Toyota
Driven: 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport
How many Elons do you have on your Rolodex or Blackberry, hmm? Elon Musk, chairman, product architect, and CEO of Tesla Motors is the only Elon we know. His name just gets cooler and rarer by adding the Musk.
Driven: 2011 Toyota Sienna
The select automakers that are still competing in the minivan segment seem to be facing a challenge that becomes more difficult, model year after model year. Put simply, minivans aren’t particularly cool, and nobody really wants to drive one. That “nobody” part might be a bit hyperbolic, but it’s certainly closer than ever to being really true.
Toyota To Debut New Dedicated Hybrid Concept At Detroit Auto Show
The 2010 North American International Auto Show is just one month away, and Toyota has just released a set of teaser images and information about a new dedicated hybrid concept which will be unveiled at Cobo Hall in January.
Toyota Announces Prius Plug-In Hybrid Lease Program
We knew it wouldn’t be long before we’d see a plug-in version of the Toyota Prius, the world’s most well-known hybrid vehicle. Today, Toyota has officially launched the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) lease program, which will provide 600 examples of this car for testing in Japan, Europe, and the United States. These cars will be leased to commercial, government, and universities for testing on how PHEV vehicles exist in real-world use.
Third Look: 2010 Ford Taurus SEL Is More Than Just A Good Value
With all of the coverage that we’ve given to the Ford Taurus SHO lately, it’s easy to forget that the bread-and-butter SE, SEL, and Limited models still offer a whole lot of goodness, even without twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6. We just spent one week with a front-wheel-drive SEL test car, and while the overall value proves to be the Taurus’s best selling point, this car possesses plenty of other good qualities.
Spy Shots: Is This Lotus Prototype A Mule For The V-8 Esprit?
Our spy photographer caught this Lotus prototype out testing. Could it be a mule for a V-8 engine for the new Lotus Esprit?
First Look: 2010 Toyota 4Runner
Though the market for mid-size sport-utility vehicles is shrinking in favor of more crossovers and funky wagon-ish things, Toyota’s 4Runner sallies forth into 2010 with a host of visual changes, along with an all-new four-cylinder engine. The new car is both wider and longer than the last-generation 4Runner, meaning that a third-row seat is now available. (Fold-down jump seats were available on previous-gen 4Runners, but we wouldn’t dare refer to that as an actual third row.)
Driven: 2010 Honda Insight, Hardly Honda
Let’s not compare it to the Toyota Prius, as difficult as that may be. And let us preface this by saying we love small Hondas. The Fit, S2000, and Civic (especially the Si) are some of our favorite cars to drive. With that in mind, let’s take another opportunity to discuss the 2010 Honda Insight.
Driven: 2010 Ford Flex EcoBoost—The Flattop Flexes its Muscles
Ford Motor Company talks about its Plan For Sustainability at nearly every major product press conference. The plan highlights how FoMoCo will deliver vehicles that people will want to drive while meeting the government’s new CAFE and emissions regulations. Greenies and government types rejoice when they hear phrases like “enhanced sustainability,” and “reduction in carbon consumption.”
Driven: 2010 Kia Forte
While sitting around a candlelit table at Chandler’s Crabhouse in downtown Seattle, we talked with other journalists about our recent drive in Kia’s all-new Forte sedan—the replacement for the long-running Spectra. We discussed our generally lukewarm driving impressions, but still resolved that the Forte is a good competitor in the compact segment. One colleague said, “If I only write about the drive experience, it could come off as a bad review—but it isn’t actually a bad car at all.” So stay with us here, because while there may not be any juicy, exciting, sports-car-type bits about the Kia Forte, it’s still a perfectly adequate player in a segment that needs to appeal to the widest variety of shoppers. Think about the Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, and Ford Focus sedans—these cars are tragically vanilla, but they still sell in droves. And so the Kia Forte comes to town, bringing with it a bigger pile of standard equipment, attractive design, and a very low price point. None of these cars are particularly exciting, and the Forte still manages to seal up the whole compact sedan package better than these aforementioned competitors.
Driven: 2010 Lexus HS250h
Don’t call it a Prius. First of all, the Lexus HS250h only gets a combined fuel economy average of 35 miles per gallon, compared to the Prius’s 50. They appeal to separate segments, have different engines, and the HS has many features unavailable to the Prius. The two cars even look totally different. The HS has had enough of being compared to its downmarket Toyota cousin.
Driven: 2010 Toyota Prius
It has become almost passé to criticize Toyota products for being rather soulless, yet utterly effective, to drive. Prius, especially in the ubiquity that it has earned in its last generation, has toiled famously under the “appliance” descriptor—serving up masses of consumers with a high-mileage, low-effort driving experience. And while enthusiast-minded detractors everywhere may take issue with the very notion, the good people at Toyota Motor Corporation are well aware of their cars’ snoozing reputation and are far more willing than one might expect to create a different identity for their brand.
Driven: 2009 Toyota Venza
When any manufacturer, but particularly an industry titan like Toyota, rolls out a new vehicle that they say is “in a new class”, well, the hairs on any journalist’s neck stand up a bit. That was certainly the case as we listened to Toyota’s executives and engineers roll out the new Venza. But after a couple of days of driving it, talking to Toyota about it, and reviewing the data, we think they have a point. It’s a subtle point, but a point nonetheless.
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