ridgeville Boulevard, police said.Kara E. Rogers, the driver, and two passengers were taken by MedEvac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.Rogers, 18, of the 5600 block of Old Washington Road was treated and released yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

NEWS ITEM: "Ford unveils its long-awaited Excursion utility vehicle this week. At 19 feet long and weighing 4 1/4 tons, it seats nine and is the largest passenger vehicle on the road."March 22: In a move expected for some time, Chevrolet today introduced its new Colossus SUV, 20 feet and 5 tons of chrome and steel powered by a super-charged V-10 engine.Interior upgrades include a fully-operational marble fountain behind the front console and "stadium seating" in the rear two-thirds of the vehicle.

I love Nagano's police. They are polite to a fault. They direct traffic with great ease and care. And they are easy to spot.They look like lugers from the Virgin Islands.Nagano's police force is decked out in aqua blue and yellow outfits with white helmets. Apparently, this hasn't gone over big with some of the officers, who would rather look like cops on the beat than athletes on ice.But the look does come in handy.The other night, my friends and I were trying to find the building in which a bunch of Toyota cars sit by a gigantic, second-floor, plate-glass window bathed in a light that could brighten a small city of, say, about a million people.

In the three years he has been president of Toyota Motor Corp., Hiroshi Okuda has become known as much for his black belt in judo as for his outspoken views and aggressive moves to revitalize the once very conservative automobile maker that the stock market values as Japan's largest publicly traded company.His efforts come at an especially trying time for Toyota. The Japanese domestic market, which it dominates, is mired in a long downturn, and the company's most important overseas market, the United States, is showing signs of stalling.

TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second largest automaker behind Toyota Motor Corp., posted its fifth loss in six years yesterday as it failed to keep pace with changing demand, sending its U.S. operations into the red and its sales crashing in Japan.Nissan, which makes the luxury Infiniti sedan, posted a group net loss of 14.0 billion yen ($10.17 million), for the year ended March 31 compared with a profit of 77.7 billion yen the year before. Sales fell 1.4 percent.The company cut its earnings forecast just last week and yesterday's results were expected by analysts.

IT RAINED the other day; now every Maryland map is obsolete. The old ones say "Assateague Island," but Assateague has become a plural place. Mother Nature, in a surgical mood, performed a bisection.This new geography raises questions. When the maps are redrawn, how should printers label our barrier reef? North A. and South A.? (Or Middle, considering the separate stretch from Ocean City on up was part of Assateague, too, before the oceanic irruption of 1933?) Naw. How dull. The tourism people would nix that.

A Columbia man died earlier this week, hours after an accident in which police said the car he was driving veered to avoid striking another vehicle on Little Patuxent Parkway and struck a tree.Stanley Sanghyun Park, 26, of the 12000 block of Little Patuxent Parkway died Monday morning of unspecified injuries.Police said the incident occurred about 10: 45 p.m. Sunday. According to several witnesses, three cars -- a light-colored vehicle, a 1996 Buick and a 1992 Toyota -- were heading west in the left lane of Little Patuxent Parkway, west of Governor Warfield Parkway.

Guy calls up a mechanic, says he has a '91 Volvo with torn-up brakes. No way he wants to buy another car, new or used. Not in this mess of an economy. Can it be fixed? Veteran mechanic Richard Linder has been hearing this a lot lately. This particular call comes into Linder Automotive's grime-tinged Waverly garage early Monday morning. "I hear you - cheaper than a new one," Linder tells the caller, who was referred by a friend. They agree that Linder will take a look. The recession has been kind to Linder and car doctors around the region.

Toyota Motor Corp. has ended General Motors Corp.'s 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker after avoiding the worst of the meltdown in global auto demand. GM's 2008 sales fell more than 11 percent to 8.4 million vehicles, the company said yesterday. Toyota said Tuesday that it posted a 4 percent drop to almost 9 million sales. Toyota seized the crown after boosting sales 70 percent since 1999 on demand for fuel-efficient cars. Still, bragging rights may do little to revive growth amid a recession that has forced the Japanese company to forecast its first operating loss in 71 years and spurred Detroit-based GM to seek a government bailout.

Alexander Severinsky thought he had escaped long waits for basic goods when his family fled the Soviet Union in 1978. But barely a year later he found himself in his Oldsmobile Cutlass, in the Texas heat, at the end of a line of cars waiting to gas up. "I just came from Russia a year ago, where I stand in lines for food, and now what changed? I'm back in line, only for fuel," he said, laughing, in his accented English. Better fuel efficiency, he reasoned, could boost gas supplies and end the lines.

The latest potential alternative to the traditional gasoline engine promoted for the auto industry - plug-in hybrids and their lithium-ion batteries - may not change what most people drive anytime soon. Among those cautious about the potential for both is a company that should know - Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest producer of hybrids. Toyota will introduce two new hybrids in January at the Detroit Auto Show, and both will use the tried and true nickel-metal-hydride battery that helps power the Prius.

Gunfire yesterday evening in the Brooklyn Homes section of Baltimore killed a female driver and wounded her male passenger and a woman sitting on a porch, police said. Names of the victims were not released and no arrests had been made, police said. Shortly before 6 p.m., a woman was driving a Toyota sedan in the 4100 block of Mariban Court and was being followed by a white Cadillac, said Sterling Clifford, a city police spokesman. Near the intersection of 10th Street, Clifford said, someone in the Cadillac fired several shots into the Toyota, striking the driver and passenger.

No matter what your mail might tell you, Toyota is not out to get your financial details or coax you into becoming a mystery shopper. According to Toyota's Open Road blog, there have been several attempts to obtain personal or financial information from consumers through correspondence on falsified Toyota letterhead, which is often accompanied by a forged Toyota check. "There apparently are different variations of the same [approach]," said Jon F. Thompson, editor of Open Road. "In one instance, the letter solicits the recipient's participation in a mystery-shopper program.

DETROIT -- Gary Kovacic was putting the finishing touches on plans for the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu two years ago when his boss raised the bar. What would it take to make the car better than the competing Camry that Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. had just put on sale, General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer G. Richard Wagoner Jr. wanted to know. The question forced Kovacic and his engineering team to put two months into a part-by-part comparison of their car with the Camry and to propose hundreds of design upgrades.

Checker Auto Parts 500 At Avondale, Ariz. Lap length: 1 mile Car number in parentheses 1. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 132.773 mph. 2. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Chevy, 132.758. 3. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 132.699. 4. (18) J.J. Yeley, Chevy, 132.236. 5. (70) Johnny Sauter, Chevy, 132.144. 6. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 132.129. 7. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 132.091. 8. (96) Tony Raines, Chevy, 132.057. 9. (2) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 132.023. 10. (9) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 132.023. 11. (25) Casey Mears, Chevy, 132.008.

Toyota's advertising slogan is "Moving Forward." But the company's U.S.-based executives keep moving out. James D. Farley, head of Toyota's Lexus division and a driving force behind the popular Scion brand, has left to run Ford Motor Co.'s global marketing operation, Ford said yesterday. He is the third high-level executive to leave Toyota's North American business since August. Last month, James E. Press, Toyota's top U.S. executive and former head of Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., quit to take a job at Chrysler, which earlier had hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, then head of marketing for Lexus, Toyota's luxury brand.

Sylvania 300 At Loudon, N.H. (Lap length: 1.058 miles; car number in parentheses) 1. (07) Clint Bowyer, Chevy, 130.412 mph. 2. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Chevy, 130.255. 3. (2) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 130.011. 4. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 129.798. 5. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 129.723. 6. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevy, 129.679. 7. (19) Elliott Sadler, Dodge, 129.679. 8. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 129.362. 9. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 129.226. 10. (22) Dave Blaney, Toyota, 129.164. 11. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 129.024.