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Toyota updates the Verso MPV

Toyota will show the all new Verso at Geneva '09 The Verso is an all new version of the MPV, offering Toyota’s Easy Flat-7 seating configuration, which basically allows owners to lower all the back five seats individually to accommodate whatever configuration they need for load/passenger requirements. The Verso is stretched over the old Verso, with a longer wheelbase and wider track, offering a more spacious interior. There’s a pretty much all-round increase in power of 20%, but Toyota has managed to pull off a 12% reduction in emissions and fuel use.

One Lap of the Web: Remembering the dearly departed

-- With news that Toyota is leaving the great state of California for the greater (by landmass, anyway; your own opinion may vary) state of Texas, it's worth reminding ourselves that Toyota in America started as one lonely building on 6000 Hollywood Blvd., having taken over a former Rambler dealership. (The site is still a successful Toyota dealership.) That first year of sales in 1958 saw 287 Toyopet Crowns and one Land Cruiser sold -- more as curiosities than as practical transportation, we'd wager. -- At any rate, Toyota's move from California to Texas is moving from "one of the most eco-friendly states in the union," according to Ward's Auto, "to the U.S.’s equivalent of China." -- Ten years ago today, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line at Lansing Car Assembly.

Poll: Spouses rank as worst backseat drivers

Spouses beat out mothers and children as the worst backseat drivers, according to 500 drivers recently polled by Insurance.com. For men, 40 percent said their wives were worst, followed by friends at 17 percent and mothers at 15 percent. Thirty-four percent of the women ranked their husbands worst, 18 percent said their mothers and 15 percent said their friends.