Toyota unveils Land Cruiser 60th Anniversary Movie at Frankfurt Show (VIDEO)

September 20th, 2011

Toyota Land Cruiser

With model cars of which Toyota is truly proud, they are celebrating this year all over the world, including at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Toyota Land Cruiser has conquered the dust, burned in the sun, cooled down in the water and mastered every challenge put in front of it. Through it all, Toyota Land Cruiser enthusiasts were always there. Fans of the Land Cruiser never let the brand down.

To help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota created small video tribute showcasing a timeline of the popular SUV as an “anniversary gift”. The video takes viewers through each of the different generations of the vehicle and briefly shows some exciting off-road footage of the old versions of the Land Cruisers. It then shows how the Land Cruiser has grown and changed over the years, while still maintaining its ability to rough the tough terrain.

The Japanese car maker, Toyota Motor Corporation developed the Toyota Land Cruiser in a series of four-wheel drive vehicles. The development of the first generation Land Cruiser began in 1951 as Toyota’s version of a Jeep-like vehicle. In 1954, production began and has not stopped since.

The Land Cruiser has been produced in many different forms. The brand manufactured Land Cruisers that were convertible, hardtop, station wagon, and utility truck versions. What made the Land Cruisers so incredibly popular over the years, with incredibly loyal customers that keep coming back for more, is the vehicle’s reliability and longevity.

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The car is popular in the United States; however, Australia is where it the full-size, body-on-frame, four-wheel drive vehicles are sold. Australia is also the place where Toyota extensively tests the Land Cruisers due to the extremely harsh conditions of the Australian outback environment. Australia is considered to be one of the toughest operating environments in both temperature and terrain, which makes it perfect to test the Land Cruiser on all accounts.

The main rivals to the Land Cruiser are the Range Rover, Land Rover Discovery, Mitsubishi Pajero and Nissan Patrol. However, the Land Cruiser still seems to come out on top as far as popularity to consumers.

Courtesy of torquenews.com

Toyota’s Green Autumn: 2012 Yaris, New Camry Hybrid, Prius V Wagon

September 13th, 2011

While Toyota is still struggling to get itself entirely back to normal after the devastating March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami, the company has a number of new green cars coming along this autumn.

It is pulling forward the launch for the redesigned 2012 version of its best-selling Camry mid-size sedan, which includes a much improved Camry Hybrid model.

The redesigned 2012 Yaris subcompact is also arriving this month, and the Prius V hybrid wagon will start to appear at dealers in October.

Overall, buyers in search of higher gas mileage should find some new metal to explore if they visit their local Toyota dealership. Here’s a quick rundown:

2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid

2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid

Production of the redesigned Camry sedan has started at the company’s Kentucky assembly plant, so the first cars will reach dealers within two weeks.

The Camry has been entirely redesigned, and the 2012 Camry Hybrid model gets a new powertrain that features a 2.5-liter four and an updated version of the Hybrid Synergy Drive system.

Most importantly, the hybrid Camry’s gas-mileage numbers rise significantly, beating both the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Hyundai Sonata Hybrid in the combined EPA rating.

Here’s how the ratings line up for those three popular hybrid sedans:

2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE: 43 mpg city, 39 mpg highway, 41 mpg combined (PROJECTED)
2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid: 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, 39 mpg combined
2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid: 35 mpg city, 40 mpg highway, 37 mpg combined

2012 Toyota Yaris

2012 Toyota Yaris

The outgoing Toyota Yaris subcompact was nobody’s favorite car, although it’s a huge global seller. From its grim interior to the center-mounted speedometer, it was slow, noisy, and just not a pleasant place to spend any time. And it didn’t sell that well, either.

The all-new 2012 model will fix that, with a nicer interior (and instruments mounted in front of the driver), better performance, and what is expected to be much better fuel economy.

Rather than a conventional press debut, the 2012 Yaris was debuted on Facebook and then unveiled at the Lollapalooza concert last month, indicating its target audience: 20-somethings buying their first car, or perhaps their first new car.

It still has a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine, putting out 106 horsepower this year, and a choice of five-speed manual or (ancient) four-speed automatic transmissions.

Estimated gas mileage figures are 30 mpg city, 38 mpg highway, for a combined 33 mpg in the manual, and 30 city, 35 highway, and 32 combined for the automatic version. Each combined figure is 1 mpg higher than the old car’s ratings.

We’ll bring you more info on the 2012 Yaris once High Gear Media can do a test drive.

2012 Toyota Prius

2012 Toyota Prius V wagon

The eagerly awaited Prius wagon–the first of several model extensions to the Prius lineup–was to have hit dealerships last month, but earthquake impacts on Toyota’s suppliers have pushed that out to next month or the month after.

Due to popular demand, Toyota is already raising production on the Prius wagon (or people mover, or small minivan, or whatever you want to call it).

The 2012 Prius V is larger and offers far more load space than the existing Prius five-door hatchback, and slightly less unusual looking. It actually shares no panels with the Prius hatch, although you have to park them next to each other to see the subtle differences.

The Prius wagon uses the same 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine and Hybrid Synergy Drive system as the standard Prius, with a handful of very minor technical tweaks. It weighs a bit more, so it’s marginally slower, but we’re confident buyers who want a hybrid wagon will gladly make the tradeoff.

Toyota says its EPA ratings will come in at 44 mpg city and 40 mpg highway, for a combined rating of 42 mpg.

Next up for Toyota’s green roster? The launch early next year of the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, its very first volume plug-in car since the Toyota RAV4 EV of the late 1990s.