Honda to spend $355 million in Ohio plant upgrades

The massive and destructive earthquake that struck Japan has left the automobile industry in complete disarray.  The supply chain management system of leading auto makers has been completely thrown off gear.  Adding to their cup of woes, the exchange rate problems related to currency, has also affected leading car makers.  All leading car makers including Honda have been troubled by the turn of events due to the massive earthquake.

Honda is trying to recover its losses incurred in Japan by concentrating and investing more on its North American car plants.  This move has been hailed as positive and welcomed by the car industry in general.  Honda plans to invest a whopping $355 million to increase its manufacturing capacity at Ohio in the United States.

Honda’s car plants in North America

Honda plans to pump in a good $166 million in to its car plant at East liberty.  Honda has one more car plant at Marysville which would be receiving a good $64 million.  Honda is making a huge effort to reinforce their car operations in the United States as their cars were the first to hit the roads of United States.  The engineering facility of Honda at Raymond is also going to see improvements in its wind tunnel.  But Honda has not declared the exact cost of the improvements to be carried out at Raymond.

The factories of Honda at North America are undergoing a complete makeover, with Honda planning to optimize their production at all their factories across North America.  Honda faced a huge shortage of parts in March and this led to a 2.6 percent fall in the sales at United States in the month of July.  The market share of Honda fell to 9.3 percent which at one time was a good 10.6 percent.

The manufacturing units and engineering facilities of Honda are highly advanced with the use of latest state of the art technologies.  Honda opened its manufacturing units in United States much before the other giant car makers like Nissan and Toyota.  This definitely gives an edge to Honda over other car makers.  During the downturn, Honda also had to incur huge losses and its output across its car plants at Mexico, Canada and United States fell by 26 percent.  Even in terms of car units, Honda which produced 754,807 last year could only manufacture 559,981 car units. Read more »

Useful information about Japanese Auctions

Everyone loves to buy quality products at auction sales and this thought must have definitely come to your mind.  You must try to purchase quality commodities at Japan auctions.  The range of products sold on Japanese auctions is immense and you can buy varied products such as gadgets, appliances, motorcycle parts and many more things. The auction prices at these Japanese auctions are generally much less than those offered at supermarkets and malls.

Buying goods at Japanese auctions

Although, you can buy products at a much lower price at the auctions, it is an uphill task.  You must take right steps while negotiating the price of products and it is not easy.  You must learn some useful tips from the information given below.

To make your job easy, you must visit the Yahoo Japan auction website which is very popular.  You can use this site for shopping online.  If you do not understand the Japanese language and still want to buy the products at Yahoo Japan auctions, then you must definitely visit Easy auction Japan (EAJ) website.  This site is specially designed for people living overseas and this site provides services in English language.  Everybody is welcome to visit and place their request on this site.  You can bid for any product of your choice and get it.

At Easy auction Japan, you can choose products from various categories and range.  Some of the popular categories are music, sports, motorcycle and car parts, hobbies, fashion, home appliances and computers.  At EAJ, you can bid in English and the items are delivered to your doorstep.  In order to sell your items and bid for products on EAJ, you first need to register an account with EAJ.  At EAJ, all the payments would be made through Paypal.

Once you finish buying a particular product, EAJ sees to it that the product reaches your house properly.  If you buy more than one item from different sellers or stores, EAJ will club these items together and pack them in a single box.  Then this box is sent to you.  By doing this, EAJ helps you to save money on shipping.

You can also buy plenty of products at eBay Japan where the details of the most famous items are given.  You also come to know about the various consumer choices and preferences.  This platform also provides you a great opportunity to start your own business.  You must definitely make use of this great opportunity.

To sum up, Japan auctions is the best place where you can sell and bid for items.  All this can be done in English language if you are residing outside Japan.  You also do not have to worry about shipping as the goods safely reach your doorstep.

Should you buy Cars at Yahoo or Ebay Japan Auctions?

However, you should exercise care when buying something expensive. Though PayPal offers you protection to a large degree, not every one is honest.  You should refrain buying used cars or motorcycles from these auction sites, because you will not know what you are buying. The sellers are not professional sellers. Also, they may not know the complications involved in shipping of motorcycles and cars.

New Toyota Prius models to offer AC outlets for Home Appliances

The devastating earthquake which shook Japan has also resulted in widespread power crisis.  The Japanese households are the worst hit as they are not able to run their household appliances for their daily needs.  Toyota which is known for introducing its cars with innovative features has hit upon a novel idea.  The following year, Toyota is planning to introduce the Prius hybrid electric car which comes with a 1,500 watt AC power outlet.  The power derived from this electric car is sufficient to run your household appliances for a good two days.

Toyota Prius – Power for your camping needs

The new Toyota Prius hybrid electric car will have an optional AC power point.  The batteries of the new hybrid electric car have enormous energy storage capacity.  The energy capacity of the batteries is so huge that it acts as a backup generator for your entire house.  Not only this, you can also derive power from the batteries when you are out on camping expeditions.  The power derived from the batteries of the new hybrid electric car is good enough to power a makeshift camp.  The batteries of the new Toyota Prius car model can deliver power up to 1500 watts and that too constantly.  If the gas tank is full, you will get unlimited supply of power for two days.

Toyota also conducted a demonstration wherein the Prius hatchback powered the household electric appliances like desk lamp, fan, hotpot and refrigerator.  This is definitely a great boon for Japanese households affected due to power crisis.  An onboard inverter has also been fitted to the Toyota Prius to change the current from DC in the batteries to AC.  This is because the household electric appliances run on AC current.

The huge energy storage capacity of the batteries of the new hybrid model is sufficient to power large appliances like microwaves and fridges.  Due to different regulations and voltage requirements, this new technology of Toyota Prius hybrid electric car model would be available only in Japan in the initial stages.  But all this has definitely caught the imagination of the individuals world over.

Toyota Prius – Source of Power in Emergencies

The Gulf coast is a great market for Toyota Prius hybrid electric cars as these places are constantly hit by hurricanes and it takes days for restoring power.  Using the car battery as backup for your entire house or using it to power your household appliances is a great way of running the household chores when there is power shortage.  In the next few years, Toyota has also decided to introduce this power backup option in its American cars.  Definitely, the proud car owners would feel overjoyed at this great development.

Google deploys street view cars in earthquake hit Japan

Japan was rattled by earthquake and later hit by the ferocious tsunami in March this year.  The fury of these two natural calamities led to widespread loss of property, human lives and displaced thousands of people.  People began to panic on not being able to locate their near and dear ones.  The extent of the damage was so huge that several towns and cities were completely destroyed.  It was not humanly possible to gauge the extent of damage to human lives and property.  Google is now helping the people of Japan in the quake hit areas with rebuilding efforts with their street view cars .

In order to help Japan and the people at large, Google began to deploy street view cars.  The street view car is fitted with nine cameras on its top for the sole purpose of clicking digital images.  These hi-tech cameras can capture the 360 degree panoramic view of the earthquake hit areas.  One of the worst earthquake hit areas in Japan is Kessennuma and the Google street view cars have been deployed on the streets of Kesennuma.  Apart from the earthquake ravaged Kesennuma, the street view car is also being deployed in other earthquake hit towns of Japan.

The street view cars would not only help to ascertain the damage caused due to earthquake but it would also help in monitoring the reconstruction work. Initially, the Japanese people looked at street view cars with great apprehension.  The Japanese people by nature are very private people and do not entertain any intrusion in to their private lives.  The street view cars can capture almost any kind of detail.  In fact, the street view cars were allowed to ply only after they removed all the detailed images and replaced them with less detailed ones. Read more »

Japan car makers to start hiring again

The devastating earthquake and the ferocious tsunami have left the car manufacturing industry shattered with acute shortage of auto parts.  If this were not enough, the backlog of orders has also increased manifold.  In order to solve all the problems and in an attempt to reach the original production capacity, giant car maker Toyota along with all the car manufacturing companies has decided to hire contract workers.  This definitely sounds reasonable as this would help the companies to reach their original production levels.

You would be amazed to know that Toyota is planning to hire a good four thousand workers at all its factories across Japan.  The company first aims to achieve its domestic target by the beginning of October.  Toyota has decided to start hiring the contract workers from the middle of July.  The hired workers would be working across all the factories throughout Japan. After almost a good one and a half years, Toyota will be again recruiting workers.  Toyota is mainly hiring these workers to work at the vehicle assembly section and the part manufacturing section.

Japanese car makers to hire contract workers to up production

Honda too is planning in a big way to recruit contract workers.  The basic idea is to recruit about one thousand workers and this definitely would help Honda to increase its output in the later part of the year.  Apart from this, Honda has also decided to renew the contracts of the present workers.  By July end, Nissan has also decided to increase its count of contract workers by two hundred across its five plants in Japan.

Although the giant automakers and all other Japanese car makers have decided to hire contract workers, the Japanese auto industry is cautious and uncertain.  Read more »

Toyota plans to return to 1 million sales this year

The massive earthquake that hit Japan this year in March halted the production of the Japanese automakers Toyota.  The company which is known for building 38 % cars in Japan as compared to 25 % of Honda and Nissan is all set to revive its pre-earthquake production level to 1 million cars in Europe.

The announcement was made by the officials of the Toyota automakers recently during a meet with their suppliers.  The earthquake and tsunami which damaged their plants of key parts in northeastern Japan disrupted their production to a great extent.  However, the most affected automobile company during the earthquake has made a rapid recovery to get back to its position.

With its quick come back Toyota shows its ability and spirit and promises to get back to their original level of sales production in Europe.  By returning to their original production level Toyota intends to wipe off the damage of 40, 000 units of its production lost in Europe as the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.

Despite the economic crisis strike the whole European market last year, Toyota managed to sell 808,000 vehicles in Europe.  Toyota’ regional chief Didier Leroy said that the sales are going to be much higher this year.  The company spokesperson also informed that the company will get back to 90 % of its pre-quake sales level.  The automakers are returning faster to their estimated productions than anticipated.

However, production at Toyota is returning to pre-quake levels faster than the company anticipated, with output in June likely to reach 90 percent of pre-quake levels, a company spokesman confirmed last week.

Japanese cars dominate driver satisfaction poll

According to the 2011 UK Ownership of Vehicle Satisfaction survey conducted by What Car? Magazine and JD Power and Associates, Japanese cars dominate the driver satisfaction survey for the consecutive eleven years. Leaving Ford and Vauxhall far behind, Japanese cars seized the seven of the top ten models.

The top rated models appeared to be Lexus IS which incidentally also captured the top position in the satisfaction table of manufacturers in the survey. Besides, a gain of 845 points in 1000 made Lexus IS top the charts for continuous eleventh year. Praises are pouring in for this particular model indicating a possible influence on the buyers.

On the second number in the list was placed the Honda Accord with a score of 833 points. Lexus Rx. Honda CR-V, Toyota Prius and Toyota RAV4 occupied the subsequent ranks of 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th respectively by 16, 500 car holders. The Volvo S4O, Mercedes Benz E-class, BMW 5 Series and Honda Jazz were next in the survey.

Ford Ka faded away with a failure to make any impact and pushed itself to the last choice for most of the buyers along with Vauxhall Corsa and Kia Rio. Reportedly it was even the worst car of all the brands in the survey and has not at all impressed the car owners. The survey doers also criticized Vauxhall for not having even a single car that would be at par the average score of the industry.   Even manufacturers chose to dispel Honda and Lexus as their most cherished brands.

Jim Holder editor of What Car? Magazine exclaimed that it is indeed good that buyers are getting more drawn toward the car market. In a way that means that the car manufacturers are surely striking the right note with the customers. Every buyer wants a reliable car which is cost efficient with low repair and maintenance cost. With Lexus topping the survey for a stretch of eleven years, it is more than a cause of worry to the other brand to improve their products and build a rapport with their customers again.

According to sources, the satisfaction with ownership has improved owing to the increased premiums of insurance, competitive prices and pressure during a year.

Toyota Unveils Hybrid Wagon Prius Alpha

Toyota has recently launched Prius A hybrid, their all new seven seat car in Japan.  However it has been announced that the buyers have to wait for a couple of days before they get to own their Prius A as the supply chain has been disrupted by the recent earthquake that hit Japan in March this year.

During the launch, Toyota revealed it has taken orders for 25,000 models of the new Prius Alpha which is a wagon version of the ultra-efficient Prius.  Although Toyota had had projected it will come up with 3000 models per month, the initial reservations seems to outstrip the same.  A variety of several configurations including 5-seat and 7- seat versions of the car will be available in Japan.

The 5-seat version will have a battery of Nickel-Metal Hybrid whereas the 7-seat will have a equi-powered Lithium-Ion battery, the more compact one and shall be placed between the passenger and the driver in the central console.  Toyota Prius A is efficiently bigger in size and hence will witness a slight decrease in the fuel efficiency.

Toyota Hybrid System II and an Atkinson cycle engine of 1.8 litres are the added features of the new vehicle.  It produces approx. 89g/km of CO2 with its fuel efficiency of 73mpg.  Under the Regulations Concerning Rational Use of Energy, the Prius A exceeds the fuel efficiency of Japan in 2010 and meets the fuel efficiency of Japan in 2015.

Toyota made use of its Eco-Vehicle Assessment System to process methods & adhesives for internal parts and review materials.  Another feature is the hybrid indicator system along with the electric vehicle driving indicator which helps to show when the petrol engine shuts down and the electric motor powers the vehicle.

Prius V- the 5-seat model is about to be launched in Northern America much later than the scheduled date.  Though supply of Prius + has been significantly disrupted in the European market due to the earthquake. Customers willing to buy in Europe would still have to wait as the launch will be made in Europe in mid 2012.  Surprisingly, Toyota can build only 1000 of the 7-seaters model per month but it has received orders for over 7000 models.

Toyota Motors feel that US is going to have a different experience with the 7-seated Prius.  As of now selling million hybrids seems to be Toyota’s Primary focus. Currently it is fighting the delay of eleven months before it hits the market for deliveries.

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