KY Ready to Build Toyota's Venza Crossover

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

While we await various concept and slatedforproductionmobiles at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Toyota has taken another giant leap away from "now you see it, now do you recognize it?" auto show hype. Ahead of tomorrow's official debut of the new Venza crossover, Kentucky's Herald-Leader reports that workers at ToMoCo's Georgetown factory have amassed experience screwing the beastie together. In fact, the Camry factory's been involved in the machine's genesis right from the git-go. "Since April 2006, two dozen workers at Toyota's sprawling Georgetown manufacturing plant have spent their days walled off from their colleagues. In key-carded rooms, they ran computer simulations, phoned Toyota's top designers and coordinated a project that will soon touch thousands of their brethren. They have built the Venza." This kind of pre-prod prep is nothing new. But the paper describes the computer-assisted anal retentive lengths (ew) to which ToMoCo will go to get a vehicle right before it hits the streets. "Haddix and his team members used computer software to track how each of the more than 2,000 parts would be shaped and installed. When the group simulated installation of a part under the hood, they found that the tool couldn't quite fit and struck the vehicle. The hood angle had to be raised. Another part's installation would have scratched the instrument panel." Who ARE these guys?

Robert Farago
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  • Starlightmica Starlightmica on Jan 14, 2008
    Pictures here
  • Wulv Wulv on Jan 14, 2008

    I can't find the numbers anywhere, but I DO remember being shocked at how much Ford actually spends on R&D. If I remember correctly, Ford actually has the highest R&D budget of ANY car company. I guess the problem is where the hell do they put it all?

  • Frank Williams Frank Williams on Jan 14, 2008
    Wulv I can’t find the numbers anywhere, but I DO remember being shocked at how much Ford actually spends on R&D. If I remember correctly, Ford actually has the highest R&D budget of ANY car company. I guess the problem is where the hell do they put it all? You may be thinking about this.
  • D.Smithee D.Smithee on Jan 14, 2008
    Sounds like black ops to me. ;)
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