A total of 79,097 new vehicles were sold in April, official VFACTS numbers show. That’s an increase of 6.6% (4,833 sales) compared to same month last year. While the demand for SUVs continues (27.6% of all monthly sales) there is an increasing trend for diesel powered SUVs, up 56% on the same month in 2011. [...]
In the early stages of Sebastien Loeb’s WRC career he ran a few races in a Toyota Corolla. After the break you can enjoy a short and sweet clip from 2000 showing the, then, young French starlet forging a career that would go on to become superior to all those to have gone before him.
With 43 race wins and three constructors’ championships Toyota knows a thing or two about WRC success. And now the creation of a new 1.6 litre turbocharged race engine by Toyota Motorsports GmbH could herald the beginning of a new WRC journey. The recently completed engine complies with the FIA’s regulations for the WRC is [...]
Figures from the FCAI reveal 97,616 new vehicles were sold in March. Comfortably the best month of the year to date, it’s also a 3.9% increase on numbers from March 2011. Seems we’ve still not come to our senses and continue to buy SUVs at a rate of knots. “SUVs continue to dominate Australian car [...]
The advent of the tuner’s blank canvas that is the Toyota 86 hasn’t taken long to be exploited. In fact, all that’s left of this one is the outer shell, pretty much. Gone is the pissy 147kW 2.0 litre four cylinder boxer engine, replaced by an altogether meatier 311kW 5.0 litre V8 from a Lexus [...]
Top Gear and Toyota are shouting about some newly modified Hilux models prepared for the show. Of course, it’s a successful combination that has conquered the north pole and that volcano in Iceland which nobody can pronounce. We’ve thought for a while that the last remaining frontier for the Top Gear specials was the Australian [...]
We must have been napping in January when the Tokyo Auto Salon was on and the Toyota GT 86 TRD Performance Line was first shown. Three images and a few paragraphs from a press release gave us the first look back then. Now we have the first video of the TRD GT 86 in action. [...]
The creation of the Toyota 86 and the mostly identical Subaru BRZ was designed to revive the enthusiast market keen to let rip in a relatively lightweight, back to basics, rear-wheel drive coupé. Given the global interest, and also right here in Australia, it’s fair to say things are going to plan so far. Part [...]
Here’s the second and final part of our 2012 Geneva Motor Show photo gallery, featuring manufacturers from L–Z (well V actually). Highlights include the Aventador J pictured above along with a reappearance of the stylish Mazda Takeri concept. The awesome Pagani Huayra is also on show, check the raw carbon fibre model, it looks sublime. [...]
Last month Australians signed off on 85,723 new vehicle sales, that’s almost 5000 more than February last year. A bit over half of all vehicles sold were classified as passenger cars. Fair enough. But around one quarter, that’s one in every four sales, is now an SUV. Shame on you people! FCAI Chief Executive, Ian [...]
The Toybaru will be going topless, according to chief engineer Tetsuya Tada. Speaking to Autobild, Tada said, “The GT 86 was designed from the outset [so] that we can build it as a convertible.” Last year we showed you a rendering of a Subaru BRZ convertible. A decision is yet to be made on the [...]
Australian automotive sales have started strongly in 2012 with a total of 76,783 sold. That’s an increase of 3199 sales compared to the same month last year. Sadly, we think, the growth is due in part to the seemingly insatiable appetite the Australian market has for SUVs. In this segment sales were up almost 30% [...]
Toyota confirmed overnight that it will be entering two TS030 Hybrids into the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship. One car, wearing the number 7, will be driven by Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazui Nakajima. The drivers for the second car will be announced shortly. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, team president, said: “The circumstances for the championship [...]
Chris Harris has just filed a review on the Toyota 86 over at PistonHeads. There was no promise of an extensive drive, just a thrash around the flat Jarama track in Spain. But the hype around the car meant a few laps was still worth the trip. Here’s a few snippets and we recommend you [...]
After last week’s brief twitter preview, Toyota Motorsport has officially revealed its new LMP1 racer, which is heading for Le Mans later this year. It’s called the Toyota TS030 Hybrid and it runs a conventional 3.4 litre V8 petrol engine. Final spec for the hybrid components will be finalised after more testing has taken place, [...]