Displaying Items By Tag: Hes

It has been over a year since we caught the next-gen Toyota Tundra pickup out testing, but that changes today. New spy shots show the full-size truck running around in a thick layer of camouflage and coverings.

Just like the first time we spotted a next-gen Tundra, this one is sporting skirts, brushes and other materials to block our view of the rear suspension. But the big news is that under the camouflage is what looks like a totally new and different truck. Both times we previously spied the Tundra, it was still the same cab and truck underneath. Toyota didn't even bother to cover up the doors. This truck looks entirely different with a new cab design, hugely different front end, massively different mirrors and new elements to pore over everywhere.

For time immemorial, or at least the past six years, Toyota and Lexus have sat at the top of Consumer Reports' annual survey of vehicle reliability. It was almost as much a given as blue skies and taxes. Not any more. Mazda has dethroned them both, ascending to the No. 1 spot for the first time.

According to the report, Mazda nabbed the top spot with powertrains and that used durable (and more fun) six-speed automatic transmissions instead of CVTs, which tend to be more fragile. Mazda also didn't rely on overly fancy infotainment systems, instead bucking industry trends with cockpits that discourage screen use during driving and encourage buttons and dials that can be handled without taking your eyes off the road. The most reliable Mazda was the MX-5 with a score of 98 out of 100, followed by the CX-30, CX-3, and CX-5, all scoring 85 or better.

Other than the Land Cruiser, Toyota's longest-running model is the Crown, a large rear-wheel-drive sedan that has been a mainstay on Japanese streets for 65 years. It has faithfully served as taxis, police cars, town cars, and something a Japanese grandfather would proudly own. However, a new report from a major Japanese newspaper, the Chunichi Shimbun, says Toyota will be killing it off next year.

The Crown was introduced in 1955, at a time when most Japanese citizens could not afford their own vehicles. Most cars were sold to taxi services, but their ubiquity made them a staple of city streets. It was even Toyota's first import to the U.S., sold here from 1957-71. Each successive generation grew more luxurious as Japan's economy boomed, and the model became synonymous with Toyota's decades-long dominance of the domestic market.

File this one to the "we'll believe it when we see it" folder. Toyota is apparently now the owner of a patent for an autonomous tanker vehicle that refuels or recharges your car "on the fly." While that conjures images of a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker extending a fuel boom to an F-16, it's unclear from the filing whether the cars would be in motion or parked.

This seems to be a high-level patent, one where a company is simply staking a claim to an idea rather than having a fleshed-out product. Discovered by The Drive, it shows a nondescript boxy trailer that contains the various types of fuel. It's attached to an autonomous car that can be summoned by a customer, who provides the make and model of their car and selects different octane grades of petrol, diesel, hydrogen, or recharging for EVs. 

The 2021 redesign of the Toyota Mirai has taken the fuel-cell sedan from ugly duckling to swan, and now Toyota is releasing information about what features that swan will be packing when it arrives at dealerships next month.

The 2021 Mirai switches to Toyota's Premium Rear-Wheel-Drive Platform and for the first time will be offered in two trim levels: XLE and Platinum. Both come standard with an 8-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment display. The latter includes Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Amazon Alexa capability. Wireless smartphone charging is also on hand. Standard driver assists include forward-collision warning with pedestrian and cyclist detection as well as the ability to warn of oncoming traffic when making left turns. Other driver aids include lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, lane tracing (lane centering), automatic high beams, and adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability. Heated front seats, 19-inch wheels, side-window sunshades, power-folding mirrors and Toyota's SofTex synthetic leather upholstery also are standard.

Just as the 2021 Toyota GR Yaris was officially announced for the European market, Autogefühl has put it through a comprehensive test.

Few performance cars have captured the attention of car enthusiasts in 2020 quite like the Toyota GR Yaris. Even less have been so divisive, with some reviewers panning it – like JDM Masters (see the review here), while others are commending it, as is the case with this test by Jonny Smith from The Lake Brake Show who recently had the opportunity to put one through its paces in the UK.

Buried in Mazda's generally bleak second-quarter earnings report were a few juicy nuggets of news. Though the company had an operating loss of $502 million and sales are down 21 percent in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hiroshima-based firm has big plans for the future. Enthusiasts and environmentalists alike should take note.

Firstly, Mazda showed an image of its upcoming straight-six engine. Essentially, it's the SkyActiv four that powers all of Mazda's current lineup, but with two additional cylinders. Unsurprisingly, the company says that it can be engineered to fit any of the current SkyActiv guises — the standard octane-variable gasoline powered G, the diesel D, and the sparkless-ignition X. The big six will pair with a new eight-speed automatic and can be combined with either a plug-in or 48-volt mild hybrid system, promising big power and efficiency.

In the minivan world, the 2021 Toyota Sienna is a very big deal. For starters, there aren't a lot of minivan models any more ­– four in fact ­­­– so any completely redesigned version is noteworthy. Yet, this is also the first all-new Sienna in 10 years; a much lengthier gap between generations than usual, and one that resulted in its predecessor getting awfully long in the tooth despite consistent updates. A new Sienna has therefore been overdue, but Toyota at least used the extra years to develop a van that moves the ball far downfield.

What's under a minivan's hood rarely makes headlines, but in this case, it does. Every 2021 Sienna is a hybrid, foregoing the usual V6 and its low-20s-mpg fuel economy in favor of Toyota's familiar gasoline-electric powertrain that returns an EPA-estimated 36 mpg combined. Sure, it's not quite as quick as those V6-powered vans, but we're not sure how much minivan buyers will care about that. The Chrysler Pacifica is the only other minivan available as a hybrid, but that's a plug-in hybrid model that provides some all-electric range and carries a higher initial price tag.

Nissan is so confident in its all-new 2021 Rogue that it's bringing the best-selling Toyota RAV4 into its dealerships for customers to more easily cross-shop them side-by-side. Put up or shut up, as they say.

According to a report in Automotive News, Nissan Motor Corporation will offer dealers a rented RAV4 during December so that customers can test drive and compare against the Rogue. The company expects half of its 1,074 dealers to participate. 

There are a number of wild Hot Wheels cars that have actually spawned life-size replicas, and this Toyota C-HR that was spotted recently seems to be owned by someone who wanted to make their SUV look like a Hot Wheels car.

TOKYO — Toyota's July-September profit fell 11% from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic slammed global demand, but Japan's top automaker appeared to be holding up better than weaker rivals that have sunk into the red.

Toyota reported Friday a quarterly profit of 470.5 billion yen ($4.5 billion), down from 530 billion yen a year ago. Quarterly sales slipped to 6.77 trillion yen ($65 billion) from 7.64 trillion yen.

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. They kick things off by talking about driving the all-new, 2021 Toyota Sienna hybrid minivan and Genesis G80 luxury sedan. Next, they talk about what of GM vehicles Autoblog staff members would like to restomod with the new Connect and Cruise eCrate motor and battery package. They also discuss the pros and cons of Ford CEO Jim Farley's decision to continue racing. Finally, they reach into the mailbag and help a listener pick a new car to replace a 2016 Mazda Miata.

Toyota is teasing an overlanding trailer for the Tacoma called the Sport Trailer. You might notice that it bears a striking resemblance to the Tacoma itself, or at least the back half of it. Toyota has shown us one overlanding concept for SEMA already, but what if you want even more first-world amenities when you're out in the wilderness?

The Sport Trailer appears to approximately double the hauling capacity of the Tacoma, and the project managers rattle off a laundry list of mod cons the Sport Trailer affords them: propane, running hot water, toilet, stove, freezer, and more (though probably not a hot dog roller). The term "glamping" is used without shame.