#toyota

Two Drive Notes for the price of one this week, due to travel last week.

Up today: The 2024 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro.

God knows I’m a big proponent of the minivan. I’ve owned a few, though my rapidly-emptying nest no longer requires the flexible cargo area behind the seats that roughly resembles a small airport hangar. It’s hard to argue against the versatility of the big square box where stale french fries and the dreams of DINKs go to die.

Today we bring you a 1988 Toyota MR2. I had forgotten this generation of the MR2 existed.

With Toyota discussing its desire to build an automatic transmission dedicated for performance applications, driving enthusiasts around the world are eager to find out when the unit will be affixed to the GR Yaris. Meanwhile, Americans want to know when it will be adapted for the GR Corolla and prospective performance products Toyota may actually sell in the United States. There has been no shortage of rumors, with one of the most recent suggesting Toyota’s newest “Direct Automatic Transmission” (DAT) will debut during the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon. Production is supposed to commence at roughly the same time.

Today, in the dead of winter, we present to you a convertible. It's a 2004 Toyota MR2 Spyder.

We gave you our picks for worst cars of 2023 earlier today. Now, predictably, it's time for our picks for the best.

Despite having been around for decades, vehicle airbags are not infallible or immune to manufacturing defects. There was the massive and ongoing Takata airbag recall, and automaker continue issuing recall actions to correct or prevent failures of airbag sensor systems. Toyota is the latest, as its most recent action involves around 1.1 million vehicles from between 2020 and 2022 for malfunctioning airbag sensors.

It's that time of year. Time for us to toss awards and raspberries at the automakers.

We'll do the worst first, and the best later today, so that you can head into the holiday weekend on a positive note.

Today we bring you an overlanding 2006 Toyota Tundra.

But we can all go pound sand in North America, unfortunately. Such are the joys – and challenges – of our global marketplace. Nevertheless, off-road gearheads in other parts of the world will be able to avail themselves of this tremendously square beast, showing up for duty with a 2.8L turbodiesel.

Despite Toyota having revealed the redesigned mid-sized Tacoma pickup for the 2024 model year last spring, the company has waited until now to announce pricing. That may have been because the brand’s best-selling truck is accompanied by some unhappy price increases. Though the pickup has also been modernized, potentially softening the blow for some who liked the vehicle’s reputation for reliability and simply thought it was a little rough around the edges.

In yet another chapter of dealers (and their financial arms) behaving badly, Toyota Motor Credit has been levied $12 million civil fine and also order to fork over $48 million in restitution after a court found the organization played fast and loose with some rules.

It was gloomy when I landed in Los Angeles last week. Gloomy enough that it put me in a sour mood -- despite living in the Midwest, I like sun.

The same cloud cover that prevented me from getting a view of the city upon approach to LAX painted downtown in a shade of grey that would be right at home in some depressing movie about urban malaise.

Then, on Thursday, the sun came out. Just in time for this year's sole media day.

“We don’t have Coke. Is Pepsi okay?” has become something of a meme lately, where consumers, thwarted in their attempts to acquire what they desire, are offered something less than. And for the record, I’m a Coke person, though Wilford Brimley’s favorite chronic disease has pushed me toward the Coke Zero end of the bubbly drinks spectrum.

Making good on its promise to show an SUV variant of its new Crown sedan, Toyota introduced the Crown Signia yesterday at an event in Los Angeles.