If you don’t have a fast Internet connection, stop reading.  This doesn’t apply to you.  Everyone else, rejoice – driverTV.com, “the only automotive destination designed from the ground up for broadband subscribers” is here; as you might imagine, it’s rather good-looking.

One trend my firm follows is what we call consumer dissonance.

Social networking is a bandwagon; the number of companies that haven’t taken a shot at it is decreasing on what seems like a daily basis. But in its newest incarnation, social networking may have become a reliable and fuel-saving bandwagon: Toyota has gotten on board with a redesigned site for the owners of hybrid vehicles.

The popularity of hybrid vehicle models like the Prius has soared along with gasoline prices in North America.

Japanese automaker announced plans to double their hybrid automobile production in 2006 according a new Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. This plan will take their production levels to 500,000 cars a year.

General Motors also places well in the most recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of 2002 model year car owners.

John Battelle notes that Google’s market capitalization is now just north of 80 billion dollars, making it the largest media company on the planet, overtaking Time Warner.

Toyota is recalling about 880,000 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks around the world because of a defect in the front suspension that can cause steering problems.

It’s not fuel cell technology this time. The two automakers recently picked up J.D. Power awards for quality.

The existing Georgetown, Kentucky plant will be the automaker’s first hybrid production site in North America.

General Motors and Toyota are reportedly in discussions about a joint venture that would see the two automakers building fuel cell systems for hydrogen-powered cars.

The Japanese automaker, enjoying huge success with its hybrid Prius model, will work with GM on a gas-less venture.

Toyota continues to expand while GM and Ford look for ways to cut back. Toyota will continue to pursue development in North America with a new Camry hybrid and a new facility to build the Scion.

Another new plant will be built in North America, this time in Woodstock, Ontario, according to reports.

Toyota said that it will not raise its car prices as an effort to help out its rivals in the United States.

Toyota Technical Center USA has signed a purchase agreement with the State of Michigan for property being offered by the State of Michigan.

Toyota has appointed its executive vice president, Katsuaki Watanabe, as its new president.

Demand increased and costs fell for Toyota giving the company a 3.5% increase in third-quarter profits.

I’ve noticed that the vast majority of vehicles I see sporting the Keep Tahoe Blue bumper sticker are SUVs.