Mark Rechtin See All Staff Page Recent Stories How Calif. store battles service drive bottlenecks Bottlenecks in the service drive are the bugbear of every car dealership. But Loren Campbell, general manager of Redlands Auto Plaza 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, believes he has a fix. Toyota delay could have domino effect Delays in the development of the Toyota New Global Architecture platform may mean several products in the Toyota pipeline could be delayed by as much as six months. Fit, HR-V, Pilot lead way for Honda Honda Division is in a long stretch before its four big-volume vehicles -- Civic, Accord, CR-V and Odyssey -- receive sheet metal redesigns. Acura TLX: The storm before the calm Once the TLX sedan is introduced this fall -- replacing both the TL and TSX in the lineup -- Acura will be in a product-launch lull. Scion's entry-level reload means big changes Toyota has decided to keep Scion as a starter brand with a product lineup tailored to young shoppers. Lexus lineup aims for younger buyers Lexus has taken an adventurous product direction, splitting its offerings into a traditional luxury channel for its older buyers and a new-product silo of performance-based vehicles to attract Gen X and Gen Y consumers. Core buyers are aging, so Lexus courts youth with new, bolder products Despite handicaps and setbacks, Lexus appears to be swinging into recovery mode with growing sales and younger buyers, thanks to a slew of new, bolder products. Top Toyota designer heads to Yamaha Akihiro “Dezi” Nagaya, a key designer who brought more emboldened, emotional styling to Toyota and Lexus vehicles, has been named design general manager for affiliate Yamaha Motor Co. How Calif. store battles service drive bottlenecks Bottlenecks in the service drive are the bugbear of every car dealership. But Loren Campbell, general manager of Redlands Auto Plaza 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, believes he has a fix. Can Lexus NX hit segment's sweet spot? With scads of Lexus RX imitators clogging America's roads, Lexus is trying the same play in the compact luxury crossover segment with the NX 200t and NX 300h. NX chief on re-engineering the RAV4 for luxury Lexus NX Chief Engineer Takeaki Kato oversaw development of the second-generation Lexus IS sedan and the current RX crossover. 2-year leases take off at Toyota Toyota is seeing a strong shift into two-year leases this year, a trend that promises quicker customer turnarounds and fuller used-car inventories down the road. Acura sponsoring Tiger Woods Foundation American Honda's Acura division has signed a three-year agreement to support the Tiger Woods Foundation and three related golf tournaments associated with the star golfer's educational efforts. Honda cranks up music-based marketing The Honda Stage initiative it announced last week will channel a "significant" chunk of the automaker's marketing dollars away from TV and into an array of music-related properties in an effort to showcase its vehicles to younger audiences. Tesla bets its patents on a vision of a battery-powered future Tesla Motors says its decision to make hundreds of its electric-vehicle patents openly available to competitors will help accelerate the fight against climate change. How other automakers respond to the offer could determine the future of Tesla and the entire EV market. Load More