Toyota & Lexus U.S. January Sales Sink 34.9 Percent

The first month of 2009 also brought bad news for Toyota that saw its U.S. sales fall to 117,287 vehicles, a decrease of 34.4 percent from last January. The Toyota division that includes the Scion brand, posted sales of 102,565 units, a decrease of 34.9 percent, while Lexus recorded sales of 14,722 units, down of 30.3 percent from the year-ago month. Toyota's passenger car sales were led by the Camry and Camry Hybrid, which posted combined sales of 20,782 units. The Corolla recorded sales of 19,238 units while the Yaris reported sales of 4,440 units for the month. The Prius hybrid posted January sales of 8,121 units.

Toyota's light trucks division posted January sales of 42,548 units, down 40 percent from January 2008. Light truck sales were led by the RAV4 compact SUV with January sales of 8,034 units.

As for Lexus, it's best selling model for January 2009 was the RX with sales of 6,520 units followed by the ES luxury sedan with sales of 2,971 units.

Detroit Preview: 2009 Scion xB RS 6.0 Limited Edition

Another automobile show, another special edition model from Scion. For this year's Detroit gathering, Toyota's affiliate will present its first limited-production vehicle for 2009, the xB Release Series 6.0 or xB R.S. 6.0 for short. So what's so special about this xB? Well, nothing really unless you get a kick out of long names. Available exclusively in Absolutely Red exterior paint, the RS 6.0 gets a front grille with custom black finish while a color-keyed rear spoiler will be available as an option. And no, it doesn't even come equipped with alloy wheels. Instead it features 'Release Series' hub caps....

The red theme makes it mark in the interior as well with with color-tuned four-in-one interior lights, RS 6.0 illuminated door sills, and accented interior trim and color-tuned seat fabric. Other notable upgrades includes the standard touch screen Pioneer Audio Visual Navigation (AVN) headunit with flash memory, voice recognition, MSN Direct, and Bluetooth. The system is also satellite radio and HD Radio ready and will play DVDs and iPod videos when the vehicle is in park.

Scion plans on producing 2,500 units of the xB Release Series 6.0 that will be available in dealerships this February. The 'limited-edition' xB will carry a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $1,743 over the base price of the xB, meaning that the xB with a manual transmission will set you back at $15,750, while if you choose the automatic version, you'll pay $16,700. And as Scion points out, the delivery, processing and handling (DPH) fee for both models is $670.

Toyota's U.S. Auto Sales Plunge 33.9% in November

Toyota's U.S. sales plummeted November as consumers continue to avoid dealer showrooms. The Japanese automaker sold a total of 130,307 vehicles, representing a 33.9% fall from the same month a year earlier (on a daily selling rate basis). The Toyota Division that includes the Scion brand posted November sales of 114,084 units, a decrease of 33.8% from last November while Lexus reported November sales of 16,223 units, a decrease of 34.7% from the year-ago month.

Toyota's passenger car sales were led by Camry and Camry Hybrid, which posted combined sales of 25,224 units. The best selling Scion vehicle was the xB with 2,161 units while Lexus sales were led by the RX luxury utility vehicle, which posted combined November sales of 5,850 units.

Scion xB Taco Truck - First Pictures Released a Week After SEMA...

From what we know and unless Toyota is living in some sort of a twilight-zone where the SEMA Show continues forever and ever, the Las Vegas Convention centre closed its doors last Friday, on November 7. But whatever - it's neither the first nor the last time that an automaker has a snail-like reaction when it comes to releasing info on its SEMA project cars. In the extremely rare case that the you're interested in seeing how Kenton Parker transformed the Scion xB into a taco-truck that comes complete with a kitchen, click the part that says "Read More..." and you'll be magically transferred to a dedicated page with pictures and all.

Specs

"Scratch built"
• Complete custom body
• White aluminum skin
• Stainless kitchen
• Diamond plate floors
• Rear cooking chimney
• Stainless sink
• Griddle
• Industrial stove
• Food/soda
• Paint supplies
• Trucker seat
• Pass flip-up seat
• ETC, ETC, ETC...EVERYTHING "AND" THE KITCHEN SINK!

Built by Louie Contreras

Hand painted graphics by Kenton Parker.

Insider: Toyota to Bring Subaru Co-developed RWD Coupe as a Scion TC in 2011

Rumors that Toyota will market its Subaru co-developed rear-wheel-drive coupe as a Scion in America have been swirling around the net ever since the two Japanese automakers made their plans official this spring. But now we've received word that it's true. According to our inside source, Toyota officials in the U.S. confirmed that the affordable RWD coupe will indeed arrive in the States in late-2010 / early-2011 as the new Scion TC. Further details weren't provided but from what we know up until now, both the Toyota / Scion and Subaru variants of the two-seater compact coupe will get an all-new platform with power coming from a new 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine producing around 200HP.

Toyota officials also told our source that the iQ minicar will be heading to the States as the latest addition to the Scion line-up. Even though it is apparent that the iQ and the RWD TC will target a different segment of the young or young-at-heart audience, company officials are certain that both vehicles will do their part to spice-up the Scion brand's youthful / hip image.

Toyota's U.S. Sales Fall 24.2% in October, Lexus Sales Plunge 37.6%

In what may be one of the worst months in U.S. automotive sales in more than two decades, the Toyota Group which consists of the Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands reported U.S. October sales of 152,101 vehicles, a decrease of 25.9 percent from last October, on a daily selling rate basis. More specifically, the Toyota division -including Scion- posted October sales of 135,818 units, a decrease of 24.2 percent from last year while Lexus reported sales of 16,283 units, a 37.6 percent drop from the same month a year-ago.

Toyota's passenger cars recorded October sales of 84,904 units, down 14.2 percent from the same period last year. Even the "hot" Prius didn't manage to escape unhurt with sales of 11,804 units, a 13.6 percent drop from last year. Surprisingly, the Corolla achieved its best-ever October sales with 27,386 units, up 2.2 percent over the year-ago month. The firm's light truck sales came up to 50,914 units, down 36.5 percent from October 2007. Scion posted October sales of 6,743 units.

In spite of what you may think, Lexus passenger cars (IS, ES, GS, LS and SC) performed worse than their SUV siblings with October sales of 9,332 units, a decrease of 40.2 percent from October 2007. The luxury firm's SUVs meaning the RX, GX and LX models recorded October sales of 6,951 units, down 33.7 percent from the year-ago month.

Overall, for the first 10 months of the year, Toyota has sold 1,724,902 passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S.A, down 10.9 percent from last year while Lexus' 220,502 vehicles, off 18.6 percent from a year earlier.

Toyota Files European Patents for Yaris Sedan, HiLux, Fortuner and Innova MPV Designs

In a previous post we told that you that China’s Great Wall Motors successfully managed to file a European patent on the design of its Toyota Ractis lookalike, the Feel Free minivan (read about it here). Even though Toyota has no plans of importing its Yaris based MPV to Europe, we’re pretty sure that the Japanese firm’s execs won’t be at all happy with this development.

In our search to find out if Toyota has patented any designs at the European trademark office, we discovered that a few weeks prior to Great Walls Motors’ filing, the Japanese automaker had registered the designs of the Yaris Sedan, HiLux pickup truck, the Fortuner SUV and the Innova MPV. With the exception of the HiLux that is already available in Europe, we seriously doubt that Toyota has any intentions of selling the other models on the Old Continent. -Continued

Which leaves with us a question: did Toyota actually register the design patents because they new something was up and if yes, why didn’t they do the same with other models including the Ractis and especially the Scion range since Great Wall Motors has already created clones of the xA and xB models?

Toyota HiLux


Toyota Yaris Sedan


Toyota Innova MPV


Toyota Fortuner SUV

Scion Limited Edition xD RS 1.0 With DAMD Bodykit

The third limited-production Scion for 2008, the xD Release Series 1.0 (xD RS 1.0) is set to go on sale this June with prices set at $16,549 with a manual gearbox and $17,349 with an automatic transmission.

Scion has differentiated the RS 1.0 from its other siblings with a “hot-lava” exterior paint-job, a DAMD body kit, rear spoiler, lower springs and… unique hub-caps. Inside, the 2,000 units of the special edition xD feature Hot Lava accented seats and interior trim, a RAZO Release Series shift knob and an individual numbered badge. -Click through for the mage gallery

Scion Hikes 2009 Prices for xB by $100, tC Remains Unaffected

Toyota’s American sibling Scion, announced prices for the 2009 model year xB and tC sports coupe. The boxy xB that will arrive at dealerships later this month will carry a base price of $15,750 when equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission and $16,700 for the 4-speed automatic with sequential shifting. Prices for both configurations represent an increase of $100 or 0.6 percent for those of you who like numbers.

As for the 2009 tc coupe that set to go on sale this May, prices for both versions remain the same as the 2008 models meaning that the tC equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission has a base MSRP of $17,000, while the four-speed automatic transmission model carries an MSRP of $17,800.

Scion Presents 400Hp Rear-Wheel-Drive tC Coupe for Formula Drift

The good news is that Scion has developed a rear-wheel drive version of its compact coupe, the tC. The bad news for all us RWD-lovers is that the RS*R tC was created to compete in Formula Drift events and not to go on sale for the public to enjoy. The conversion, that was performed by aftermarket specialist, RS*R, was able to be done thanks to the fact that the tC shares its platform with Toyota's Japanese market Avensis four-wheel drive and Caldina all-wheel drive.

RS*R changed the tC's stock transverse engine configuration to a longitudinal setup in order to drive power, through the transmission and drive shaft, directly to the rear wheels. While the stock tC is equipped wit a 161 Hp 2.4-liter engine, the RS*R features a 3SGE Beams motor, HKS GT3037 turbo and intercooler, Blitz Dual SBC boost controller, and AEM EMS engine management system that outputs more than 400 HP. –Continued after the jump

Power is transferred to the rear-wheels via a Tilton triple carbon clutch and a G-Force five-speed sequential transmission. Other upgrades include the Project Mu brakes, RS-R coilovers, Sparco Corsa seats, a custom concept wide body and Enkei RPF1 alloys wrapped with Toyo Proxes R1R tires. The RS*R Scion tC that will be driven by Ken Gushi, will make its first appearance at Formula Drift's Round 1, Streets of Long Beach in Calif. on April 12.