More than 300 young women, sporting curly chestnut brown-dyed hair, heavy makeup and manicured nails crowded into a Toyota showroom, peering at a Prius painted candy-apple red and decorated with rhinestones and heart-shaped pink stickers. "I'm not really interested in cars," said Erika Horiki, 23, ...

Toyota Motor Corp.'s new Prius hybrid won more than 80,000 orders even before going on sale, prompting departing President Katsuaki Watanabe to call it the carmaker's "savior." Investors don't share his faith. "Toyota shouldn't be happy just because Prius orders are going up," said Yuuki ...