“Toyota” on The Daily Caller

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know. (more)

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota raised its global sales target for this year to 8.58 million vehicles, up 21 percent from the previous year, as incentives for ecological cars lift demand in Japan. (more)

Toyota Motor Corp. said it’s recalling 2.17 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in the U.S. for carpet and floor-mat flaws that could jam the gas pedal, the company’s biggest such announcement in a year. (more)

Washington, D.C., is known for many things. Unfortunately, humility is not one of them, as was demonstrated again last week. (more)

WASHINGTON — After dissecting Toyota’s engine control software and bathing its microchips in every type of radiation engineers could think of, federal investigators found no evidence that the company’s cars are susceptible to sudden acceleration from electronic failures, the government said Tuesday. (more)

NASA engineers found no electronic flaws in Toyota that would cause unintended acceleration, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported Tuesday. (more)

Toyota announced another massive global recall today: Nearly 1.7 million cars — including Lexus IS and GS sedans in the U.S. — for two fuel leak problems. (more)

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said Monday that the Japanese automaker needed to add more excitement to the styling of its vehicles. (more)

1.) Your grandmother drives faster than the new Republican majority — Welcome to the Lowered Expectations dating service, where nobody’s profile picture reflects what he looks like in real life. First up: The House’s Republican majority. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor promised $100 billion in spending cuts. Late Tuesday, unnamed GOP aides downgraded that amount to roughly $50 billion, reports the New York Times, “because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law.” The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward, after attending Cantor’s press availability on Tuesday, reported that Republicans may be relying on Obama to do their cutting for them: “Once we get to the State of the Union I expect this president to put some action behind the words he’s been about,” Cantor said yesterday afternoon. “When pressed numerous times for whether there will be specific spending cuts proposed and regulations put under the axe prior to the State of the Union,” Ward added, “Cantor mentioned only an already announced five percent reduction to congressional office budgets that will save $35 million.” Hear that noise? That is the sound of the Tea Partiers sharpening their knives. (more)

Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. vehicle sales fell in 2010 while industrywide sales rose 11 percent and every other major automaker reported gains. Ford Motor Co. moved up to second place behind only General Motors Co. (more)

Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay two fines totaling more than $32.4 million for failing to promptly inform regulators of defects in its vehicles, instead allowing millions of potentially dangerous vehicles to remain on the nation’s roads. (more)

DETROIT (AP) — Just when Toyota thought its safety problems were over, they flare up all over again. (more)

PSA Peugeot Citroen will unveil the world’s first diesel-electric car this week to take on Renault SA’s all-electric strategy as both French carmakers play catch- up to Toyota Motor Corp. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota recalled 1.33 million Corolla sedans and Matrix hatchbacks in the U.S. and Canada Thursday because their engines may stall, the latest in a string of quality problems at the Japanese automaker. (more)

Kyle Busch was booed unmercifully by the crowd at every turn, and called a name over the public address system by Brad Keselowski. (more)

I’ve been following the hoopla surrounding Toyota for several months now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that our government is holding Toyota to a double standard – criticizing the company for not being forthright and honest, yet unwilling to uphold the same standards within its own ranks. The recent media reports that senior federal officials blocked the release of findings that could favor Toyota in some crashes related to unintended acceleration are unthinkable. It’s imperative that the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) release the findings of their extensive testing and set the record straight. To do otherwise will undermine the credibility of an agency charged with overseeing the safety of all vehicles in the country fairly and scientifically. (more)

No, it wasn’t the biggest whopper Obama’s ever told.  Last time I’ve checked, Obama has done nothing about sea levels.  It wasn’t his first embellishment about job creation during his “summer of recovery” tour.  All week Obama claimed to have saved GM and Chrysler?  Given the flagrantly un-American way in which Obama seized the two companies, it’s a tall-tale worth taking a moment to investigate. (more)

Alexander M. Lemke went for a drive to get some cheeseburgers from McDonald’s early Friday, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says. (more)

Remember postindustrialism?  Not long ago, this catchphrase was supposed to define America’s future: no more grubby hard industries, just a clean bright world of services and high technology.  Its most succinct formulation is as follows: (more)

President Obama visited Holland, Michigan on Thursday to celebrate a potential success story for both the stimulus package and his auto bailout — the groundbreaking of a factory that will produce the lithium-ion batteries necessary to power thousands of new green vehicles built by Ford and General Motors. (more)