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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.

BMW releases X1 (2009): teaser pictures and video

By Peter Adams First Official Pictures 05 June 2009 16:00 UPDATED: BMW has just released video of a partially disguised X1 testing in Majorca BMW has released four teaser shots of its forthcoming X1 on a Facebook page dedicated to the mini-SUV. The X1 won't be officially unveiled until the Frankfurt motor show in September 2009, but BMW has been cranking up the publicity machine for its new 4x4 since a concept X1 was shown at Paris last year. CAR's Georg Kacher drove a prototype X1 earlier this year (CAR, May 2009) and in the past few days BMW has also released official shots of the car clad in the company's infamous psychedelic disguise.

M6 toll under fire on its 10th anniversary

THE M6 TOLL Road has reached its 10th anniversary but faces criticism that it only carries half the number of vehicles originally anticipated. Launched in 2003 as a 27-mile stretch of relief road around Birmingham, the M6 Toll runs between Cannock and Coleshill. However, roads campaigners say it has not benefitted to local area or the UK roads network.