Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

James R Sand

Roy C Thorsell

Samuel L Sowles

A meter cluster assembly including a bezel and a meter cluster body for an instrument panel. The bezel includes a finished surface on an aspect, with at least one tab and a plurality of interspaced fins on an opposite aspect. The fins are of sufficient dimensions to, in part, provide the structural integrity necessary to reduce the profile of the finished surface. The fins and tabs allow for seating of the bezel within a trench of the meter cluster body, thus framing the instrument panel. The meter cluster body is generally a wall bounding a space configured to accommodate meters. The meter cluster body includes a lip at the front edge of the wall. The lip may provide a tactile feature and may provide indicia on a visible surface, aiding installation of a clip disposed on a hidden surface of the meter cluster body.

Meter cluster assembly

A console box includes a box body that includes an opening portion, a lid supported by a hinge shaft on the box body, and an opening/closing mechanism that tilts the lid. The opening/closing mechanism includes a main rack that includes an engaging portion and a sub-rack that includes an engaged portion. When the lid is tilted between an opened position and a closed position, the engaged portion engages the engaging portion and restricts sliding of the sub-rack on the main rack. When the lid is further tilted from the closed position in a closing direction in which the lid closes the opening portion and when the lid is further tilted from the opened position in an opening direction in which the lid opens the opening portion, the engaged portion is disengaged from the engaging portion to cancel the restriction imposed on the sub-rack by the main rack.

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Farmington Hills, MI, United States of America

James R Sand