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Toyota recently announced the tag price of the Toyota Yaris for their consumers in Europe. The first deliveries of the next generation Toyota Yaris hatchback is expected to happen by next month.
The new Toyota Yaris will come in two body styles– the 3-door and 5-door. Consu2 mers in the UK and the rest of Europe will have the T Spirit, SR, TR, and T2 as grades to choose from with engines including the turbodiesel 1.4L D-4D, 1.0L and another 1.33L petrol powerplants. Sticker price for the Yaris starts at £11,700.
The 1.0L VVT-i that runs on petrol is the entry level powerplant for the Yaris. This one gives out 68bhp when it hits 6,000 rpm with 93 for its maximum torque. Initial numbers according to Toyota gives the Yaris a good fuel mileage of 4.7L per 100 kilometers while the carbon dioxide emission hits 118 g/km.
The only diesel option will be the D-4D 1.4L engine paired to a 6-speed manual transmission. This option gives the consumer 89 bhp for the Yaris. Fuel mileage for the diesel dependent Yaris comes at 3.9L per 100 kilometers.
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Zipcar is famous for being one of the world’s biggest car club service that has helped several car companies obtain real-life stats when it comes to car sharing. Zipcar has also been known to be a great alternative to car rental and the answer to the hefty price one pays for car ownership and maintenance.
Just recently, Zipcar has teamed up with Toyota and had added about eight units of the hybrid / plug-in versions of the well publicized and warmly embraced Toyota Prius, one of the biggest names in the Japanese carmaker’s roster of vehicles. These eight Pruis units are now part of Zipcar’s car-sharing options to choose from. These plug-in Prius models are aimed for test drives alone and won’t be sold anywhere until year 2012. However, Zipcar members that are stationed in San Francisco, Boston, Cambridge, and Portland can enjoy the benefits and get the feel of these new Prius plug-in versions.
This is part of Toyota’s joint pilot program with Zipcar. The Prius units will be able to give then real-time data that would be beneficial in their preparation for the plug-in’s launch by the year 2012. On the other hand, Zipcar aims to use these eight Prius plug-in models to assess the possibility of having a wider range of options when it comes to their fleet.
Of course, like all of Zipcar’s fleet options, the plug-in Toyota Prius is available by an hourly reservation with a $7 rate charged per sixty minutes of use. So go on and enjoy these new models through Zipcar.
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Toyota recently announced the recall of the 2010 Lexus HS 250h and the Prius hybrid to look into a software problem that may be affecting the ABS or the anti-lock braking system of the vehicles.
The glitch in the software is a different problem from the problem floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals which led to the recall and production freeze of millions of Toyota cars across the globe. About 133,000 units of the 2010 Prius and 14,500 HS 250h were affected and had to be recalled for a software upgrade.
The ABS normally functions when the control system of the car needs to react to slipping wheel on the road so the ABS disengages and engages rapidly. Consumers have reported that they have been encountering problems when they apply brakes on slick or rough roads when the ABS is activated.
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The board of executives of Toyota Motors Corporation in Japan decides to halt its production of the Prius in the United States. The decision comes amid lowering prices of fuel resulting to a slump in sales of the hybrid car.
Up to when the Prius project will be frozen is still not known. What is evident is the 32% drop in sales that Toyota experience in November of 2008.
Prius sales dramatically dropped year over year coming from 16737 units sold in November of 2007 to just 8660 cars in 2008.
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