Toyota's 100 Car Charity Giveaway!

Vote in the Toyota 100 Cars for Good, a charity event sponsered by Toyota! Over the next 100 days, Toyota will give 100 cars away to deserving non-profits. Your vote will help decide who wins!

Toyota will open voting for the second year of 100 Cars for Good, a national philanthropic program that will award 100 cars to 100 nonprofits over the course of 100 consecutive days. Winners will be selected each day through public voting on Facebook at www.100carsforgood.com.
Five nonprofit organizations will be profiled each day. Registered Facebook users will be able to vote once daily for the nonprofit they think can do the most good with a new vehicle. The organization with the most votes at the end of the day will win a new vehicle. The four runners-up will each receive a $1,000 cash grant from Toyota.

Click to read more 

Check out the Facebook Page Here. And don't forget to vote!

Scion Is Changing Up Speed and Direction!

Scion, the lovable brand that brought us the xB and the new FR-S, are interested in offering a wider range of vehicles to suit more people from varying lifestyles. They are doing this by expanding the lineup of cars in the future, as well as their marketing campaigns. We're always excited to see new lines of cars coming from Scion, and we can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Toyota’s Scion is growing up. The marque, hatched in 2003 as the company’s “youth” brand, remains its forward agent among the American Millennial generation — but in a new approach to the target, Scion is expanding its heretofore limited vehicle lineup, skewing its advertising more toward traditional themes, and probably ditching the pace-setting box design of its original little xB. 

“Authentically, OEMs haven’t done a good job of attracting younger buyers,” Jack Hollis, Toyota’s vice president for Scion, told me. “How do we separate ourselves? By bringing out cars with more emotional content, with more of a lifestyle attachment. We’re trying to reach out to people who don’t buy Toyotas or Lexuses. 

“So we’ve sold the brand as a lifestyle and automotive brand. But we wanted to expand that in two ways: expanding the lineup … and expanding the people we talk to.”

Click to Read More

The 2012 Prius C, Best MPG and Safest Car

The new 2012 Toyota Prius C not only has the best gas mileage you can get (very handy when the prices at the pump keep rising), but it is also one of the safest cars out there. The new Prius C is a top safety pick, perfect for families who want to stay safe on the road.

Just a year ago, a Prius was a Prius. But this year, say that iconic hybrid model name and you could be speaking of one of three different body styles or four quite different models—the 2012 Toyota Prius Liftback, the Toyota Prius V wagon, the Toyota Prius Plug-In, or the Toyota Prius C. And with each of them quite different in weight, if not structure, that means safety ratings don't necessarily transfer across all these models. 

Now shoppers considering the lightest, smallest Prius—and the one with an astounding, best-in-class 53-mpg city rating—the 2012 Toyota Prius C, can have a little more peace of mind. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has named this five-door subcompact hatchback a Top Safety Pick for 2012—with top 'good' results in each of the major crash-test categories. 

The Prius C earns top 'good' ratings in all areas of testing except for the 'structure/safety cage' area of the side impact test and the 'head/neck' region of the frontal offset test—indicating that the force loads were a little higher in some respects yet still excellent in most measurements. It also manages an impressive 5.28 times its weight in the IIHS roof strength test—relating to a lower chance of head injury in a rollover crash.

 Click to Read More

A New Scion FR-S Convertible?

If you love the feeling of wind rushing through your hair as you drive around the city, drive home from work, or just on a Sunday drive, we have good news for you. It looks like Toyota may be planning a Scion FR-S soft-top convertible in 2014. The soft-top would most likely resemble its predecessor in most ways, but we might see a few new surprises. Good things come to those who wait!

The rear-wheel-drive Scion FR-S will be offered in softtop convertible form, we've learned, confirming recent rumors. (The images you see here are renderings.) Unlike the Fast and Furious–ized FR-S roadster that an aftermarket tuner recently showed in California, the production FR-S convertible should retain its rear seats. 

The FR-S—as well as the Toyota GT 86 that’s sold elsewhere and the nearly identical Subaru BRZ—is a reasonably priced, relatively light, rear-wheel-drive sports car. In other words, the vehicle enthusiasts have been begging automakers to actually build. A convertible version will add volume, which means more income for Toyota and happy accountants. Happy accountants are more likely to approve projects for fun cars in the future.

Click to Read More

The Scion iQ: America's Third Car

Scion's iQ plans on being the 'third car,' or the car people use to get around cheaply. Not only is the iQ very affordable right off the lot, but it has one of the highest fuel efficiency ratings in the U.S. with a combined 37mpg.

Many, if not most, families run out and buy a second car. How would they get along without it? But Toyota thinks that its Scion iQ minicar is finding a spot outside the two-car garage. It's being bought as a third car. 

The three-plus-one seater, not much bigger than a Smart car, starts at $15,995 and is finding its place with more affluent households, Jack Hollis, vice president of Scion sales, tells Bloomberg News. 

"The early indication is it's more of a third vehicle, and a little more of a higher-income buyer," Hollis tells Bloomberg's Alan Ohnsman. "This is the highest mpg car in the country, non-hybrid, and what I think is happening is people are seeing that."

Click to Read More