Toyota will build on its record-breaking sales success in 2023 with a series of new and upgraded models this year. One of the key introductions will be a new battery electric model based on the Urban SUV Concept revealed at Toyota’s Kenshiki forum in early December last year. The production version, ordering for which will open in 2024, will be the most compact and accessible model in a planned … [Read more...]
Deeside is pearl in Toyota production
Toyota Deeside is one of the last remaining internal combustion engine plants in Britain and there are hopes it will be the chosen site to build a new generation of eletric motors in the 2030s. Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK marked 30 years of production at its engine plant in Deeside, this month and a celebration was held by the company who invited guests to the plant for a showcase of its … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: Suzuki Swace SZ5 1.8 auto
Collaboration to cut costs but not quality is very evident in the Suzuki Swace. There’s a lot more component sharing going on throughout the global motor industry than many realise but it’s not been a feature of UK in recent years, with just a few exceptions. We had extensive badge engineering across Midlands’ factories between the 1950s and 1980s but with the disappearance of the British … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Suzuki Swace, SZ-T
The Suzuki Swace hybrid 5-door mid-sized estate is the second recent model to join the Suzuki range from their partnership with Toyota formed in 2019, writes David Miles. Toyota also manufacture the Across large-ish Plug-in-Hybrid SUV which is based on the new RAV4 PHEV. The addition of Swace and Across models to the Suzuki range means all Suzuki models throughout their line-up are hybrids and … [Read more...]
Newslines 31 March
The Paris Motor this autumn is the latest casualty of the coronavirus outbreak. It has already seen the Geneva show axed just days before the doors opened in early March, June’s Detroit show has been pulled and now French organisers are looking at other ways to stage their event. Toyota makes two out of the three top selling models in the world. The Corolla is top of the World Car Ranking … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: Toyota Corolla Touring SE 1.8 Hybrid
The enduring and enterprising Toyota Corolla is a firm favourite with British car buyers and it’s easy to understand why after a week with the 1.8 Sports Excel estate hybrid, writes Robin Roberts. This spring , the 12th generation Corolla replaced the oddly-named, smaller and less attractive Auris series of models and it brought with it the latest self-charging hybrid technology which … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Toyota Corolla Excel 2.0 Hybrid estate
In March this year the Corolla name returned to the Toyota line-up of passenger cars 14 years after the Auris name replaced it, writes David Miles. Like the Auris range it replaced, the 12th generation five-door Corolla Hatchback and Touring Sports estate petrol and hybrid models are being built in the UK at Toyota’s Burnaston factory in Derbyshire for European markets. In addition there is a … [Read more...]
Mid-week motoring: First drive Toyota Corolla
One of the best known names on a car has returned, writes David Miles. Some 14 years after the Toyota Auris name replaced the Corolla we see the return of the World’s best-selling car brand name – Corolla - and it’s on sale in the UK from the new registration plate change month of March. The past generation Corollas achieved over 46-million global sales since they were launched in 1966 and … [Read more...]
Newslines 10 September
Lister Tuning is relocating to a new centre in North West England where it will develop their unique high performance versions of Jaguar models. Among the first to be built there is a 670bhp Lister LFP SUV using carbon fibre components to keep down weight while the tuned V8 engine will take it to 60mph in 3.5secs and onto a maximum 200mph at a cost of about £140,000. In a major … [Read more...]