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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.

VW Beetle Dune at the Detroit auto show

Of all the production-leaning concept vehicles at the Detroit auto show, the Volkswagen Beetle Dune's the sort of flight of fancy nobody was looking for. Nissan's Sport Sedan heralds the look of the next Maxima, which will likely trickle down in some way to future Altimas, Sentras and Versas. It looks as if Nissan will put one of its techno-retro RWD IDx concepts into production.

Geneva 2011 - Best in Show

Unlike Detroit, which generated a lot of hype for what turned out to be not as much new product as we'd hoped, the Geneva show was a true return to form, with all new vehicles occupying various different market segments making their debuts. But Geneva wouldn't be complete without the seemingly never-ending stream of concept cars filling the halls of the Palexpo. Every year the Swiss show's neutrality is the perfect breeding ground for the French, Italian and German automakers to strut their future visions for mobility about.