Toyota to up production of Hybrid vehicles to 300,000 by 2005

According to Battery and EV technology News, a newsletter dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles. Toyota announced that it would produce 300,000 hybrid vehicles by 2005. It's not clear from the context of the article whether this is cumulative production or a yearly production volume. Even if it is cumulative production, when coupled with recent announcements by Ford and General Motors that hybrid plans have been downscaled, it means that in the efficiencies that come with the experience curve, Toyota is way ahead. I haven't had much time to work on my mini-review of the 2004 Prius, put I can tell you that what makes that car so impressive is the progress over the 2001 Prius that I looked at earlier. The "brake-by-wire" electronic regenerative braking is much better than before, so smooth you can't tell anything fancy is going on. The electronic steering is faultless (unlike that of the Saturns.) The car is quiet, solid and responsive. There is nothing that keeps this vehicle from being considered as a legitimate mainstream family car except for uncertainty about long-term liability.

Fast forward to 2006, when the domestic makers have their first generation hybrids out, even if the Domestic models are good, their reliability will be untested. Toyota will have a track record of reliability and will have learned lots of lessons from making a half million or more hybrids already.






: "Toyota"

2002 Graduate Salary Survey Results from Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington

What it is is what it is. The ultimate test of whether a salary is at the market rate is whether you can recruit enough qualified people to do the job.

The AOL Cancellation Problem

AOL is like a roach motel, you can get in but you can't get out. I've spent a couple hours over the past week trying to cancel aol via the fax number that they (supposedly) provide for cancellation. Busy, busy, busy. The FTC has been after AOL for making it unnecessarily difficult to cancel since at least 1996. Nevertheless, aol still makes it difficult to cancel. Just try, just try getting an AOL sanctioned address for canceling by mail. The FTC needs to go back to the drawing board on this one.


Ford and Rosie the Riveter National Park

I've picked on Ford a lot (and I'll probably pick on them again), but I need to give credit where credit is due. Ford is leading the way for the creation of Rosie the Riveter National Park in California. This park is in an old industrial area that was built up in World War II including an old tank factory and a factory that built liberty ships. It is meant to commemorate the production war on the homefront, and especially the contributions made by women.

Since it was overwhelming American production that overwhelmed the axis powers and insured their defeat, this park is overdue.

Today's News

What's this case worth?

How well can you value a case?

Test your metal with "what's this case worth?" from worldjustice.com.

(Actually, you don't have enough information to really make this as useful as it could be. I was disappointed when I clicked on the link for more information and it didn't send me to either a citation or a link to the real case.) It's worth a few minutes anyway.

Recoveries and Large Settlements.

Now you can write for Saturday Night Live
Well, kind of. Saturday Night You keeps track of theupcoming hosts and allows you to write and post sketches tailored for the upcoming hosts. You also get to write scripts for your dream hosts. Some of these are as funny as the real thing. Just like the real thing, some stink.

Saturday Night You - where fans write Saturday Night Live sketches

Walmart in trouble for hiring illegal cleaning crews

It seems like Walmart is always finding another fast lane in the race to the bottom when it comes to labor practices. This time, they hired contractors employing hundreds of illegal aliens.

Walmart claims it didn't know the aliens were illegal. Come on. They paid $10.00 per hour gross according to the New York Times article below. This included two layers of contractor overhead, cleaning supplies, and in theory would have included payroll taxes etc. - except at least one contractor admits that those taxes were never paid.

Illegally in U.S., and Never a Day Off at Wal-Mart

Ford's Statement on Breaking its 25% SUV Fuel Economy Increase Promise

Our Actions - Our SUV Fuel Economy Commitment

Here's what it amounts to in summary: To save money, we cancelled or delayed all projects to increase fuel economy, but we decided to sell more big SUVs, make existing models heavier and give them bigger engines. Eat exhaust greenies.

Linda Tripp gets $595,000 settlement from the U.S. Government

Say it isn't so! Linda Tripp settled a privacy case against the Defense Department for almost 600k. Taxpayer funds ladies & gentlemen. She was probably entitled to something, but $600k?


abc7.com: Linda Tripp Gets Big Cash Settlement

The Most Reliable Family Sedan is . . .

The Camry? Nope
Accord? Sorry - not it

It's the Buick Regal



The Car Connection [ The Web's Automotive Authority ]

Coming Soon - the report of my testdrive of the 2004 Toyota Prius


Grammatical Anarchy! - What do you use for gender-neutral possessive pronouns?

Way back in the early part of the last quarter of the twentieth century, I was taught to use his or hers as a possessive personal pronoun when the gender of the person is not known. Within the past 10 years, the plural, but neutral pronoun "their" was adopted. That always bothered me, because it was drilled into me that pronouns should always agree in subject and number. Now, it appears that the pendulum is swinging back the other way. The Chicago Manual of Style has backed off its advocacy of "their". What does U-Chi propose instead? Er, Um, well. . . Find out with the link below.





Chicago Manual of Style - Q & A - Pronouns