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Akio Toyoda waves family flag, heir makes crisis personal challenge

The reclusive Akio Toyoda is taking the rare step of waving the family flag, as the scion to Toyota Motor Corp.’s founding dynasty tries to steer the world’s largest car company out of a spiraling safety crisis. In testimony prepared for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, President Toyoda pursues a rare personal tack on the emergency, saying “my name is on every car.” “As you well know, I am the grandson of the founder, and all the Toyota vehicles bear my name,” Toyoda says in prepared comments circulated ahead of Wednesday’s committee hearing in Washington. “For me, when the cars are damaged, it is as though I am as well.” The intimate reflection is a departure for Toyoda, who has spent most of his career sidestepping public discussion of his lineage.

Volvo teases 2015 XC90 with Detroit concept

The Volvo Concept XC Coupe is one of those ghastly SUV lifestyle coupe on stilt things that will be loved by Bob from the office who goes mountain hopping and white water rafting at weekends for fun. OK, that’s a little harsh. Really it’s an indication of how the new 2015 Volvo XC90 will look when it’s released next year.

One Lap of the Web: Car fails, electronic plates and 3D printing cars

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- The Porsche museum in Stuttgart, Germany contains the history and automobiles that have made the company what it is to this day.