Nissan says the Leaf electric car will snag Toyota Prius owners

Owners of Toyota Motor Corp.'s fuel-efficient Prius hybrid will succumb to the charms of the Nissan Leaf electric sedan, predicts Nissan Division Vice President Al Castignetti. More than half of the 130,000 hand-raisers who have expressed an interest in the Leaf so far have been Prius owners, he said. "That's a pretty significant signal to us," Castignetti said last week as Nissan North America Inc.

Toyota outlines quality reforms; chief bows out of U.S. hearings

Conceding that breakneck expansion led to Toyota Motor Corp.'s current recall crisis, president Akio Toyoda outlined reforms meant to get quality back on track, including more active use of the car's so-called black box crash data recorder. Toyoda, grandson of the carmaker's founder, also indicated he won't sit before Congressional hearings into the quality lapses that have triggered recalls of more than 8.5 million vehicles since last fall. Yoshimi Inaba, the head of Toyota's U.S.

Used car sales return to pre-recession levels

USED CAR SALES reached 7.1 million units in 2012, on a par with pre-recession levels and a climb of 6.4%, according to a comprehensive market report. The 2013 BCA Report by British Car Auctions valued the used car market a £38.1 billion in 2012, putting it £5.8 billion ahead of the new car market over the same period. In particular sales of younger used cars (0-2 years) increased significantly, rising by 18.6% to 762,000 and reversing a three year trend of falling volumes in this age sector.