Jim Lentz

He was the face of Toyota in the U.S. unintended acceleration crisis, steered the automaker through the Great Recession, started and closed the youth-oriented Scion brand and reorganized North American operations. Now, after 38 years in number of leadership roles with the company, Jim Lentz is retiring, effective April 1. Lentz, 64, will step down in April as CEO of Toyota Motor North America, and will be replaced by Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa, who currently chief operating officer, Toyota said Wednes

Jim Lentz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Toyota in North America has taken some time to update Congress on the company's progress as the company sallies forth through a mountain of recalls. Lentz says that around 3.5 million fixes have been executed so far, including 1.67 million sticky accelerator pedals, 1.62 million floor mats and 118,000 anti-l

Digg, the "what's popular" website that allows users to share and rate links to stories they've discovered online, also offers a feature known as "Digg Dialogg," wherein it hosts a streaming exchange between prominent public figures and the masses (those that frequent Digg, at least).

Matt Lauer interviews Toyota President and COO Jim Lentz on the Today Show

As Toyota, the king of hybrids, embarks on its ambitious plan of selling 1 million hybrid vehicles worldwide annually before 2015, you have to wonder just how they're going to do it. We've already heard that they eventually plan to offer a hybrid version of all its cars, but will that be enough? How about squeezing more out of the marketability of the Prius nameplate?

Lots of eyes are turning to Toyota these days as word gets around that they're poised to take the top automaker slot from GM over the next few years. With that specifically in mind, Paul Eisenstein from The Car Connection sat with Jim Lentz, executive vice president for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) U.S.A., Inc., and chatted at the media presentation of the new Tundra.