Canadian Government Will Investigate Toyota

Just to clarify, we are not suggesting that the above cash was caused by the Prius or that it had faulty brakes. It’s more of a symbol of how Toyota’s direction is looking at the moment. Case in point, investigations galore. (And yes, that is a Tesla roadster involved in the crash).

President of Toyota Akio Toyoda is currently in Washington to testify against allegations that Toyota knew of recent sticking gas pedal and faulty brake issues prior to the recall, yet chose not to act. He is also offering apologies to all Toyota customers, especially to those injured or even killed in Toyota’s that needed to be recalled. The NHTSA is investigating Toyota’s actions in the matter.

The Canadian government seems to be following suit as they plan to hold similar hearings commencing March 3, with the full support of the opposition parties.

Although the purpose of the hearing isn’t exactly to place blame on anyone (how Canadian of them), the government wants to know how this happened, how it went undetected and what can be done to prevent a similar situation in the future.

All we can say is if Toyota knew of these problems and chose not to act, then they are getting what’s coming to them. They should’ve taken a page from David Letterman and came right out with it -it would’ve blown over a lot sooner. If they honestly didn’t know a thing before hand, then that means there needs to be a serious overhaul in every single department in Toyota to ensure this does not happen again.

Spyker’s Ties to Russian Mafia Prevented Original Saab Deal?

By now you’ve already heard about Saab being saved from certain demise thanks to Dutch supercar company, Spyker.

Spyker originally was rejected on its first bid but won the Swedish brand thanks to a revamped second bid that addressed some of GM’s concerns.

As a part of the new deal, GM made the odd request that Spyker Chairman Vladamir Antonov be removed from the company. Since Antonov is clearly Russian, it was speculated that this request was made so that GM technology wouldn’t fall into Russian hands (apparently there’s still some bad blood between America and Russia…who knew?)

As a result Antonov was asked to step down, and voila – Spyker got themselves a premium car brand for $75 million.

But new reports are surfacing as the the ‘real’ reason for Antonov’s removal. Find out more after the jump.

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GM Kicks Toyota While They’re Down

To say the automotive business is a tough business is quite an understatement. No one knows this better than GM.

Things got so bad that they had to run to the government, with promises of change,to ask for money or else the entire company would go bankrupt. And both American and Canadian governments gave the A-OK to the loan, despite lots of public outrage at the mere notion of a bailout.

But now that GM is semi-back on its feet, and paying back those loans, it seems that they have all but forgotten what it’s like to be down on your luck as they are aiming at taking advantage of Toyota’s misfortune.

GM is offering Toyota owners some incentives if they jump ship. From now until the end of February, if you take in your Toyota and buy a Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC vehicle you can choose from three different incentives.

Find out what they are after the jump

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