Toyota Automotive Car

Toyota automotive car announced in the days past economic performance for the third quarter 2009 showing a dramatic slump in profits and amounting to 69% compared to the same period last year. The largest manufacturer in the world were particularly affected by the drastic contraction of the global car market and saw its share of sales fall 8% equity in a year and losing profits

September Sales USA: Chrysler up 61%, Hyundai +44%, Ford +40% and GM +11%

The numbers are in for the month of September, and for the most part, they're looking good as industry wide deliveries were up 28% over a year ago according to a report from Autonews. Chrysler Group exec should be feeling extra happy as sales soared 61 percent over the same month a year ago, rising from 62,197 to 100,077 units.

Ford Motor Co, which includes the Ford, Mercury and Lincoln brands, recorded a 40 percent gain in September with sales of 160,375 units, whilst deliveries at GM climbed a far less impressive 11 percent from a year earlier to 173,031 units.

The Hyundai Group (Hyundai and Kia) had yet another solid month posting sales of 76,627 vehicles, which represents a 44 percent increase over last year.

With a few exceptions such as Suzuki, which saw its sales slide 12 percent to an embarrassing 1,641 units (even Porsche sold more cars - 1,971 units recording a 25 percent increase), and Volvo, which reported sales of 4,152 units, a 12 percent decrease from last year, most automakers posted gains:

Toyota Group (+17% - however, Lexus was down 8,9%), Honda (+26%), Mitsubishi (+5%), BMW Group (+20.5%), Mercedes-Benz Group (+15%), VW/Audi (+14%) and Nissan/Infiniti (+34%).

Source: Autonews (sub. req)

Toyota responds to concerned owners

2010 Toyota Camry – Click above for high-res image gallery

If you didn't think that Toyota has been getting a lot of 'unintended acceleration' questions from concerned customers, this might change your mind. The Japanese automaker has posted a short release on the company's media website called "Why is my car doing this?" that explains how technology in cars today can "cause engine rpm to increase slightly without warning." The informative little missive explains how cold start idle-up, transmission shift, catalytic converter protection, air conditioning idle-up and power steering idle up can raise the pulse of your engine.

We were hoping that the rest of the world already knew that, for example, jamming the A/C when it is hot will cause the engine to rev a bit higher, or that starting your vehicle when it's cold outside will cause the engine to race for a few minutes. Guess not. Our favorite example is for protection of the catalytic converter. Toyota tells us that, on manual transmission models, the engine control computer will "keep the engine rpm above idle as the driver shifts between fifth and sixth gear at high speeds" to prolong the life of the emissions component.

While the list of reasons your engine may idle may sound incredibly obvious, it suggests that some customers are a bit skittish every time they turn on their Toyota, and that can't be good. Hit the jump to read for yourself.

Autoblog gets seat and simulation time with Toyota's newest safety technology

Inside Toyota's Higashi-Fuji tech center – Click above for high-res image gallery

Sitting in the shadow of Mount Fuji, Toyota's Higashi-Fuji technical center is part proving grounds and part engineering center. But unlike most facilities, Higashi-Fuji includes an array of engineering and research offices employing over 3,000 employees, and an assortment of non-track test facilities.

The Higashi-Fuji campus opened back in 1966 and has grown to encompass nearly 2.7 millionsquare feet of facility floor space. We were given the rare opportunity to visit the facility where we witnessed one unique crash test, tried out one of the world's most advanced driving simulators and sampled an assortment of new safety features, including a brake override system, enhanced pre-collision braking, pedestrian detection and updated ABS calibrations for the Prius. Make the jump for the full report.