FLINT, Michigan (Reuters) – Guadalupe Alberto knew the route from her house on a residential street to the tiny grocery store she ran with her husband so well that her family jokes she could have driven it with her eyes closed.

It is barely one mile from the house she and Abraham Alberto moved into in 1965 to the A&G Market, which they opened in 1980.

Both are in Flint, about 75 miles north of Detroit.

The route was simple: two blocks up Copeman Boulevard to Ballenger Highway, where she turned right and hugged the right lane, driving slowly until she reached the store.

, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Guadalupe Alberto knew the route from her house on a residential street to the tiny grocery store she ran with her husband so well that her family jokes she could have driven it with her eyes closed.

It is barely one mile (1.6 km) from the house she and Abraham Alberto moved into in 1965 to the A&G Market, which they opened in 1980.

Both are in Flint, about 75 miles (120 km) north of Detroit.

The route was simple: two blocks up Copeman Boulevard to Ballenger Highway, where she turned right and hugged the right lane, driving slowly until she reached the store.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp, already reeling from two massive recalls, faced the possibility of a third when U.S. safety regulators opened a probe on Thursday into a braking problem on the Prius, the world’s top-selling hybrid.

The probe of the Prius, which has powered Toyota’s image of fuel efficiency, compounds a safety crisis that has hit its sales, financial results and reputation for quality and prompted the recall of more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with uncontrolled acceleration.

Separately, Ford Motor Co said it would roll out a software patch for consumers to address a reported problem with braking on its hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan models.

Analysts and rivals say the Prius has emerged as a kind of environmental “halo car” for Toyota, an icon of green design with an intense following among loyalists, which has lifted the public image of the whole company.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, already reeling from two massive recalls, faced the possibility of a third when U.S. safety regulators opened a probe on Thursday into a braking problem on the Prius, the world’s top-selling hybrid.

The probe of the Prius, which has powered Toyota’s image of fuel efficiency, compounds a safety crisis that has hit its sales, financial results and reputation for quality and prompted the recall of more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with uncontrolled acceleration.

Separately, Ford Motor Co <F.N> said it would roll out a software patch for consumers to address a reported problem with braking on its hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan models. [ID:nN0497845]

Analysts and rivals say the Prius has emerged as a kind of environmental “halo car” for Toyota, an icon of green design with an intense following among loyalists, which has lifted the public image of the whole company.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – The top U.S. transportation official on Wednesday warned Toyota owners caught up in its massive recall to stop driving their cars, triggering alarm and confusion in a crisis that has engulfed the automaker.

Although Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood later called his remark an obvious misstatement, it drove Toyota shares down by as much as 8 percent and prompted one congressional committee to ask Toyota whether certain models were safe.

LaHood also said he would take the unusual step of calling Toyota President Akio Toyoda to emphasize how seriously the Obama administration is taking investigations into reports of uncontrolled acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

“Our … people will hold Toyota’s feet to the fire to make sure they are going to do everything they said they were going to do to make the vehicles safe,” he said.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – The Obama administration stepped up the pressure on Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday to address a range of safety issues as investors bolted at signs of a deepening crisis for the world’s largest automaker.

“Our … people will hold Toyota’s feet to the fire to make sure they are going to do everything they said they were going to do to make the vehicles safe,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at an appearance in Washington.

LaHood said he would take the unusual step of calling Toyota President Akio Toyoda to emphasize how seriously the Obama administration is taking investigations into reports of uncontrolled acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Toyota shares fell as much as 8 percent on LaHood’s remarks, including an explosive comment interpreted as a warning for consumers to stop driving the more than 5 million Toyota vehicles covered by two sweeping recalls.

DETROIT (Reuters) – Chrysler is in talks to take back a Sterling Heights, Michigan, assembly plant that it had abandoned in bankruptcy, a move that could save about 1,200 jobs once expected to be eliminated by the end of 2010.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy in June under the management control of Fiat, has been offered a tax break from the Sterling Heights City Council if it keeps the plant open, and has until February 16 to reach a deal to take it back, Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said on Wednesday.

As part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy restructuring last year, the plant was placed with OldCarco LLC, the shell company that represents the assets of Chrysler that remain in bankruptcy and were not bought by Fiat.

The plant, which makes the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger sedan, employs approximately 1,200 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union.

DETROIT, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Chrysler is in talks to take back a Sterling Heights, Michigan, assembly plant that it had abandoned in bankruptcy, a move that could save about 1,200 jobs once expected to be eliminated by the end of 2010.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy in June under the management control of Fiat <FIA.MI>, has been offered a tax break from the Sterling Heights City Council if it keeps the plant open, and has until Feb. 16 to reach a deal to take it back, Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said on Wednesday.

As part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy restructuring last year, the plant was placed with OldCarco LLC, the shell company that represents the assets of Chrysler that remain in bankruptcy and were not bought by Fiat.

The plant, which makes the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger sedan, employs approximately 1,200 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union.

DETROIT, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> detailed plans on Monday to fix nearly 4.5 million vehicles equipped with faulty accelerators in North America and Europe as lawsuits landed claiming the world’s largest automaker had endangered drivers by ignoring signs of trouble.

Toyota, scrambling to contain the fallout from the sweeping recall on its finances and reputation, said it would restart production of eight models on Feb. 8 after a planned one-week shutdown at six plants in the United States and Canada.

The automaker also began shipping a new part to its U.S. dealers that can be used to repair accelerator pedals at risk of staying stuck when depressed.

The first round of repairs is expected to cost Toyota at least $250 million in warranty fees in the United States alone. Some Toyota dealerships said they would stay open around the clock to speed customer repairs and stem the damage from a crisis that has sent the automaker’s January sales tumbling.