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The 2013 FR-S beat out its competition to earn the Best Sports Car for the Money from respected publication U.S. News & World Report. The annual award recognizes value, quality and critical acclaim across 21 vehicle categories. To evaluate the FR-S, U.S. News & World Report judges looked at the sports coupe’s safety record, reliability and opinion from industry experts. A “The Best Sports Car for the Money award is a testament to the incredibly fun and accessible sports car experience offered by the Scion FR-S,” said Scion Vice President Doug Murtha. “We are proud the FR-S continues to impress industry enthusiasts and drivers, while also representing the passion behind the Scion brand.” Click Here for the Full Story

Toyota swept the pickup truck segments in the annual U.S. News & World Report “2013 Best Cars for the Money” awards.  The Tacoma won “Best Compact Truck for the Money” for the second-consecutive year while the Tundra took top honors as the “Best Full Size Truck for the Money.” The awards recognize the top vehicles in their respective segments for their “outstanding value and critical acclaim.” “Sweeping the pickup truck segment as ‘Best Cars for the Money’ from U.S. News & World Report is a great honor and reflects Toyota’s commitment to quality, durability and reliability, all key ingredients for great value,” said Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager, Toyota Division. Click here for the full Story

Toyota ranked first among automakers in the United States in the 2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey.  Toyota finished 19th overall in the latest poll, up from 31st last year. The auto industry showed the biggest gains in reputation over the past year.  Toyota rose 2.06 points from its score in 2012 to gain the top spot as the highest-regarded car company.  Honda, Hyundai and Ford fared “very good,” while results for Chrysler and General Motors were “poor.” The 14th annual RQ gauges reputation on a variety of measures including social responsibility, emotional appeal, financial performance, products and services, vision and leadership, and workplace environment. Click Here for the Full Story on the Harris Interactive Poll

The Toyota brand ranked third overall in the study and No. 1 among all non-premium brands.  Toyota has three vehicle segment winners: Prius, RAV4 and Sienna, which tops the minivan category for the third consecutive year.  Meanwhile, the Scion xB and xD are each award winners in the compact multi-purpose and subcompact segments, respectively.   Together, Lexus, Toyota and Scion won seven segment awards, the most of any automaker in 2013.   The study, now in its 24th year, measures problems experienced during the past 12 months by original owners of three-year-old vehicles.  Overall dependability is determined by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles, with a lower score reflecting higher quality.  This is the first year that there are fewer reported problems for all-new or redesigned models than for carryover models since the study was redesigned in 2009. Click here to read more

Toyota’s 2013 RAV4 “Wish Granted” advertising campaign, which was launched with a Super Bowl ad, received more national exposure Monday.  During NBC-TV’s “Today” Show, co-hosts Kathie Lee and Hoda Kobt pulled the name of one lucky audience member and presented her with an all-new RAV4.  The New York City-based show filmed Monday’s segment in Los Angeles. Click Here to watch the video of the winner

The 2013 Toyota Avalon and Avalon Hybrid have earned the top OVERALL rating – five stars – in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash tests.  In addition to the two Avalon models, 10 other 2013 Toyota, Lexus and Scion models have earned OVERALL five-star ratings:  Toyota Camry, Camry Hybrid, Prius, Venza AWD and Venza FWD; Scion tC; and Lexus CT 200h, ES 300h, RX 350 AWD and RX 450 AWD. Click Here for the Full Story

Toyota remains the automotive brand with the highest perception among American consumers, according to an annual study by Consumer Reports magazine Click here for the full story

Toyota was again No. 1 overall for the fifth consecutive quarter in Kelley Blue Book’s new-car shopper survey. Toyota maintained its stride as the shopper loyalty leader during Q4 2012 Click Here for the Full Story

Here is a review on the 2013 Sporty Scion FR-S. Click here to read the article and learn more about the Scion FR-S.

The 2013 Scion iQ earned a 5-Year Cost to Own Award from Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com on Feb. 5th, 2013 in recognition of its lowest projected costs of ownership in the subcompact category. Click Here for the Full Story

Toyota’s Prius has toppled the Honda Civic from its two-year reign as the bestselling vehicle in California. It was a thin margin. Toyota sold 60,688 of the hybrid last year, almost 26% of the Prius cars sold by Toyota in the U.S. last year. Honda sold 57,124 Civics. The Toyota Camry was third with sales of 50,250. The sales data are from the California New Car Dealers Assn. and tracked retail auto registrations, which do not include sales to rental car companies, government and other fleet customers. A hybrid capturing the sales crown in the state and passenger cars making up the bulk of the top 10 places demonstrate just how different the California car market is from the rest of the nation, analysts said. Ford’s F-Series pick-up truck, perennially the bestselling nationally, placed seventh in California with sales of 25,434. The Chevrolet Silverado truck, the second bestseller nationally last year, didn’t come close to even cracking the top 10 in California.  It had sales of 17,804, below such disparate vehicles as the Hyundai Elantra compact car and the BMW 3-series sports sedan. California’s disinterest in trucks “speaks to the high percentage of drivers that commute long distances. The need to travel 30-40 miles to and from work per day makes the prospect of owning a Ford F-Series or Chevrolet Silverado an expensive one,” said Alec Gutierrez, an analyst at auto price information company Kelley Blue Book. The state’s gasoline prices are consistently among the highest in the nation. Yet while fuel efficiency is one major reason why cars rather than trucks dominate the market — California’s favorite truck or sport utility vehicle was the comparatively small Honda CR-V with sales of 29,055 –- but there also are cultural factors that influence which vehicles sell best in the state, said Peter Welch, chief executive of the California New Car Dealers Assn. “Environmental consciousness and changing trends are large contributors,” Welch said, “eight years ago everyone was driving sport utilities and trucks, now it’s almost trendy to drive a fuel-efficient hybrid or plug-in.” Hybrids, plug-in hybrids – which like the Chevrolet Volt can travel some distance only on electricity before a gas engine kicks in and extends the range – and electric-only vehicles now make up 7.4% of the California market, more than double the national average. Financial incentives such as state rebates for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles and other perks, such as car pool lane permits, help increase the California numbers. The Prius got its jump in the California market through state policy that once allowed solo drivers of the vehicle in car pool lanes, said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Automotive. Now only the plug-in version qualifies for the permit. Ironically, a wide-open car pool lane isn’t the place to show off a hybrid’s gas-sipping skills. “You get better mileage in stop and go traffic, which the HOV lane is supposed to alleviate so it’s an interesting juxtaposition,” Lindland said. Toyota sells four different versions of the hybrid. The hatchback is the biggest seller. Other versions include a plug-in hatchback, a Prius C mini-car and the Prius V station wagon. Overall, auto sales – including fleet sales – rose 25% in California, almost double the national growth rate of 13.4%, according to the state dealer group. Japanese brands, rebounding from inventory and production problems caused by the Japanese earthquake in 2011, had the fastest growth. They now control 46.3% of the California auto market, up from 44.5% in 2011. Most of that growth came at the expense of the domestic brands, which saw their combined market share slide to 29.7% from 31.6%. Chrysler was the only U.S. brand to show any market share growth in California, rising to 1.4% from 1%. The domestic car companies do much better nationally, where they control almost 45% of auto sales. Toyota and its brands are the biggest sellers in California, owning 21.1% of the market. Honda follows with 12.5% and Ford is third at 11.3%. General Motors with 11.2% and Nissan with 8.3% round out the top five. Fast-growing Volkswagen, with 5.5% of the market, has almost caught Chrysler’s 6.5% share.   Source: LA Times

Toyota regained the global sales crown lost when the 2011 Japanese tsunami devastated its supplies as US rival General Motors saw its share of the global market shrink. Toyota first overtook GM as the world's biggest carmaker in 2008, a position GM had held for 77 consecutive years. A year later, GM was forced to restructure under bankruptcy protection and has shed a number of unprofitable brands. While the largest US automaker is once again making record profits, its sales have been hit by a deep downturn in Europe, the reduction in its offerings and a decision not to chase market share with costly incentives and low-margin fleet sales. GM said its share of the global auto market fell 0.4 points to 11.9 percent in 2012 despite sales that grew 2.9 percent to 9.2 million vehicles. It has managed to hang onto the number two spot in worldwide sales, but German rival VW -- which aspires to be the world's biggest automaker by 2018 -- is not far behind with sales up 11 percent in 2012 to 9.07 million. Toyota maintains a much larger lead and has forecast its 2012 sales will jump 22 percent to 9.7 million vehicles. "Last year was a breakout year for us in a number of ways," said Jim Lentz, head of Toyota Motor Sales USA. While it's great to be back on top again, Lentz insisted that "it's not that big of a deal." "I don't really look at the global sales crown very much," he told AFP on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show. "I'm sure we'll have a cup of coffee and say wasn't that great but by lunch we'll have forgotten about it and be back to business." While Toyota also set new records for vehicle productions, sales and vehicle launches in the United States last year, Lentz said the key measure is how the company connects to customers. "The important number is how we're doing with retail customers," Lentz said, noting that the Toyota brand was the number one US retailer in 2012 as sales grew 27 percent. The group's total US sales topped two million vehicles and captured 14.4 percent of the US market, placing it in second place behind GM's fleet-fueled 17.9 percent stake. GM's international operations -- Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East -- posted the biggest gains, with sales up 10.1 percent at 3.6 million while its share was flat at 9.5 percent. Sales fell 8.2 percent in Europe to 1.6 million vehicles, while GM's share narrowed by 0.2 points to 8.5 percent, the biggest US automaker said in a statement. North American sales rose 3.2 percent to just over three million, though GM's share of its home market fell 1.5 points to 16.9 percent. Sales in South America shrank 1.9 percent to just over a million vehicles, while GM's share of the region fell 0.8 points to 18 percent. Despite losing the global sales crown, GM earning a consolation prize Monday: its compact luxury sedan the Cadillac ATS was named "North American Car of the Year" at the Detroit auto show -- with Toyota not on the shortlist for the prestigious award. AFP/Relaxnews