Internally, Toyota calls the next generation Corolla the 150L. They call the next Vibe the 152L.According to NUMMI News (a weekly NUMMI flier) the first "sellable units aren't scheduled to roll off the line until Jan 22, 2008."

At NUMMI, the pilot parts for the new Corolla (150L) and Vibe(152L) are stored outside the cafeteria. I took a look at the quarter panel for the 152L. I could only see that the window between the 'C' and 'D' pillar is smaller and triangular.NUMMI is keeping the Vibe hidden for proprietary reasons, b...

Even if the model change for the vibe is just a very minor face-lift, Toyota will make the model change at the same time as the Corolla model change.Before we began building the current style Corolla/Vibe, the changover was completed during the Xmas shutdown. Some of us worked over the holidays to b...

This has the basis of a good April 1st joke. I wish I'd thought of it back then.Pictures:http://crunch22.blogspot.com/2....html-------------Many members on the forum are curious about the future of the Vibe when Toyota begins manufacturing the new Corolla (150L) in January. To the best of my knowled...

I perform a final inspection on the paint before the Tacoma truck is shipped. Nothing is perfect in this world, especially the paint on a car or truck. I reject about 1 truck in 20 because of a scratch, chip, dirt in the paint, paint run, touch mark etc. All vehicles are going to have some sort of p...

Robots weld the shell of the cars together. These large panels are uniformly stacked for the 'bot to pick up. But most of the smaller parts are welded on by hand because these small parts (like door hinges) are difficult for a robot to pick up from a jumbled box of parts and orientate correctly. Hum...

Schery2, I was off work for a year with a personal disability (eye sight). I'm back at work now in the Quality Control Dept for Tacoma trucks, but I'm really more interested in the cars.The passenger dept is working every other Saturday to keep up with demand for Vibes and Corollas. I'm as curious a...

opps... All three photos are Vibe...

The first 2 photos show a Corolla, but the last photo is a Vibe. They're built on the same production line:http://crunch22.blogspot.com/2....html

Scherry2, As far as I know the body-shop still uses the same number of robots to assemble the unibody. Your question reminded me of how few robots are used at NUMMI. Humans are cheaper and more flexible than robots, so there is only the minimum amount of automation in the factory. The paint-shop and...

I took some snap-shots of the paint repair area at work. If you're squeamish, you may not want to look at them, or read my blog...Nothing in life is perfect.http://crunch22.blogspot.com/2....html

If I can help you in any way, contact me at preynolds@zebra.net