Butler Toyota in Macon,GA
April 12, 2012 Leave a comment
A pair of Toyota 86 coupes will compete in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring endurance race.The 24 Hours Nürburgring is a touring car and GT endurance racing event on the Nürburgring Nordschleife (north loop). With a lap length of over 25 km (15.5 mi), it allows the participation of more than 200 cars, and over 700 drivers.
March 17, 2012 Leave a comment
As drivers endure the steady ascent of fuel prices nationally, Toyota, the most fuel-efficient full-line auto manufacturer in the United States, has strengthened its portfolio of efficient cars with five recently introduced vehicles that offer an average combined fuel economy of 44 mpg.
The Scion iQ (EPA rated 37 mpg combined), Camry Hybrid (EPA rated 40.5 mpg combined average for LE and XLE trim levels), and Prius v (EPA rated 42 mpg combined) all arrived to market in late 2011. The Prius Plug-in (EPA rated 50 mpg combined and 95 MPGe), featuring extended electric range, is making its way to first customers in the 15 launch states, and the Prius c (EPA rated 50 mpg combined) will be on sale nationally March 12.
These new vehicles represent a broad range of leading-edge drivetrain and engineering technologies that help them achieve a high level of efficiency. Hybrid Synergy Drive, extended electric vehicle range, generous use of lightweight high-strength steel, a focus on aerodynamics, and the use of efficient Continuously Variable Transmissions are among the features that help these new vehicles attain a high level of fuel efficiency.
These five new models arrive to market with Toyota already enjoying a 12-percent improvement in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and a 10-percent improvement in U.S. truck CAFE over the past five years. Toyota remains committed to a long-term plan to bring a portfolio of advanced technologies to market, including hybrid, battery electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
According to the EPA class summary found on U.S. Department of Energy’s www.fueleconomy.gov website, Toyota offers several models that achieve 2012 Best-in Class fuel economy EPA ratings (excluding Plug-in Hybrid and pure EV vehicles). The Prius c leads the EPA’s compact classification with 50 mpg combined. The Prius Liftback’s combined 50 mpg leads the EPA’s midsize category, and the midsize station wagon class is led by the 42 mpg combined offered by the Prius v. These segment classifications are determined by the EPA’s measurement of a vehicle’s interior volume.
Toyota and Scion branded vehicles also represent six of the site’s Top 10 EPA-rated Fuel Sippers for 2012 (excluding PHEV or pure EV products), and occupy four spots in that list’s top five. Toyota family vehicles found on the U.S Department of Energy’s Fueleconomy.gov Top Ten EPA-rated Fuel Sippers include:
2012 Prius c (ranked 1st, 53 city, 46 hwy)
2012 Prius (ranked 2nd, 51 city, 48 hwy)
2012 Prius v (ranked 4th, 44 city, 40 hwy)
Toyota Camry Hybrid LE (ranked 7th, 43 city, 39 hwy)
Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE (ranked 8th, 40 city, 38 hwy)
2012 Scion iQ (ranked 10th, 36 city, 37 hwy)
Prius was named the Best Overall Value of the year (Passenger Car category) for 2012 by IntelliChoice. Prius continues to be the world’s best-selling fuel-efficient vehicle, with more than 3.5 million vehicles sold worldwide. Since its U.S. introduction in 2000, Prius ñ when compared to the average car ñ has saved American consumers an estimated $2.93 billion in fuel costs*, 1.1 billion gallons of gas* and 16.1 million tons of CO2 emissions*.
* Based on average EPA estimated combined mpg rating of Prius versus all MY 2001 to 2011 cars, 10,000 miles/year, and average U.S. gas prices including taxes. Fueleconomy.gov.
March 12, 2012 Leave a comment
Toyota is conducting its 100 Cars For Good program again this year, giving away 100 vehicles to nonprofit groups in need of support vehicles. Winners will be selected through public voting on Facebook. Application materials and complete program info are available at http://www.100carsforgood.com.
“At Toyota, we appreciate what a big difference a new car or truck can make for organizations that are doing so much to improve lives and strengthen communities across America,” said Jim Lentz, newly appointed president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales. “Over the past 20 years, Toyota has contributed more than half a billion dollars to nonprofits throughout the U.S. 100 Cars for Good allows us to build on that commitment in new ways, putting the public in the ‘driver’s seat’ as we work to help community organizations broaden their impact in neighborhoods nationwide.”
Applications will be accepted for two weeks or until the website reaches its 5,000-form limit. A panel of experts will select the finalists, who will be notified in April. Finalists will then submit a short video explaining how a new vehicle would help further their work; all will be featured on the program’s website.
Voting for the finalists will begin May 14 at www.100carsforgood.com with five organizations up for consideration each day for 100 straight days. The four runners-up each day will each get a $1,000 grant from Toyota.
Finalists will be eligible for one of six Toyota models: Camry Hybrid, Highlander, Prius v, Sienna, Sienna Mobility or Tundra. Our guess is that many groups will apply for the Tundra, as it’s most likely capable of being the strongest worker for their hard-working needs.
For more information and to view Toyota’s video, click here.
March 11, 2012 Leave a comment
Toyota is serious about its commitment to the future of green mobility, and to prove it the concepts and production hybrids were out in force at Geneva
March 9, 2012 Leave a comment
During his time as an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, publisher of 
the old English proverb, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”, anonymously published a letter suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight. This 1784 satire proposed taxing shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise.
G.V. Hudson invented modern Day Light Savings Time, proposing it first in 1895.
Modern Day Light Savings Time was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, whose shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and led him to value after-hours daylight. In 1895 he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift, and after considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch, New Zealand he followed up in an 1898 paper. Many publications incorrectly credit Day Light Savings Time’s proposal to the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett, who independently conceived DST in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer’s day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk.His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Pearce, who introduced the first Daylight Saving Bill to the House of Commons on 12 February 1908. A select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearce’s bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915.
Starting on 30 April 1916, Germany and its World War I allies were the first to use Day Light Savings Time (German: Sommerzeit) as a way to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year and the United States adopted it in 1918. Since then, the world has seen many enactments, adjustments, and repeals.
So here we are again, time to spring forward as warmer weather comes to Mid-GA.
March 8, 2012 Leave a comment
Toyota, the world’s largest seller of hybrid vehicles, wants to be able to supply thousands of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles annually in the next decade in anticipation of demand for petroleum-free autos.
Toyota May Make ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Hydrogen Cars by 2020s – Bloomberg.
March 6, 2012 Leave a comment
For some, the Toyota Prius has always presented an alien like landscape. It’s harsh angles, an interior more spacecraft than automobile. In the west, the Prius is the fare of tree huggers, for those in the south, it was for the frugal.
Now along comes the Prius C, a slightly smaller more car like hybrid. Which should help change the way the Prius line is viewed.
February 29, 2012 Leave a comment
Toyota models snared “top pick” designations in five of 10 vehicle categories in the Consumer Reports annual auto issue, on sale March 6.
CR’s criteria for naming top picks include ranking at or near the top of their category on overall road test scores, average or better predicted-reliability ratings in CR’s subscriber survey and high performance in government or crash tests. Here are Toyota’s top models in 10 vehicle categories:
FAMILY SEDAN: Toyota Camry Hybrid
SMALL SUV: Toyota RAV4
FAMILY HAULER: Toyota Sienna V6
GREEN CAR: Toyota Prius
FAMILY SUV: Toyota Highlander
Details on Consumer Reports’ Top Picks for 2012, Automaker Report Cards, Best and Worst list and other key findings are available in the April issue of Consumer Reports on newsstands March 6 or at the magazine’s website.
Consumer Reports says its tests include more than 50 individual tests on every vehicle, including evaluations of braking, handling, comfort, convenience, safety and fuel economy.
Roughly 6,000 miles of general driving and evaluations are racked up on each test car during the testing process. CR buys all its test cars anonymously from dealers.
February 26, 2012 Leave a comment
About an hour before the final practice for the Daytona 500, there was one car circling the track.
It was camouflaged with a zebra-striped paint scheme, but there were plenty of people who knew exactly what it was doing out there. Toyota secretly unveiled its 2013 Camry at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, showing off a two-seat prototype for company president Akio Toyoda.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda
Toyoda and NASCAR driver Kyle Busch each turned 10 laps on the high-banked speedway in the new car.
“Although we didn’t show it today, the styling we want to really look like Camry, and I really hope that the fans of NASCAR would love it,” Toyoda said afterward.
Toyoda traveled from Japan to get a firsthand look at the company’s newest racing car, which officially will be unveiled May 22 in Salisbury, N.C.
Toyoda also toured Daytona International Speedway, met with Toyota drivers Michael Waltrip, Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr., and sat down with a few media members. He raved about the history of Daytona and said it was an honor to turn laps at NASCAR’s most famous track.
He also was interested in learning more about American racing.
“As far as I am concerned this is the first time that I have come here and really seen it for myself,” he said through a translator. “However, I’ve been always interested in this great sort of a cultural event, the racing activity in the United States, which is really supported by many sponsors and fans.
“I was always interested in this. So this time I got to come here, and I haven’t really, you know, seen everything on the ground yet. But it’s like a part of a lifestyle, which is really supported and enjoyed by so many people, and I think it’s wonderful.”
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