A week-long road test in the new Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) created two notable firsts for me, says David Miles. It was the first road test production car I have tested with a solar roof and it was the first test car to return over 100mpg for a full week of motoring. The sales success of PHEVs have created the driving force for increased demand … [Read more...]
Newslines 4 April
Mazda MX-5 RF has won the “Best of the Best” prize at the 2017 Red Dot product design awards for its KODO – Soul of Motion styling. The unique two-seater retractable fastback thereby duplicates the success of its fourth-generation MX-5 soft-top sibling, which took away the same award for outstanding product design in 2015. Toyota is recalling a total … [Read more...]
Massive Toyota boost for Britain
Toyota will invest £240 Million in its Derby car assembly plant for future model lines. It also has it main engine plant on Deeside and has said it is critical that tariff-free access exists after the UK leaves the EU. It intends to increase UK components sourcing to cut costs and also increase the “home” content for post-Brexit requirements. Toyota … [Read more...]
Bentley rethink on site for next model
Bentley will consider whether to build its next model in the UK or Europe depending on how Brexit talks go within the next 12 months, CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer has told Reuters. It’s sells 20% of them in Europe, its largest market, and has previously assembled some in Dresden, Germany when it needed to boost capacity. Uncertainty over the Brexit outcome … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid 2WD
The RAV4 mid-sized SUV was first introduced in 1994 and billed by Toyota as the first compact 4WD SUV. Since then there has been a continual supply of new and updated models and the latest major change is the introduction of petrol electric Hybrid two and four wheel drive versions. With the Hybrid’s 2.5-litre VVT-i variable valve timing petrol engine … [Read more...]
Newslines 7 February
Volkswagen is being sued by German fish distributor Deutsche See for misrepresenting a fleet of vehicles it leased as environmentally friendly. It’s the first major German customer to sue VW over its emissions-cheating scandal and Volkswagen already faces numerous lawsuits from individual owners, regulators, states and dealers, many of them in the form of … [Read more...]
Newslines 30 January
After four years at the top, Toyota has been overtaken by Volkswagen for the title of the world’s best selling group. Toyota was hit by falling US demand for its Camry while VW enjoyed booming Chinese sales which more than offset other losses due to the emissions controversy, but the Japanese group still turned in better profitability. Germany's motor … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Toyota C-HR hybrid
Toyota took their time getting into the very fashionable and high selling compact SUV market sector leaving customers with just their hard-core RAV4 as the option, but now that's all changed, says David Miles. UK sales of what the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders call Dual Purpose vehicles, what we know as 4x4s/SUVs and including some Crossovers … [Read more...]
BMW & Toyota plans for plants
BMW will build its X1 SUV at a Dutch contract manufacturer that also produces some of the automaker's Mini models. The new X1 production will begin in August at the VDL Nedcar plant in Born, Netherlands, and global markets will be served from here and Regensburg, German plant. Meanwhile, Toyota will add 400 jobs to build more SUVs at one of its US … [Read more...]
Newslines 9 January
Despite all its diesel issues and bad publicity, Volkswagen ended 2016 as the world’s best selling group. It knocked Toyota from top spot and the merged Renault-Nissan company was third with Hyundai in fourth place, GM beat Ford followed by Honda and Fiat Chrysler and top marques were completed by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Suzuki. A South Korean court … [Read more...]
