HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- State and local
officials joined Toyota officials and team members today to mark the
production of the first 5.7 liter V8 engine at Toyota Motor Manufacturing,
Alabama (TMMAL).

TMMAL employs 950 team members, has the capacity to produce 130,000 4.0
liter V6 engines, 120,000 4.7 liter V8 engines, 150,000 new 5.7 liter V8
engines annually. The total investment is $490 million.

TMMAL, which opened in 2003, supplies V8 engines for the Tundra
full-size pickup and Sequoia full-size sport utility vehicle produced in
Indiana. The plant also supplies V6 engines for Tacoma pickups produced in
California and Mexico as well as the Tundra. The new 5.7 liter V8 engines
will be used for the all new Tundra built in San Antonio, Texas and
Princeton, Indiana.

Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Director Shoji Ikawa
congratulated team members and addressed the significance of the new
engine. "This is the most powerful pickup truck engine Toyota has ever
manufactured not only in North America, but in the world," Ikawa said. "The
engine is the heart of any vehicle. Engine performance and quality are
major considerations for today's truck customer. We know we can count on
these team members to continue to deliver the high quality engines our
customers expect from Toyota."

As part of the celebration, Toyota donated $50,000 to Boys and Girls
Clubs of Greater Huntsville for technology and reading programs and $50,000
to the National Children's Advocacy Center.

Kunihiko Ogura, president of TMMAL, expressed appreciation to the
Huntsville community for their support.

"We are proud to be part of this wonderful community," Ogura said. "I
am proud of the culture of this Toyota Alabama team. The power of teamwork
is alive and well and will ensure a bright future for Toyota in Alabama."

Toyota (NYSE: TM) established operations in North America in 1957. By
2008, Toyota will have the annual capacity to build about 2 million cars
and trucks in 14 plants across North America. There are more than 1,700
Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealerships in North America, which sell more than
2.8 million vehicles a year. Toyota directly employs nearly 40,000 people
in North America. Toyota's investment in North America is valued at more
than $17.6 billion.

Toyota produces 11 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon,
Camry, Camry Hybrid, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Solara, Sequoia, Tacoma,
Tundra and the Lexus RX 350. By 2008, Toyota will have the annual capacity
to build about 2 million cars and trucks, 1.44 million engines and 600,000
automatic transmissions in North America.



SOURCE Toyota

 

Damn. Toyota is growing fast (too fast?) in the U.S...

Anybody has info on quality issues between U.S. and Japanese derived vehicles?

 

Cool. Glad to hear they're assembling the engines here, rather than overseas.

 

I know the 4.7 V8 is updated, but did they add direct injection? That would have been a nice move on their part, because it would be useful to have the smaller V8 for small applications, like an optional engine in the tacoma, FJ etc

 

Most of the quality and reliability issues with cars are not determined by who builds the car. American workers can screw in nuts and bolts and other parts just as good as Japanese workers can. The issues with cars especially new cars is from the design and engineering standpoint. Companies including Toyota are trying to make more of a profit and sell more cars to be number one or close to one and are not designing cars as strong as they used to. Cars are also getting alot more power, more gears, high tech options and safety features which are often being rushed to the market to stay above competition instead of being thoroughly tested for reliability and longevity. Most Japanese cars were overbuilt or designed to last last well past 8 or 10 years which made them more expensive to make then American cars where now I fear Japanese cars maybe being built more to a price and profit and not to the standards of before. American cars in the 80's and 90's were poorly designed and used cheap parts and processes which is why they were so shoddy and unreliable not because auto workers were inferior in putting the car together. The Honda Accord and Toyota Camry are built in the U.S. and are two of the best built most reliable cars made but there is some evidence their quality and reliability is slipping especially with some of the new Camry reviews I have read.

I have worked at a GM plant and I can tell you that quality is the biggest concern and they take tons of extra precautions and checks to ensure the car is put together to the highest standards. What they can't do is ensure the car was designed properly and to the highest standards with good quality parts. Most of the problems with the cars were design defects from the engineering of the car not workers screwing up. The biggest problem with worker related defects were paint chips or scratches from a watch or belt.

There are plenty of cars built in Japan that had/have poor quality or reliability like RX-7s, first years of the Infiniti G35s, older 929s which were notorious lemons, last generation Celicas had quite a few problems, Mitsubishi 3000GTs, the older Lexus ES as well as other Toyota vehicles using that engine had engine sludge problems as well as others, the new Lexus ES350 seems to be having alot of problems too. My 2nd Gen GS has interior rattles, door lock actuator failure, moisture in the headlights, low/rough idle, suspension creaks, and there is a lower ball joint issue with these cars too, all of these problems which are pretty common among 2nd Gen GS cars are not the fault of the auto workers who built the car but poor design/engineering and not addressing or ignoring known issues.

European cars have tons of reliability and quality problems but I believe that stems from design/engineering and not their auto workers being poor or subpar compared to Japanese auto workers at putting a car together. I just think American auto workers get a bad rap for the crappy cars that came from Ford, GM, and Chrysler where it was not their fault they were given such a poorly designed crappy car to build. They did the best the could with what they got. If Japanese car quality/reliability is slipping I would not blame it on the workers no matter where it is made but on the designers/engineers and bean counters who are really the ones responsible for how good or bad the car will be.