Toyota followed in the footsteps of the Big Three U.S. automakers and has used Texas as the stage to introduce its newest truck product.. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have known for years that the state of Texas, and particularly the State Fair of Texas, are great venues for public introductions of new trucks and sport utilities, primarily because Texas also is the biggest truck market for those companies. Toyota rolled out the all-new 2003 4Runner ...

Saturn, the Tennessee-based division of General Motors established in 1991, has never offered bad cars, but it still can be said that the 2003 line — topped by the LW300 wagon — represents a quantum jump. With a list of standard features that shames some of its midsize rivals, the LW300 may look like your traditional station wagon, but it doesn’t drive or ride like one. It’s tight, eminently controllable and comfortable. There are options, ...

The latest bidding war between southern states over a new auto manufacturing plant was resolved in Georgia’s favor for the first time, as DaimlerChrysler said Thursday it had chosen a site near Savannah over one near Charleston, S.C., to turn out two types of vans now made only in Germany. The $754 million assembly plant in Pooler, 12 miles west of Savannah, will go into construction in July "barring any unforeseen changes in the economy," ...

Given that its return was as inevitable as the sun rising in the east and Willie Nelson being on the road again, BMW still has done a magnificent job of manufacturing, marketing and just flat hyping its Mini Cooper. The little darling — no going against the public perception here — is as pervasive as those wretched pop-up ads on the Web. Folks who did and didn’t know the original, which was birthed in 1959, are lusting after it, much to the ...

The Lexus ES 300 is back for 2003 with no changes in its second year after a complete update just last year. It was then, and remains today, one of the best entry-level luxury cars on the market. I wasn’t a big fan of the previous generation of the ES 300, but this new one outshines the old one, and the changes run far deeper than external appearance. This ES 300 comes on an all-new platform — the basic architecture of the vehicle — with a wheelbase ...

MEREDITH — Stephen B. Griffin, AICP, Senior Associate of Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI) of Meredith and Salem and Kennebunkport, Maine, has been invited to participate in a six-member team to review the master plan for Rizhao, China. The project is being coordinated by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), and will take place the fourth week of October. The AICP team will review the current master plan of Rizhao, which is in the ...

CONCORD — Bartlett Design Associates announced that founder and managing associate Sue Bartlett has been elected to the board of directors of the New England Chapter of the America Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Representing Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, ASID New England has more than 18,000 members. All members must be certified and have passed the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) examination. ...

BERLIN — The Business Enterprise Development Council (BEDCO) has hired William J. Andreas Jr. as executive director for the community development and financial institution that serves the state’s three northern counties. Andreas brings extensive economic development and financial services experience to the organization, most recently as economic development administrator for the City of Rochester. He also has close to 20 years experience in commercial ...

Earns NACVA certification MANCHESTER — Ken Gelinas, principal of Gelinas and Company, CPA’s has earned certification from NACVA (National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts) as a Certified Valuation Analyst and is poised to conduct business valuations. Achieving this designation from NACVA, the professional organization in the industry, is the pinnacle of extensive training and is bestowed upon those who meet its stringent certification ...

I’m sure that you’re interested in making an impression on your potential customers and if they are already a customer, I know that you would like to build additional trust with them. There are many different ways to go about doing this but perhaps something that is all too frequently overlooked is the impression that your business signs are going to make on those individuals. It doesn’t matter if the signs are outside of your business, attracting ...