TOKYO -- Toyota plans to recall about 300,000 Prius cars worldwide over a brake problem and is likely to notify both the U.S. and Japanese governments today, news reports said, as a top executive will testify before U.S. lawmakers about defects that have tarnished its reputation for quality and safety.

Lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker, will push the cost of recalls linked to sudden acceleration past a $2 billion company estimate for warranty payments and lost sales, customer lawyers say.

If you upgrade to one of today's most popular high-end smartphones—like the iPhone or a Blackberry—from a standard flip-phone, you might be surprised to find that you can no longer take advantage of some of the features in today's most technologically advanced vehicles. Even in Ford's full-featured Sync system, we've observed, you can't access features like text-message delivery or Sync's quick text-response features with the iPhone (when we could with cheaper flip phones).

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HACKETTSTOWN, N.J.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has rated five small and mid-size pickups and found that roof-crush protection isn't so good overall.

NEW YORK - Home and auto lender GMAC Financial Services said today that it lost $5 billion in the last three months of 2009, as losses from its mortgage operations kept the company in the red for another quarter.

WASHINGTON - The Transportation Department opened an investigation today into brake problems in the 2010 Prius, the latest in a series of safety troubles at Toyota that have confused drivers and strained the Japanese automaker's relationship with U.S. regulators.