According to Fox News, many governors whose states have Toyota production facilities and managerial offices are defending the beleaguered company, who has now recalled over 8.5 million vehicles since they started several months ago. Toyota currently operates plants in seven states and 1,400 dealerships across the United States, with hundreds of thousands of workers in the United States.

Governors representing states that Toyota employs people in are concerned that Toyota is going to lay off a whole bunch of people, and as such are rallying around Toyota to prevent this huge job-loss. This concern could be unfounded, however, as Toyota has yet to fire anyone and has no plans on doing so, despite congressional committees preparing for hearings to investigate the handling of the recalls. The vehicle shipping industry has seen a drop in the number of Toyota vehicles being shipped, and with good reason – some of the recalled vehicles have killed people. These aren’t simple problems; they’re huge problems that Toyota still can’t fix, and while governors and higher state officials are saying that Toyota has been slammed by “unfair” media coverage, consumers just want a car that won’t explode or start going faster than what they wanted – and won’t stop when they hit the brakes. You can make up your own mind about Toyota’s problems, I guess.

According to Auto Remarketing, January’s certified used sales hit over 109,000 units, which is actually down 22% from last year’s record-setting numbers. Some automakers did show gains in January, including Lexus, Hyundai and Subaru, though Toyota dropped by over 5% and GM dropped a whopping 44%. Other makers dropped as well, with Chrysler dropping 27% and Ford dropped 28%.

Honda rose, however, as did Kia, Mini and Mazda, while luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover dropped alongside Acura. This comes as no surprise to some, while others are baffled at how Ford and Acura could drop so much in the wake of record-setting sales the previous year. The vehicle shipping industry has been moving more new Ford vehicles than ever it seems, though they dropped over 28% in January while Toyota, who has been hit hard by this recall debacle for the past few months, actually sold more vehicles than before. It just goes to show that the American people really don’t know what they want when it comes to their vehicles.

Recently Ford has found itself in a pretty cool spot: four of the top five vehicles for customer brand loyalty belonged to the American automaker, according to Experian Automotive. The analysis done by Experian compiled industry-wide trends for the third quarter of 2009; in it, Hyundai was performing strongly as well as Ford. Hyundai gained in overall market share and increased new vehicle registration while Ford customers continued to show strong loyalty for the Ford brand name.

The vehicle shipping industry has seen both Ford and Hyundai do well, but now the numbers are out: Ford’s Fusion, Edge, Flex and Five-Hundred models were all within the top 5 for brand loyalty. The Fusion had 61.8%, the Edge 57.8%, the Flex 57.6% and the Five-Hundred 56.3% in terms of customer loyalty, while the Ford Freestyle rounded out the top 10 at 47.5%. Oddly enough, Toyota’s new Venza took the top spot in terms of customer loyalty with 63.2%, which is weird considering the worldwide recalls that Toyota has been under fire for, and in terms of corporate loyalty Toyota moved ahead of GM to take the top spot, again according to Experian Automotive.

According to www.sfgate.com, a small private plane carrying three employees of Tesla Motors crashed not far from Palo Alto, California, when their plane struck high electrical transmission wires in the area. All the passengers of the plane were Tesla employees, and miraculously no one else was injured when the vehicle crashed into a neighborhood. Victims have yet to be identified – a press conference is scheduled for Friday.

Tesla Motors is a small, tight-knit company who values their employees, and everyone at the company has been saddened by this tragic event. The plane was owned by a senior electrical engineer for Tesla named Doug Bourn, who had both his commercial pilot and flight instructor’s licenses. Vehicle shippers who ship for Tesla are also stunned, as many truckers who ship Tesla vehicles are known inside the company. Power was out to Palo Alto for over 10 hours after the crash. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those who died in the crash, of course, and we wish the company the best of luck in going forward from this horrific accident.

Audi unveiled their new “Green Police” commercial at the Super Bowl this past month, though many people found it a lot more serious than it was meant. Many companies have been looking to go green and many more are finding it difficult to go with the trend. Audi’s commercial featured “green police” of the future pulling people over for eco-violations such as using plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam cups, though the advertisement captures some very real ideas that are struggling to find a hold in an era of gasoline-powered vehicles.

Vehicle shippers are excited about green technologies, but many other people are hesitant to go that route – especially oil companies. Audi has been looking to define a sustainable car, and both Audi and other European car makers are looking to change the attitude that many people in the United States have toward diesel, which is supposedly not a sustainable energy source. But new diesels are much cleaner than traditional diesel, and biodiesel is quickly moving up the ranks as a possible alternative-energy source. The biggest question is whether Audi can change the hearts and minds of Americans – and whether or not they’re willing to commit to their “green police” statement.

According to the Auto Body Repair News, trade groups have been alerting the collision repair industry about unsafe parts for quite some time now. The new NSF certification program has known about it and is doing something about it, but the collision industry has been on the hunt for cheap parts for quite some time. Automobiles are using more and more high-tech and stronger materials in their bumpers and chassis and the collision industry is having a tough time keeping up.

With the NSF watching the quality and the collision industry on the search for cheap parts it might just be the time when prices drop dramatically when it comes to getting your car fixed. The vehicle shipping industry has long been looking for something to cut costs, and if they can get good aftermarket parts for cheap, it could be just what they’re looking for. But that is, of course, their insurance company allows it – insurance companies are often requiring aftermarket parts, and the cheaper the better. Hopefully everyone will be satisfied with this new arrangement.

NSF International has launched a new certification program for aftermarket collision repair parts, according to the Auto Body Repair News. The new program is designed to verify quality and performance with testing and inspections. If you don’t know what the NSF is it’s an accredited standards organization based in Michigan – in other words, they set many standards for aftermarket parts, among other things.

The vehicle shipping industry has long used aftermarket parts and is definitely looking forward to this news – as are many other people who shop for aftermarket parts, especially dealers and independent collision shops that sell them. The aftermarket…market, I guess you could say…has long been under scrutiny for the quality of its parts, and it looks like NSF International has heard the calls for reform and finally done something about it. They will watch the parts with the new program as well as provide on-site inspections and compare the aftermarket parts with those that come from the manufacturer to determine the best quality products, which will then go on the market. Finally…some oversight.

Frost & Sullivan has recently released new research on aftermarket brake components which states that private label brands have dominated the market and will increase market share for aftermarket brakes. Aftermarket brands have long had a strong reputation among installers, though distributors have been using their own channels to launch their private labels, which are now gaining acceptance with installers.

Private-label brands include NAPA, DuraLast and PartsMaster, which are technically aftermarket parts but are owned wholly by the company that makes them and are sold only in that company’s store, as opposed to other aftermarket parts which are sold just about everywhere. The vehicle shipping industry has long used aftermarket parts when the OEM parts couldn’t be found, and this could be good news for them as well as everyone else. Private-label parts are often less expensive than regular aftermarket parts and customers do like choice, so this is good for just about everyone.

According to Edmunds.com Toyota’s market share has dropped sharply since the recall – so much so that the company has adjusted its automotive sales forecast for 2010. It is taking into account the effects of Toyota’s recall problems and has also adjusted the true market value for the affected Toyota cars and trucks. Toyota has lost its position as the second largest automaker in the United States, dropping behind Ford for the first time in quite some time. New vehicles that have been subject to recall are selling for an average of $150 less than earlier this year and used vehicles are going for as much as 3% lower than they were at the start of 2010.

The vehicle shipping industry has been hit by the recall as well – not as hard as Toyota, but certainly Toyota’s fleets of shippers have been hurt by this, and now the company is stopping work in plants in Kentucky and Tennessee as well. Consumers are going to see unprecedented price hikes by automakers in the next few years as automakers have no choice but to devote more resources to safety, especially in the wake of Toyota’s recalls. So when you’re shopping for a new car and the sticker price is that much higher, you can thank Toyota.

Honda recently unveiled its plans to begin testing a new solar-powered hydrogen fueling device for home use, which is meant to address the lack of public hydrogen-fuel stations in the United States. The solar-powered pump makes ½ kilogram of hydrogen gas per day, which is enough for the average person’s daily commute. The zero-emission fuel is simple: it’s made from electricity passed through water; the electricity is generated by solar panels on the roof of the home.

This is incredible. If they actually commercialize this and make it available to everyone, no one may ever have to pay for gasoline again, which is something vehicle shippers have long wanted to see – zero fuel costs. Honda is the first company that has been approved to sell hydrogen cars to American drivers, something that everyone has wanted for a long time now. The system is designed mainly for slow, overnight refill to hold down the complexity of the system as well as costs to use the system, although by all rights it should be relatively free considering that once the solar panels are installed they do all the work. But we’ll see, shall we? This technology – if it doesn’t get beleaguered by greedy politicians, that is – could revolutionize the way the human race operates every day.