Aussie Motoring

What do all these have in common here in Australia?

by Stuart Livesey

Since the beginning of March they’ve all issued recalls on vehicles and the recalls have all had to do with the braking system.

Toyota has issued the biggest recall of vehicles and it’s safe to say that this recall would have to be one of the biggest in Australian automotive history. It potentially affects approximately 137,000 vehicles; 134,000 Landcruiser 70 and 100 series and 3,000 Lexus LX470 models.

All these vehicles were manufactured between September 1997 and December 2005 and the recall is so that Toyota can check and replace faulty retaining bolts on the front disc brake rotors.

Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge are all marketed in Australia under the Daimler-Chrysler name and the vehicles affected are those in the following models fitted with an ESP/ABS brake system:

Chrysler 300C and 300C Touring - built from 11 October through to 23 November 2006

Dodge Caliber - built from 7 September through 18 November 2006

Jeep Compass - built from 7 September through 18 November 2006

Jeep Grand Cherokee - built from 11 October through to 23 November 2006

Jeep Commander - built from 11 October through to 23 November 2006

Jeep Wrangler - built 9 November through to 8 December 2006

The software programmed into the ABS control module needs to be re-programmed for, in it’s present form, may cause the rear wheels to lock up in certain braking conditions. Around 490 vehicles are affected by the recall.

It’s fast becoming a collector’s item in Australia

by Stuart Livesey

The Toyota Soarer was a luxury coupe built by Toyota in Japan from 1981 to 2005. In 1990 Toyota moved the Soarer from it’s regular vehicle line-up to the Lexus brand. The Soarer certainly fitted into the Lexus brand because it’s comfort and equipment levels were right at the cutting edge for it’s time.

The Soarer was never marketed directly here in Australia by Toyota however quite a few did find their way into the country over the years. Many owners imported their Soarers directly from Japan and the 1996 Soarer SC300 that you see here is one that arrived here in that way.

These days the Toyota Soarer is becoming popular with collectors and younger enthusiasts and the high demand, coupled with the low numbers in Australia, is keeping prices up.

One unusual fact about the Toyota Soarer is that there seems to be a regional popularity about them. Here in this town there are three or four Toyota Soarers that I see regularly yet while I was living in Tasmania and on the road every day I never saw one. Google currently suggests that more people in Adelaide are searching for ‘Toyota Soarer’ than in any other part of Australia.

This particular Toyota Soarer is currently for sale and you can see all the details of the vehicle - along with more photos by following the link.

Save heaps on brand-name workshop tools

by Stuart Livesey

Another great vehicle we won’t see in Australia

The pickup truck is big business in the American automotive industry and it’s been dominated by Ford and General Motors for a very long time. However Toyota is now taking them on at their own game and the Toyota Tundra is taking over the pickup truck market.

You can read more about the latest model and see more images at Toyota 2007 Tundra

Today’s Brisbane Courier Mail is reporting that the chief executive of Ford in the United States had talks last week with the chairman of Toyota with a view to forming some sort of ‘partnership’

It seems that Ford wants some help in reducing production costs.

Now why would Toyota want to align itself with a lame duck like Ford?

And if it does what will General Motors go looking for a similar arrangement?

You can read more about the story here

by Stuart Livesey

Who is going to be the world’s number one car maker? Toyota is!

On Friday Toyota is set to announce it’s production numbers for the coming year. That number is thought to be a whopping 9.45 million units (it also includes the production numbers for Toyota’s subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu)

And that number is around 400,000 units more than they produced in 2006. It will also put Toyota ahead of General Motors the company that currently holds the title as the world’s biggest car maker.

New turbo-diesel and upgraded specifications

Toyota’s popular SUV - the Prado - has just received an upgrade that includes a new DOHC four cyclinder turbo-diesel engine, an extra cog in the transmission and some trim upgrades across the range.

The new diesel motor delivers more power, lower emissions and better fuel economy.

The transmission now comes with a six speed manual or an five speed automatic.

The Toyota Prado GX comes with bigger tyres and wheels, colour co-ordinated bumpers and door handles, wide steps and flares, side protection mouldings and a chrome radiator grille and exterior mirros

The Toyota Prado GLX gains privacy glass and roof rails

The Toyota Parado VX gains power-operated front seats, leather seat trim and leather and woodgrain on the door trim.

More information on the new Prado can be found here

Now you don’t even have to go to the showroom to choose what you want

With four Toyota Camry models to choose from optioning the model that suits your personal needs can be a bit hard.

You know what it’s like, the salesman wants to sell you every option he can possibly think of and you’re trying to work within a budge. You can end up either walking out in disgust or walking out with your budget blown right out of the water.

Well now that has all changed because Toyota now has a website where you can choose the Toyota Camry model you want and then add the options you want. You end up with the car that suits your needs and your budget and you haven’t had to stonewall an over-eager salesperson.

You can find the link to build your own Toyota Camry here

And you can even get a fleet discount and save even more on your new Toyta Camry right here:

The Toyota logo meets the blog world

While most people on the planet have no idea of what a blog is (the last time a survey was conducted they found that only 2% of Internet users knew what a blog was) the blog world is alive and kicking and has quite an impact on may of the things that it touches.

At the top of the blog chain are the big blog networks who number their readers in the tens of thousands. Further down the blog chain there are sites like Aussie Motoring where I can number the readers in figures that … well that’s just too depressing to contemplate first thing on a Monday morning.

The obvious point in all that is that if you’re going to tread on some blog’s toes it’s far better to tread on mine than on the toes of a major blog network - and that’s a lesson that one Toyota dealer in the United States is learning right now.

The dealer’s ad agency took the 9rules blog networks logo and used it for themselves. So in the spirit of co-operation and free use of logos and trademarks 9rules invited it’s readers to submit some creative variations on the Toyota logo.

All I can say is that there are some very clever people out there and you can find their artwork in the comments below the original post here

The teaser ads are starting to appear to television and Toyota is promising the release of their new 6 cylinder car in November but what can we expect to see in November.

Well a version of the Aurion is already on the showroom floors in the United States where it is selling as a Camry so there are some hints to be had there. However, the images that have so far been released suggest that the front and rear of the Australian Aurion are different to the US version.

It appears that the dashboard will be similar to the Australian Camry but the steering wheel will have four spokes instead of the three on the Camry.

Unlike Holden who did not immediately release the fuel consumption figures for their new Commodore, Toyota have already announced the fuel consumption figures for the new Aurion. It’s a very credible 9.9 litres per 100 km and that puts the Toyota Aurion below both the Commodore and the Falcon when it comes to fuel consumption.

It’s and even more positive figure when you consider that the power output from the new Aurion’s engine is higher than that from the new Commodore.

It seems that the Aurion will also come equipped with a 6 speed transmission – the first of its kind in Australia.

And the bottom line for the Toyota Aurion? The suggestions are that it will come in at under $34k.

Oh, and if you’re planning on putting the cash down on the Toyota Aurion Sportiva model then you will have to wait. Aurion may be the Greek word for tomorrow but the Sportiva model seems to have been delayed indefinitely.

It’s interesting to note that it took a lot of hard selling to get Toyota in Japan to give the go-ahead to their Australian team to develop the Aurion. It seems that head office didn’t think Toyota Australia had the expertise to pull this one off.

Perhaps this time the home team has scored the points with the Toyota Aurion.

It’s easy to think that everything Toyota does turns into a roaring success. Toyota is currently the top-selling brand in Australia, it leads the pack in the United States, it does very well in Europe and Toyota 4×4’s are known and loved right across the world. Even Toyota’s luxury brand – Lexus – does well across the globe.

But not everything Toyota touches turns to gold and to make things even more embarrassing the lack of gold is best seen right in Toyota’s own country.

When Toyota launched the Lexus brand some years ago they decided not to market the brand in Japan. In most western countries the Lexus brand has been a success with sales meeting or even exceeding Toyota’s targets.

So Toyota may have been thinking that they were an absolute shoe-in when they launched the Lexus brand into Japan last year. The reality must have come like a cold shower to Toyota executives.

That reality was that Toyota missed it’s Lexus sales target by almost half in a market place that is besotted with thoughts of BMW and Mercedes.

However, the reality of the Japanese car market has not stopped Toyota from taking the game up to the European competition. A few days ago Toyota/Lexus launched the LS460 into the very top of the luxury car market.

At a price range of $US66,000 to $US82,000 this is definitely not your average white-collar worker’s car but then you wouldn’t expect it to be. With such juicy equipment as a pre-crash safety system, radar cruise control and a 4.6 litre V8 it was never going to be cheap.

Future tweaks will include two new gas-electric models that will be powered by a 5.0 litre V8.

Will this put Toyota/Lexus back on top on its home turf? Only time will tell but BMW certainly isn’t resting on its laurels and they too have an interesting new power plant to add to their range.