Longo Toyota

Visit Longo Toyota during the Saturday afternoon rush and you can hear the sound of money being made in today's Southern California. At three tables, salesmen Ray Cai, Nelson Temores and Butch Gabutina are closing deals with customers--in Mandarin, Spanish and Tagalog. While they haggle, a receptionist sounds a plea, in English, over the loudspeaker: "Korean-speaking salesman to the floor, please."

Toyota dealers are gearing up for something they haven't seen in a while: a crowded showroom. After a series of recalls and questions about the safety of Toyota vehicles kept buyers away, the Japanese automaker is hoping for a sales surge this weekend fueled by an unprecedented advertising blitz and a slew of financing deals. Graduate student Chaviva Edwards, 26, who had checked out financing offers from other automakers, said she was now seriously considering the Toyota Yaris.

El Monte city officials have launched an ambitious plan for a unique shopping mall in their city: a factory-outlet plaza specializing in goods from Asian manufacturers. Tentative plans call for the mall to be built on the 4.8-acre site of the former Longo Toyota dealership on Valley Boulevard. The proposal envisions as much as 200,000 square feet of commercial space and, possibly, a hotel, office buildings, warehouses and convention center.

It's a monster of a problem, with more than 2.4 million recalled vehicles in the U.S. alone needing repairs. Yet a week into Toyota's massive effort to fix sticky gas pedals, dealers and customers say things are moving relatively smoothly. The rate of cars being fixed is approaching 54,000 a day. Many dealers are keeping service bays open on weekends and operating extended hours. Across the country, Toyota Motor Corp. says it has repaired more than 400,000 vehicles. "It's all been pretty smooth," said Jose Uribe, service manager at Longo Toyota in El Monte.

Dominic Longo, the nation's most successful Toyota dealer and the man whose name, as much as the cars he sold, became part of Los Angeles' morning rush hour, died Thursday in a Pasadena hospital at 65. The Canadian-born Longo, who started the vast El Monte dealership in 1967 and sold more cars than any Toyota dealer in the nation for 18 years, was a fixture for Los Angeles commuters, via the whimsical radio commercials of KFI comedians Al Lohman and Roger Barkley.

Toyota dealers resumed selling vehicles Thursday that were pulled from the sales lot to address sudden-acceleration problems as the automaker said lost sales and a series of related recalls would cost $2 billion. That recall price tag would be one of the most expensive in automotive history, said auto information company Edmunds. com. Also, the state Assembly reacted to Toyota Motor Corp.'s safety recalls and its decision to shutter the state's last auto manufacturing plant by voting Thursday to stop buying Toyota cars for use by lawmakers when they're in Sacramento.

It's a monster of a problem, with more than 2.4 million recalled vehicles in the U.S. alone needing repairs. Yet a week into Toyota's massive effort to fix sticky gas pedals, dealers and customers say things are moving relatively smoothly. The rate of cars being fixed is approaching 54,000 a day. Many dealers are keeping service bays open on weekends and operating extended hours. Across the country, Toyota Motor Corp. says it has repaired more than 400,000 vehicles. "It's all been pretty smooth," said Jose Uribe, service manager at Longo Toyota in El Monte.

Toyota dealers are gearing up for something they haven't seen in a while: a crowded showroom. After a series of recalls and questions about the safety of Toyota vehicles kept buyers away, the Japanese automaker is hoping for a sales surge this weekend fueled by an unprecedented advertising blitz and a slew of financing deals. Graduate student Chaviva Edwards, 26, who had checked out financing offers from other automakers, said she was now seriously considering the Toyota Yaris.

At a public hearing last week, the City Council discussed a $1-million loan of federal Housing and Urban Development funds to help develop a multiuse complex on the site of the former Longo Toyota. The J.T. Titan Group has proposed a complex that could include a hotel, factory outlet stores and a convention center. No one from the public spoke at Tuesday's hearing on the proposed loan to the company. The council is scheduled to make a decision Dec. 8.

Toyota dealers resumed selling vehicles Thursday that were pulled from the sales lot to address sudden-acceleration problems as the automaker said lost sales and a series of related recalls would cost $2 billion. That recall price tag would be one of the most expensive in automotive history, said auto information company Edmunds. com. Also, the state Assembly reacted to Toyota Motor Corp.'s safety recalls and its decision to shutter the state's last auto manufacturing plant by voting Thursday to stop buying Toyota cars for use by lawmakers when they're in Sacramento.

Visit Longo Toyota during the Saturday afternoon rush and you can hear the sound of money being made in today's Southern California. At three tables, salesmen Ray Cai, Nelson Temores and Butch Gabutina are closing deals with customers--in Mandarin, Spanish and Tagalog. While they haggle, a receptionist sounds a plea, in English, over the loudspeaker: "Korean-speaking salesman to the floor, please."

El Monte city officials have launched an ambitious plan for a unique shopping mall in their city: a factory-outlet plaza specializing in goods from Asian manufacturers. Tentative plans call for the mall to be built on the 4.8-acre site of the former Longo Toyota dealership on Valley Boulevard. The proposal envisions as much as 200,000 square feet of commercial space and, possibly, a hotel, office buildings, warehouses and convention center.

Dominic Longo, the nation's most successful Toyota dealer and the man whose name, as much as the cars he sold, became part of Los Angeles' morning rush hour, died Thursday in a Pasadena hospital at 65. The Canadian-born Longo, who started the vast El Monte dealership in 1967 and sold more cars than any Toyota dealer in the nation for 18 years, was a fixture for Los Angeles commuters, via the whimsical radio commercials of KFI comedians Al Lohman and Roger Barkley.

Supervisors approved a discount program for county employees Tuesday that shaves the price off fuel-efficient vehicles. Officials say the move is an effort to encourage the nearly 100,000 county workers and their immediate families to buy more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. The program, which so far is valid only at El Monte-based Longo Toyota, will place a price cap on all hybrid vehicles sold at the dealership. The base price for a Toyota Prius, which the dealership sells for $23,184, would be lowered to $21,746, for example.

The former Longo Toyota site at 10501 Valley Blvd. will be a temporary day laborer assembly area, the City Council decided. The city tried to move the laborers from the Home Club parking lot to a site on the opposite side of Peck Road near the railroad tracks but found that trucks stopping for workers impeded traffic. An informal poll showed that many day laborers walk to the pickup site from their homes, City Atty. David Gondek told the council Aug. 14.