Toyota To Spend $1 Billion in US Marketing

This marketing effort will be run from Torrance, where Toyota's US sales and marketing headquarters is located.

(AP) NEW YORK -- Toyota Motor Corp. is pouring $1 billion into a U.S. marketing effort in the fourth quarter as the Japanese automaker bets on a recovery in the ailing auto market.

Spokesman Irv Miller says the sum is "more than we've spent before" in the period. The fourth quarter is typically a strong sales season for automakers including Toyota, which rolls out its "Toyotathon" marketing and sales blitz around the end of the year.

Miller says inventories of Toyota cars and trucks remain tight and additional production increases are planned for the coming months. Toyota, the world's largest automaker, was the top-selling automaker under the Cash for Clunkers program and has been left with short supply of some fuel-efficient vehicles as a result.