"It was just a get-acquainted meeting," said Toyota of the recent meeting with Ford's top brass. As if the two companies had never met these past - oh - 50 years.

speculation ran wild yesterday across the automotive blogosphere after an article that appeared in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun broadcasting the high-level meeting in Tokyo.

But there are continuing rumors that still more conferences between the two automotive giants are planned for January. According to Reuters, Ford has indicated great interest in Toyota's hybrid technology. Considering that Ford already has its own hybrid line, one wonders what more FoMoCo would want from ToMoCo that it already does not have.

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