Company weighs new luxury subbrand for its showrooms

Toyota: No U.S. Scion FR-S strippos, for now

Toyota Motor Corp. won't offer a strippo version of the Scion FR-S when the sporty car arrives in the United States this year. That contrasts sharply to marketing plans in Japan, where Toyota will offer a bare-bones edition, targeting tuners who want to customize. Toyota also will offer several higher grades of the car in Japan.... Read More »

Kia to build more Optimas in U.S.

Kia will use most of its expanded capacity in the United States to boost Optima production by as many as 60,000 units this year. The decision comes after U.S. sales of the Optima more than tripled last year from 2010. Kia sold 84,590 Optimas in 2011, the redesigned vehicle's first full year of production.... Read More »

Prius C shrinks in size, price

Toyota is enlarging the Prius family by adding a vehicle that is smaller and lower-priced than the original Prius. The Prius C -- the C stands for "city" -- is based on the subcompact Yaris platform. It uses a smaller engine and battery pack than the standard Prius liftback. Its sticker price sneaks in just under $20,000, including shipping.... Read More »

Toyota expects sales jump

Toyota Motor Corp. sees North American sales surging in the January-March quarter as it recovers from last year's earthquake and aims for record volume in 2012. Sales in the region, Toyota's most important market, are expected to soar 33 percent in the three-month period to 642,000 vehicles, up from 483,000 a year earlier. The outlook was derived by subtracting nine-month results, released Feb.... Read More »

Nissan reports strong third-quarter profit

Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest automaker, reported third-quarter profit that rose 3 percent and beat analysts' estimates as the carmaker reached record sales in China. Net income was ¥82.7 billion, or about $1 billion, in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company said last week.... Read More »