toyota

Today’s new cars are, supposedly, much more reliable than before. It is certainly true, to a certain extent. American cars nowadays are much more reliable than the crap they churned out in the 1980s. On the other hand, German cars are actually less reliable now than the rock-solid ones of the 1980s, thanks largely to their excessive reliance on electronics. It’s only the Japanese that have maintained their standards for the last couple of decades. But even they are not immune to problems, as recent recalls have shown. We took a look around the internet and found alleged issues involving the 2010-2011 Nissan Patrol,

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It’s been more than a decade since a Toyota coupe has set foot (or tyre even) in a Dubai showroom. But Toyota has been churning out 2-door cars elsewhere for years, and one of them has finally made it to the shores of the UAE. Whether the Toyota Zelas will make Honda fanboys jealous remains to be seen.

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The recalls were piling in hard and fast during this year. While we kept up with most of the ones which could’ve potentially affected car owners in the Middle East, we simply stopped keeping track around two months ago, because it became interminably boring writing up repetitive “recall” stories. However, we have a duty to at least highlight the ones which could matter, so here is a rundown of all the recalls in the last 60 days, most issued in the U.S. but which may also affect some GCC-spec cars. Consult your local dealer.

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Toyota has unveiled the latest Vitz hatchback in Japan, better known to us as the Yaris, and the all-new 2012 model at that. The new model is said to be more spacious than the outgoing one.

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Toyota’s UAE dealer launched the 2011 Scion tC at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Motor Show, only, it will be known as the Toyota Zelas in the GCC, and will come standard with an aggressive body kit.

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Say what you want about the Americans, but they are a serious bunch when it comes to safety. The U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — NHTSA — is the one that mandates airbags and tyre-pressure monitors in all new cars, subdued automakers into making their roof strength higher while inadvertently making outward visibility worse due to thicker pillars, and is set to force rear-view cameras on all new cars by 2014 thereby making car prices higher. And if that weren’t enough, there are not one, but two agencies in the U.S. that conduct crash tests, one being the NHTSA and other being the private Insurance Institute for Highway Safety —

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Toyota has announced yet another worldwide safety recall, now involving approximately 1.66 million vehicles around the globe, for leaky brakes.

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We already spoke of the Kuwaiti launch of the 5.7-litre “special edition” 60th Anniversary Toyota Land Cruiser, but it looks like the UAE version of the Anniversary model is slightly different in its dealer-installed mods, and seemingly available for sale in both 4.7-litre and 5.7-litre forms.

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We already revealed that the 2011 Toyota Corolla is in UAE and Omani showrooms, but for some reason official details remain scarce, even as the new model can be seen on the streets of Dubai. We’ve finally tracked down official photos of the facelifted model, as it first came out in Europe a couple of months ago.

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One of our readers, Fahad, tipped us off that the 2011 Toyota Land Cruiser will now be available with a 5.7-litre V8 in the Middle East, and has already been revealed in Kuwait as a 60th anniversary model, according to the dealer website there. We are also hearing rumblings that the 5.7-litre model is already in the UAE, and should soon be found in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries too.

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