toyota

It easily goes without saying that Toyota Yaris rules the sub-compact car segment in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC. First introduced in 2006, Yaris became such a hit among the public that it simply wiped off the competition, gaining much more success rate than its predecessors, the Tercel and the Echo. And probably that is why Toyota decided to refresh the ongoing Yaris instead of moping it off the line-up, like they did with its ancestors. Toyota UK has taken covers of their all-new 2012 Yaris – and we are probably looking at the same “global” shape that may enter our region too.

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No one gives a damn about the next Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG or the latest Bugatti Veyron, except for kids who love posters and rich people who don’t drive much. This is the first shoddy photo of the 2012 Toyota Camry, quite possibly the most anticipated car in the world, made a worldwide best-seller by regular folks.

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Scion — Toyota’s pointless “youth brand” exclusively present in the U.S. market — has lifted covers off their latest FR-S Sports Coupe Concept at the 2011 New York Auto Show. The FR-S Coupe Concept is based on the Toyota FT-86 Concept and even looks somewhat the same.

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This phase of the year does not seem to be so good for the island nation of Japan, which recently had gone through one of the worst earthquakes ever in March, and an even worse aftermath with multiple aftershocks and nuclear radiation dangers. The nation that rests on the “ring of fire” in the Pacific is home to a large number of well-known automakers, among them Toyota, Nissan and Honda. The quake which struck the nation has also jolted the automakers as well, causing severe damage to their production rate, losing the potential production of over 500,000 cars since then.

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This drive was a long time coming. The “Xtreme” package for the Toyota Land Cruiser has been around since late 2008, with any of the LC trims and engines. Modified by an Icelandic firm called Arctic Trucks at their Dubai-based workshop with a full UAE dealer warranty, the Xtreme makes a Land Cruiser look hopped up on steroids, and is now available for the “new” 5.7-litre V8 model that debuted in the GCC recently.

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We saw images of the facelifted 2010 Toyota Aurion when it debuted in Australia more than a year ago. Then we heard rumblings from readers that a body-kitted model was now available in the Dubai showroom, under the guise of a “Touring” trim. Toyota’s UAE dealer hasn’t advertised the “new” Aurion at all, so we’d never seen this mysterious kit although we did assume it could be the same as the Australian-spec one. But today, we were at the showroom and caught the damn thing.

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Recalls are boring news. They’re in fact so boring that we only cover them once in a while now. The number of recalls per month has actually reduced since the last time we did a rundown, by about 35%. Of course, the general media still chooses to sensationalise some recalls more than others, especially anything to do with Toyota. In the past two months, there have been recalls by Lexus, Land Rover, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Suzuki, Chrysler, Saab and even Mazda, the last of which is a hilarious one.

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Toyota has already confirmed that the FT-86 sports car, the spiritual successor to the 1980s “AE86” Corolla, is set for production. This is the third concept to show off the car, a bit different than before and closer to the actual version that will hit showrooms in late 2012 as a 2013 model.

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Casual video interview with Simon Frith, the Managing Director of Al Futtaim Motors, the UAE dealer for Toyota. Topics include the Toyota Zelas launch during the 2010 Abu Dhabi Motor Show, the FT-86 launch date, the rising prices, the best sellers and the surprising sales figures for the Toyota Land Cruiser range.

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The Toyota unintended-acceleration recall scandal is famous around the world now, although it seems as if the Americans actually did anything about it. The U.S. Department of Transportation enlisted the help of NASA scientists, the same ones responsible for the American space programme, to have a look at the issues and software within Toyota and Lexus cars to see if the excessive unintended-acceleration claims had any electronic basis, as claimed by some. The engineers could not find anything pointing to an electronic problem.

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