Archive for Toyota

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

Toyota has unveiled a redesigned version of the popular 7-seater Toyota Wish MPV. The Wish goes on sale in Japan first and will probably come to Malaysia soon.

In Japan, the Wish receives Toyota’s new Valvematic engines. Valvematic is a continuously variable valve timing and valve lift mechanism, while VVT-i which affects timing. The engines are the 2ZR-FAE for the 1.8L model and the 3ZR-FAE for the 2.0L.

The 2.0L makes an impressive 158 PS at 6,200rpm and 196Nm of torque at 4,400rpm (of course the king of the hill is still the Optima facelift’s 163 PS), while the 1.8L units either put out 144 PS and 176Nm of torque or 133 PS and 164Nm of torque. The lower figures are for models equipped with the 4WD drivetrain.

All engines are mated to the Super CVT-i transmission, and some have manual paddle shifting for 7 virtual CVT gear ratios.

Fuel consumption is said to have improved and exceeds Japanese 2010 standards by 20% for the 1.8L model, and 15% for the 2.0L model. The 2.0L unit gets 15.2km/l based on the Japanese 10-15 cycle, and the 1.8L model gets 16.0km/l.

In terms of practicality, the maximum luggage capacity has had its width increased by 95mm. The slimmer seatbacks for the seats increase legroom for the rows behind it. Front diagonal visibility is better by attaching the side mirrors to the door panels and reducing the width of the A-pillars. Seat covers have been treated with an anti-mite agent, and the climate control system has the Camry’s Plasmacluster air-purifying technology. The steering wheel is both tilt and reach adjustable.

The Wish also adds an improved version of VSC called S-VSC, which also uses the electric power steering system to apply appropriate steering torque to help stabilize it. High spec models get features such as keyless entry and start via a push button starter. The Wish has a parking assist system that tells you when to turn the steering wheel and when to back up during parallel parking, but doesn’t turn the wheel for you itself. There is also a 10-speaker Wish Panoramic Live Sound System for surround sound audio.

Look after the jump for a video and a fully featured photo gallery of the new Wish with lots of focus on the small details all over the interior.

Click here to read the rest of 2009 Toyota Wish with Valvematic unveiled!

Toyota has unveiled an updated Toyota Crown Majesta for the Japanese market. The vehicle has a full air suspension and there are two engine options available. The wheelbase is 75mm longer than the previous series, creates a roomy and comfortable interior, but keeps its overall length under 5 meters for better maneuverability on tight Japanese city roads.

The all-wheel drive Crown Majesta i-Four version gets the 3UZ-FE, a 4.3 liter V8 mated to a 6-speed Super ECT transmission, while the regular Type A, Type C and Type G packages in either 4-seater and 5-seater forms get the 1UR-FSE D-4S 4.6 liter V8 similiar to the one in the Lexus LS460, mated to a 8-speed Super ECT.

The new Crown Majesta debuts the Rear Center Airbag that this site talked about a few days ago. This airbag is standard on all models, both the 4-seater and the 5-seater. All variants have a total of 11 SRS airbags and the Pre-crash safety system even brings the rear reclined seats to an upright position when the system senses an imminent crash, to help reduce injuries.

The Pre-crash safety system uses a millimeter-wave radar to detect possible front-side collisions such as at intersections, and a stereo camera can detect pedestrians in front of the vehicle, with a warning displayed to the driver when necessary. There is also a Night View system that uses a near-infrared camera to show the driver objects in the dark at night.

One thing that’s quite interesting is how the Super ECT and ESP system of the gearbox and car actually uses GPS navigation data to modify its gear change patterns. This is easy to do considering how developed Japanese GPS maps are, and the fact that the Crown Majesta is supposed to be sold in Japan only.

The Super ECT uses GPS to know when you are merging onto a highway, exiting a highway or approaching a toll booth. It then controls gear-change timing and engine braking appropriately for a smoother acceleration and deceleration. The system also knows the location of stop signs and junctions, and activates a brake-assist function if it knows the driver is late in decelerating.

Look after the jump for more details on the new Crown Majesta.

Click here to read the rest of New Toyota Crown Majesta launched in Japan

In a car crash we have side airbags for side impacts but in cases where there are two or more passengers in the rear, they can end up hitting each other. Toyota’s solution for this is a new rear-seat center airbag which deploys between the rear passenger seats. It is fitted in a fixed rear-seat center console, and will debut in a production Toyota soon. Another first in the world of airbags for Toyota recently was the Toyota iQ’s rear curtain airbag, necessary because the rear passengers are so near the rear window.