Toyota Halts Production

This already two days old, but I can't resist talking about it here. Many people felt that the plague hitting the Big 3 auto makers was an American phenomenon. But now Toyota has announced that it will halt production at its Japanese plants in February-March 2009; the myth of America's singular auto industry crash has ended.

It's sad that this will affect the Prius. But it could be a boon for other manufacturers. For car companies like India's Tata and China's BYD, the production freeze may be an opening that they don't want to miss.