Toyota uses cash offers in bid to get rolling

Coming off a sharp sales decline in December, Toyota Division is trying to lure buyers into showrooms with new cash offers for customers and dealers. Even the Prius is getting support, after having been excluded from the brand's lavish incentive program in the last quarter of 2008. Toyota put $750 in dealer cash on the hood of the hybrid car.

Aston Martin DB9 Facelift spied

The 2011 Aston Martin DB9 Facelift There’s a fair bit going on at Aston Martin at the moment, a big change from just a year ago when the recession was causing huge pain. We’ve had the launch of the car the V8 Vantage always threatened to be with the initially limited edition Aston Martin V12 Vantage, and the news that the V12 Vantage is US bound and no longer a limited edition. The big news for AM this year has been the launch (finally) of the most beautiful 4 door car in the world – the Aston Martin Rapide – which frankly could handle like a dog and take 20 seconds to get to 60 mph and we’d still want one, so achingly gorgeous is it by any measure of saloon car gorgeousness.

Carlos Ghosn's automaker mantra: Go big or you'll go away

Size matters in auto company survival, Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told an audience in Detroit on Tuesday. To cope with the escalating costs and scope of a global industry, successful automakers must complete a trifecta--be able to compete in every technology, every market and every segment, Ghosn said during a luncheon speech at the Detroit Economic Club “No 3 million-unit carmaker can make it,” Ghosn said, explaining why his Renault-Nissan alliance forged an alliance with Germany's Daimler AG. Competency in one or two of the three skills is not enough, and only very large companies can afford all three, he said.