Subaru Kicks Off Series Production of BRZ

Subaru held a special ceremony today at its Gunma factory in Ota-city, Japan, to mark the series production start of the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 (named GT 86 in Europe) rear-wheel drive coupes. The presidents of both companies attended the event. The factory, which will produce both models as well as the Impreza by March 2013, underwent several changes to cope with the extra capacity.
The two Japanese automakers first agreed on business collaboration in October 2005, and after expanding their ties with new agreements related to development and production in April 2008, they began designing the coupe models, the production versions of which were presented at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show last December.
At the ceremony, Toyota's President Akio Toyoda said: “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the ceaseless efforts of all FHI people and staff who were involved in the development, production and preparations for both models. The Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 would not have been successfully developed without collaboration between FHI and TMC."
Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, the president of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, which is Subaru's parent company, said: "The car symbolizes our corporate strategy in two significant aspects: good progress of our alliances; and advancement of our “select and focus” approach."

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Toyota Begins Production of New Generation 2012 Camry in Russia

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Toyota Begins Production of New Generation 2012 Camry in Russia

Thursday, November 17, 2011 |

While the Camry never managed to win European buyers, a little further to the east and in particular Russia and the surrounding countries, Toyota's mid-size sedan has successfully broken into the market. Toyota hopes to further increase its share in the region with the launch of the next generation Camry, which began production on Monday at the company's Toyota Motor Manufacturing Russia (TMMR) plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Japanese company has been assembling Camry sedans at the St. Petersburg facility since December 2007 when production began for the previous generation of the model.
Yoshinori Matsunaga, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Russia General Director, said: “This full model change was a great opportunity for our employees to learn new skills and get extensive new knowledge. We are now fully prepared and very proud of our vehicle, its quality and safety features.”
While based on the North American 2012 Camry, the Russian-spec model gains a unique front end with bespoke headlamp, bumper, hood, grille and front fender designs as well as its own set of tail lamps.
Locally, the new 2012 Camry is available with a choice of two petrol engines: a newly developed 4-cylinder, 2.5-litre unit and an upgraded 3.5-litre, Euro V compliant, V6. Both powerplants are fitted with a 6-speed automatic transmission.

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Toyota FT-86: New Photos Surface Online

When we brought you the first brochure images of the production version of the JDM Toyota FT-86 coupe on Thursday, we rightfully assumed that we should see more pictures of the rear-wheel drive model in the coming weeks before the official presentation at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show on November 30. Better make that a little over 24 hours as we just discovered yet another collection of scanned images on a Japanese forum, providing us with an even better look at the exterior design of Toyota's mainstream sports car.
While the previous photos showed us a Modellista-prepped version, this time we have the standard FT-86 with or without some optional accessories such as the front panel air vent trims and rear diffuser accents.
We can't say that we understand what's written in the brochure (any help from our Japanese readers would be appreciated), but in one page it is evident that Toyota says that the styling of the FT-86's window line is inspired by the classic 2000GT from the late 1960's.
As we've previously reported, the FT-86 will go on sale worldwide next year with a single engine option, a Subaru-sourced 2.0-liter boxer engine hooked up to either a standard six-speed manual gearbox or an optional 6sp automatic transmission.
Head down to check out the latest pictures plus a couple of videos we found on the FT-86 by Gazoo Racing from this month's VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring circuit.

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Toyota Warns Suppliers to Lower their Prices

Saturday, October 08, 2011 |

The strong yen is harming the profitability of Japanese carmakers. After Honda, which plans to halve its domestic production over the next decade, Toyota, Japan’s number one automaker, told its parts suppliers to severely reduce their prices or risk being replaced by overseas manufacturers. According to a report from Bloomberg, Toyota loses $443 million USD for every yen appreciation against the dollar and has been hit hard by the 2009-2010 recalls and the March earthquake. As a result, at the end of August it warned the “Keiretsu”, a group of its 219 largest local suppliers, to cut their prices and match their overseas competitors, or it may be forced to prefer the latter.
While Toyota spokesman Amiko Tomita declined to comment on the issue, the Japanese carmaker may be forced to disband the decades-old “Keiretsu”, which translates as “a group that cooperates with Toyota” and was formed in December 1943.
Analysts like Hiroshi Ataku at IHS Automotive say that the strong yen will most likely make Toyota follow the example of rival Nissan. When Carlos Ghosn became its CEO in 2000, he made reducing costs and returning the company to profitability his number one priority– and he succeeded.
“Toyota must be feeling the pressure of the strong yen the hardest”, says Ataku. “It may have to do what Ghosn did with Nissan’s part supply chain 10 years ago, and search for the cheapest possible options.”
The strong yen hit Toyota the hardest since it continues to manufacture almost half of its cars at its local factories (nearly 3 million units out of a 7.3 million total in fiscal year 2011). In comparison, Nissan builds just 25% of its cars at home and Honda 26%.

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