Sega has struck a new retail ally in Japan this week, and a most unlikely ally it is. Car manufaturer Toyota has agreed to distribute DC hardware and peripherals in its showroom. Here's the full article from Reuters:

TOKYO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Japanese game manufacturer Sega Enterprises Ltd won a powerful ally for its 128-bit Dreamcast home video game machine on Thursday as Toyota Motor Corp announced it would sell the machine through its domestic sales network.

The nation's biggest carmaker said it would start selling Dreamcast on February 15 through its dealers network.

As part of its drive to whet Japanese consumers' appetites for Toyota cars, about 160 of a total 430 Toyota car sales companies in Japan will sell Dreamcast, which has Internet capability that will also allow access to Toyota's home page http://www.toyota.co.jp

"We may see an increase in the number of dealers selling Dreamcast in the future," a Toyota spokesman said, adding that Toyota aimed to sell 50,000 Dreamcast machines this year.

The Toyota dealers selling Dreamcast will also sell peripheral equipment and software, the spokesman said.

Whether or not this relationship will carry over to the US is not known, but seems highly unlikely considering Sega's current market presence here.