Toyota

Apparently, Thailand is to relinquish it's role as the production hub for the Toyota Fortuner to Indonesia. According to paultan.org, this will happen sometime in July or August this year.

There could be many reasons for this move, but it is most likely related to the recent shuttering of the Samrong Plant, where the Fortuner was produced alongside the Vigo.

Toyota is to suspend production at its Thai Auto Works (TAW) plant at the end of the month. The plant in Samrong has been cranking out 60,000 vehicles a year, specifically the Fortuner and Vigo models, the bulk of which were for the export market.

The decision to suspend production was taken late last year, in the midst of an effort by the company to make best use of its global manufacturing resources.

Toyota has recently update the Corolla in Europe, and considering that the Corolla has so far shared the same looks as the Corolla Altis in Thailand, there is every reason to expect that the Altis will get a similar facelift in the coming months.

Now this is cool. I'd been struggling to think of a single place that the iPad would be better than an iPhone, or a laptop. But I hadn't thought of this! These guys have fitted the iPad into a truck, and although they're not completely finished at this point, this looks like a very nice use for the device.

Video after the jump.

Toyota are due to dispaly a new small car in India. The Toyota Etios (apparently meaning "the origin of") at the 2010 Delhi Auto Expo which begins later this week. Usually cars released on the Indian market don't give much insight into the Thai market, but this could be different.

For the auto industry, 2009 will probably be a year to forget. With a few exceptions, the majority of car makers have suffered the worst results ever. The results haven't been pretty either with job losses, bankruptcies, yadda yadda.

So, I've decided to dispense with 2009 news early. Let's look forward to 2010.

The car pictured above is the next generation Toyota Wish, and based on it, I think the we have reason to believe that things will get better in 2010.

Visitors to the 2009 Bangkok International Motor Show will find that Toyota has a "new" Yaris, a Prius II "Prototype" and a 1/X Concept. Exciting!

In this article we take a look at the Chevrolet Volt and try to work out if it is really worth waiting for. Will it actually give the Prius a run for its money? Is it the way forward?

What is the Volt?

The Chevrolet Volt is GM's answer to the assault of the Toyota Prius. The Prius is the top selling hybrid car in the world. When the Volt project was announced, oil prices were climbing steadily higher, pushing more and more buyers away from the SUVs that GM had been enjoying so much success with in the preceding years.

GM finally woke up to the threat posed by a combination of high oil prices and the apparent surge in popularity of affordable hybrid cars. The company reacted in true American fashion, by setting their engineers a seemingly impossibly difficult task to complete in an impossibly small time frame. The Volt was that task.

Sales at this years Thai Motor Expo were actually pretty reasonable considering the current political and economic difficulties that Thailand is facing. Approximately 14,000 cars were ordered at the Expo which was attended by around 1.5 million visitors.

There are no surprises at the top of the sales table, with Toyota and Honda leading the pack with 4,193 and 2,552 bookings respectively. Business as usual really! Third place went to Isuzu with 1,760, which might seem like a big gap until you remember that they only sell trucks and truck derived SUVs.

Toyota Motor Thailand is currently lobbying the Thai government, seeking a lifting of import duty for CKD parts to be used in the assembly of hybrid vehicles in Thailand.

This actually comes as little surprise, since Toyota are to start assembly of the Camry Hybrid next year. Toyota are seeking to have the 30-40% duties removed, to allow them to price the Camry Hybrid under THB 2 million.

Some nice tuned cars on display, but nothing all that special.

Now is a great time to buy a new Toyota Vigo, assuming you are in the market for one of course. The reason is that Toyota Thailand are soon to update the Toyota Vigo with a "minor-change" version.

The update will, most likely, just involve a few cosmetic changes, and for those looking for a pick-up truck fashion usually isn't a top concern.

Toyota will begin production of the Camry Hybrid in Thailand in 2009. Toyota is to produce 9,000 units a year in Thailand, starting in 2009.

In order to make the adjustments to the assembly line at the Gateway plant in Chachoengsao province, Toyota is making an investment of THB 90 million.

My name is Mohamed Hasan Adnan. I am moving out of Thailand by the end of this month and I am looking to sell my Fortuner.

Car details:
Year: 2007
Mileage: 23,500
Engine: 2.7 V
Insurance: First Class Insurance expiring in Nov 2008

I am expecting about 930,000 THB for the car. Please let me know.

Please check the attached photo

My Mobile number is 0896914456 or 0898000369
Email: hasan.adnan@gmail.com

Thanks & Rgds,
Mohamed Hasan Adnan.

Either there is an error in the article below, or Eco-Cars are going to be expensive. Taken from the Bangkok Post, the article below is mostly stuff you will have already heard about the Eco-Car project.

But it seems that this article does answer a question that many are interested to know: What will Eco-Cars cost? Or perhaps the best way to put it is: How cheap will Eco-Cars be?

As you scan down through the article you eventually meet this statement:

Thailand's small eco-cars will be selling in the range of $16,000 and up.