09 Toyota Camry 4cyl 2azfe Crankshaft (for Parts) on 2040-parts.com

Toyota's quake-hit Yaris plant offline for at least another month

Toyota's quake-hammered Miyagi assembly plant, which makes the Yaris small car for export to the United States, is expected to be offline for at least another month. Workers have completed repairs at the factory and restored electricity, but the facility cannot get supplies of natural gas, a person familiar with the situation said. The assessment underscores the long road facing Toyota and other Japanese automakers in bringing plants back into full operation following the deadly quake, which killed more than 11,000 people, ruptured gas lines, shutdown electric grids and snarled logistics across half the country.

NEVS completes Saab purchase

National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) has completed the purchase of the assets of Saab, but can’t use the Griffin logo. It looks like the Chinese, Japanese, Swedish Consortium NEVS has finally completed the process of acquiring the assets of bankrupt Saab, but it hasn’t quite got all it wanted. We reported last week that the process of acquiring Saab had been delayed as there were still issues over the rights to the Saab log, a logo owned by Scania and Saab Aerospace.

One Lap of the Web: Scary Almost-Halloween Edition

-- Just in time for Halloween, here's project car as scary as it is inexplicable. A 1988 Lamborghini Countach, actually made by Lamborghini of Italy in 1988 (at the Lamborghini factory) has been neglected like the Trans Am that's been sitting in your uncle's shed since the Carter administration. We're pretty sure there's a scary story about how this Countach ended up this way, but we're not sure we want to hear it -- it'll be too depressing.