Archive for Toyota

Reports worldwide are indicating that Japanese auto maker Toyota, will revive the Supra, and that a production model could hit dealerships by 2011. The news was first fueled back in 2007, when the auto maker previewed the FT-HS Concept car the Detroit Auto Show.

Now, words are being exchanged again regarding the revival of the Nissan Skyline-fighter. Apparently, the new Supra would be powered by a Lexus-sourced 2GR-VSE 3.5-liter V6, that will be paired with a hybrid system, sourced from the Toyota Crown.

While the previous Supra produced up to 320HP from it’s 2JZ-GTE inline-6 twin turbo powerplant (depending on the market), the replacement model could produce more than 400HP, when mated to the hybrid system. Expect the auto maker to showcase a concept at this year’s motor show in Tokyo. Keep your fingers crossed!

The Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagoya was built by the Japanese car company to commemorate the history of the automobile. It isn’t just a building full of Toyota cars - it’s full of cars from as early as 1902! Interestingly the 1902 car is the Baker Electric, which had a 1 horsepower electric motor and took it up to 40km/h.

There is also a charcoal gas-powered Buick replica which was quite interesting to check out. It started off as a regular 1937 Buick but was converted to use charcoal, as per the norm back during the days of World War II in Japan. Import of petrol into the country was restricted and many cars were converted into alternative energy cars powered by charcoal gas, wood gas, natural gas, etc.

There’s a whole list of cars on display here. Look after the jump for a whole live photo gallery of the museum.

Click here to read the rest of Gallery: Sights at the Toyota Automobile Museum

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The new Toyota Vios TRD Sportivo is here, and it replaces the Vios 1.5S as the flagship model of the Vios range. The Vios TRD Sportivo is estimated to be priced at RM90,900.00 OTR with insurance, though apparently it’s not 100% finalised yet.

The Toyota Vios TRD Sportivo project started off as a response to customer feedback that they wanted a sportier Vios. This new variant is a development of the 1.5S, the model that it replaces. What you get is a new bodykit, Enkei alloy wheels, door visors, a new interior trim style, and an optional sports suspension kit.

TRD Sportivo is not TRD. It’s a Toyota accessory brand that’s more towards aesthetics. In fact some accessories that UMW Toyota were trying out with the Vios TRD development cars such as the air filter did not make it to this production car that will go on sale. Even the different exhaust system from the development cars did not make it to the production car. UMW Toyota says they did not want to touch those to keep the regular Vios 3 year and 100,000km warranty.

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The bodykit consists of front and rear lips, a bootlid spoiler, and side skirts, all made of polyurethane (PU) except for the bootlid spoiler which is made of ABS plastic. This particular bodykit is exclusive to the Malaysian market - it is not the same one as Thailand’s Toyota Vios GT.

On the interior you get two-tone red and black fabric on the seats and door panels, TRD Sportivo floor mats, a leather gearknob, stainless steel cruff plates with the TRD Sportivo logo on the door sills, and some carbon fiber lookalike inserts on the center console. The 15 inch alloy wheels were wrapped with Bridgestone Potenzas at the media launch, and the wheels manufactured by Enkei are said to be 10% lighter than the standard Vios 15 inch alloy wheel.

There is an optional sports suspension kit that’s not included in the standard car. This suspension kit has a sportier damping rate and also lowers the car by 10mm.

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Toyota Vios 1.5 TRD Sportivo (AT) - RM90,900.00
Toyota Vios 1.5G (AT) - RM85,025.00
Toyota Vios 1.5E (AT) - RM79,425.00
Toyota Vios 1.5J (AT) - RM73,525.00
Toyota Vios 1.5J (MT) - RM69,825.00

The new TRD Sportivo is about RM2k+ more expensive than the 1.5S it replaces, which used to go for RM88,600.00 last I checked. It’s quite interesting to see the Vios span such a huge price range, with the cheapest Vios 1.5J costing over RM20k cheaper than the TRD Sportivo car. If you add the sports suspension kit, it brings the price up to RM94,050.

The new Toyota Vios TRD Sportivo is available in a few colours: Silver Metallic, Coal Black, White, Grey Mica, Bronze Metallic and the signature colour which is Medium Silver Metallic, the colour you see in the product photos published in this story.

Check out our previous story where we tried out the development cars, or look after the jump for more pix of the TRD Sportivo Vios.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota VIOS 1.5 TRD Sportivo arrives in Malaysia, replaces the Vios 1.5S!

Toyota have previewed the Toyota Camry Hybrid that will be assembled in Thailand. The Thai-assembled Camry Hybrid will be the first Camry Hybrid to be based on the Aurion-based Camry body. Currently the Camry Hybrid sold in countries such as the US are based on the JDM Camry, which to me looks more funky and sporty, somewhat like an overgrown Altis.

As the Camry sold in Thailand and the rest of the ASEAN region are based on the Australian Toyota Aurion, it only makes sense that Toyota bases the Thai Camry Hybrid on the Aurion body. The Thai assembled Toyota Camry Hybrid features its own front grille and rear tail lamp design as well as a front bumper that looks similiar to the one found on the facelifted Toyota Camry, but with some differences in the fog lamp area.

The Australian-assembled Camry Hybrid will likely continue to be based on the JDM Camry body, as indicated by the Toyota HC-CV Hybrid Camry Concept displayed at the 2009 Melbourne Auto Show.

Toyota Motor Thailand president Mitsuhiro Sonoda says the Camry Hybrid will be priced quite closely to exiting petrol-powered Camry models in Thailand, predicting a premium of not more than 100,000 Thai baht. This is because the Camry Hybrid is subject to an excise duty of only 10% instead of 35% in Thailand.

Since a top of the line Camry 2.4 can go for over 1.7 million Thai baht (it starts from about 1.5 million for the cheaper 2.4G), the Camry Hybrid would likely be priced at about 1.8 million Thai baht. I don’t think he was referring to the 3.5Q which retails for nearly 3 million Thai Baht.

The warranty for the Toyota Camry Hybrid will also be extended to 5 years or 150,000km, which is longer than the regular 3 year warranty that you get with Toyota cars there. This is to help ease public acceptance of the relatively new technology which many fear will be expensive to maintain once the warranty period ends. Toyota has also partnered with insurance firms there to offer the same premiums as the regular models despite the Camry hybrid having more expensive parts.

I am not sure whether the Thai Camry Hybrid will share the same hybrid powertrain as the US market Camry with different styling, but under the US car’s hood is the 2.4 liter Atkinson cycle 2AZ-FXE engine producing 147 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 187Nm of torque at 4,400rpm, paired to a 30kW (40 horses) electric motor with 270Nm of torque. These two are combined and send power to the front wheels via an E-CVT transmission. The Thai Camry Hybrid should use something similiar.

Look after the jump for more photos of the Camry Hybrid.

Click here to read the rest of Thai-assembled Toyota Camry Hybrid unveiled!

UMW Toyota has been toying with a TRD Sportivo bodykit for the Vios but perhaps they should also take a look at what their friends up north are doing. This Toyota Vios GT is on sale in Thailand and it features a bodykit which I at first glance thought was the TRD Sportivo bodykit, but after looking closely I noticed there are variances in the design.

Other than a sporty front bumper without foglamps, the Vios GT also features an improved (over the TRD Sportivo design that is) rear bumper with a little integrated faux diffuser design. They also gave it a chrome tipped exhaust pipe but made it point downwards!

But still in the end this is just another dressed up Vios. Nothing special under the hood - just a stock 1.5L VVT-i with stock output levels. With the previous generation Vios at least Toyota Thailand was adventurous enough to offer a Vios Turbo that put out 143 horses and 196Nm of torque thanks to a factory-installed bolt-on turbo (yes I know that kinda contradicts), equivalent to a 2.0 liter engine.

No factory turbocharged Vios on sale anywhere in the world as of now but in Japan, its Vitz (Yaris) hatchback brother gets a TRD Turbo M variant that puts out 150 horsepower and 195Nm of torque.

Look after the jump for a full photo gallery of the Vios GT.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Vios GT bodykit for the Thai market

Toyota has added a 2.0 liter variant with sporty intentions to the Toyota Corolla Altis in Thailand and Indonesia called the 2.0V. It even has a new sportier mesh grille to complement the new more powerful engine under the hood.

Under the hood of this updated Altis is the 3ZR-FE which has Dual VVT-i which means variable valves on both the intake and exhaust. While more modern than the 1AZ-FE VVT-i found in the Camry, it’s still not the top of the range 2.0 liter from Toyota as the current crown is held by the 158 PS 3ZR-FAE with Valvematic continuous valve lift control, eliminating the need for a throttle butterfly.

The 3ZR-FE in the Altis 2.0V is tuned differently in different countries. In Indonesia it produces 152 PS at 5,600rpm and 21.2 kgm (I used a calculator and this translates to a whopping 208Nm!) of torque at 4,400rpm.

That’s actually some pretty impressive torque figures for a 2.0 liter engine as all of its competitors only produce roughly between 190Nm to 200Nm. In Thailand and Philippines the engine is somewhat detuned, producing only 141 PS at 5,600rpm and a more sedate 189Nm of torque at 4,400rpm.

What you’ll notice immediately when it comes to transmission is the addition of paddle shifts, but there are more changes underneath. The Altis 2.0V’s gear ratios are completely different from the 1.8 liter version. The Altis 1.8 gear ratios are 2.847, 1.552, and 1.000 for the first three gears and an overdrive of 0.700 with a final drive of 4.237, but the 2.0V uses revised ratios of 3.943, 2.197, 1.413 and finally a fourth gear ratio of 1.020 with no overdrive gear. But to make up for the new ratios, the final drive has been changed to 2.923.

Look after the jump for a photo gallery of the new Altis 2.0V.

Click here to read the rest of New Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0V with Dual VVT-i engine introduced in the ASEAN market!

The Toyota Hiace in the UK is something quite different from what we get here. The 2009 Hiace gets standard air conditioning, extra sound-proofing, an extra interior light for the load area, antiglare window glass, and some random chrome detailing around the dash. Both short wheelbase and long wheelbase versions are available, with gross vehicle weight sof 2,800kg and 3,000kg respectively. The standard engine is a 2.5 liter D4-D with either 95 or 115 bhp output.

And by the way, did you know that the Hiace is the top stolen vehicle in Japan?

I can see the appeal - the stolen vans can be shipped out to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, and other third world countries that have use for a van like this.

Some businessmen in these countries are usually more than happy to look for good deals on commercial vans with extraordinarily cheap prices to save on business costs. These vans that are meant as cheap goods movers are also usually not equipped with adequate anti-theft devices because of the low equipment level specified.

It wasn’t always like that though - the Hiace was only number 9 in 2005 but climbed sharply up to 5 the next year. It eventually topped the list in 2008.

The world’s motoring press yawned when Toyota unveiled the new Toyota Urban Cruiser for the European market. The Urban Cruiser was supposed to help fill in the gap after the Toyota RAV4 grew larger.

Many expected a new model but all we got was a rehash of the Toyota ist and the Scion xD with a slightly higher ride height. And the thing is it shares half its name with the mighty Toyota Land Cruiser, a true blue offroading machine. But I suppose the word Urban changes the word completely. Here’s a new set of 3 photos of the new Urban Cruiser snapped next to its Land Cruiser big brother.

Various engines are available with the Toyota Urban Cruiser, including that new 1.33 liter Dual VVT-i unit that also features start-stop technology and puts out 129g/km. There is also a 130g/km 1.4 liter D4-D turbodiesel putting out 89 horsepower, and this particular engine is exclusively available only with all-wheel drive.

The AWD system is called Active Torque Control can vary torque distribution from 100:0 up to 50:50 between the front and rear, so it actually runs in front wheel drive most of the time whenever the additional rear traction is not needed. This is done via an electronically controlled coupling located in front of the rear differential. There is also a LOCK button to force 50:50 mode.

A total of 50 second generation Toyota Prius (not the latest one that’s just launched) will be joining the service in the UK this year! It’s not going to be in the battlefield of course, but will join the British Army’s White Fleet’s fleet of 6,600 admin cars in efforts to meet a government target that all cars procured between 2007 and 2011 produce less than 130 g/km of CO2.

The 50 units of the Prius which puts out 104g/km of CO2 will replace 50 units of the Vauxhall Vectra, which produces nearly 50% more of the emissions at 154g/km.

“Our vehicles are constantly being changed over because they have reached a certain mileage or a certain life. When we change our vehicles we are looking for value for money but also having in mind those targets the Government has set us on sustainable operations. Taking delivery of this fleet of hybrid vehicles, whose carbon emissions are below the 2011 targets set to us at HQ Land Forces by the Government, means we are ahead of schedule in terms of what the White Fleet produces,” said White Fleet’s Director of Infrastructure Mark Armstrong.

It’s quite interesting looking at a government walking the talk. When they hike up emissions taxes and this and that to force their citizens and residents to be less damaging to the environment, they do the same to set an example.

Story by Harvinder Singh Sidhu

The Toyota Vios is doing well in placing itself among the best in terms of sales in Malaysia’s B-Segment vehicle class, even with strong opposition from the Honda City, as well as from the much cheaper Proton GEN2.

To help maintain the Vios’ strong stance in the segment especially that the new City is here, and to prove that Vios can also be used to take you from point A to point B swiftly, UMW Toyota Motor has been working around the clock to come up with an official TRD (Toyota Racing Development) performance and styling package to offer Vios drivers the option to make their city movers look a little more aggressive, and perform a little better in the engine performance and suspension departments.

The auto maker has transformed two standard Vios’ (Automatic S and manual J). Although still in the development stage, Toyota has decided to pass on both these cars to us to find out what we think. Before we move on to these upgraded rides, lets first check out the standard Toyota Vios S.

Continue reading after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Vios S, Vios S TRD Prototype and Vios J TRD Prototype Group Test Review