2002 Prius / 1 Owner / Only 30k Miles / Lowest Mileage In Country / New Tires on 2040-cars

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2013 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport

"Oh yeah, Toyota still makes the Tacoma." Admit it, that's what you just said to yourself. It's a perfectly natural reaction, but the Tacoma has been quietly anchoring its segment for years, outselling every other compact pickup without making too much of a fuss. Toyota hasn't neglected the Tacoma - it was updated in 2012 with a revised nose and interior as the most noteable changes.
In a world awash with high-value fullsize pickups all vying for your attention, the Tacoma still charms more than a few buyers out of their cash. I hooked a Tacoma for a week to see whether it still has enough to recommend it.
Driving Notes

Toyota Prius remains best-selling vehicle in California, wireless charging tests underway

About one in every nine new cars in the US are sold in the California. If we're just looking at the four Toyota Prius hybrid variants, then the number becomes closer to one in three. Tesla Model S battery-electric vehicle sales? Try one in 2.7. For the second straight year, the Prius was the best-selling car in the Golden State. Toyota sold 69,728 Priuses there, almost a third of the more than 234,000 sold in the US in 2013. Prius sales in California alone were up almost 13 percent. And Toyota's ready to build upon that momentum with a new version of the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, saying that it's testing a wireless recharging system in Japan's Aichi Prefecture and will start similar tirals stateside later this year. We'll make the wild prediction that some of those tests, which involves magnetic resonance, will be in California. Meanwhile, Tesla's numbers were, in their own way, were more impressive. The California-based automaker sold 8,347 of its Model S units in the Golden State out of about 22,300 nationwide in 2012, Bloomberg News reports. In all, advanced-powertrain vehicles accounted for 9.3 percent of California new-vehicle sales, compared to 3.8 percent for the country, Bloomberg says, citing Hybrid Cars and Baum & Associates. Check out Toyota's press release on its California sales below. Prius Medals In The Golden State Toyota Prius is best-selling vehicle line in California Wireless charging testing for Prius Plug-in TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prius took home the gold in 2013 as the most popular vehicle-line in California for the second year in a row. The Prius Family (Prius Liftback, Prius v, Prius c and Prius Plug-in) took the podium in both 2012 and 2013 as the best-selling California vehicle name plate. 69,728 drivers hit the road in 2013, according to the California Auto Outlook Report, while 61,893 Californians joined the family in 2012. In the Golden State, the Prius Family outsells all other hybrid competitors combined. California drivers lead the country in adoption of vehicles powered, either wholly or partially, by electricity. 9.3% of vehicles sold in the state run on some form of electricity, according to the report. But despite the growing number of hybrid competitors, Toyota's hybrid leadership remains unmatched. In fact, one out of every two hybrids in California carries the Prius name plate.

Four Wheeler crowns Ultimate Factory 4x4... who wins?

Nearly every automaker doing business in the SUV or pickup truck segments offers a package designed to improve the off-road capabilities of its wares. But, of course, not all such factory kits are created equal. How, then, to separate the wheat from the chaff? Gather each of them up and put them through their paces, naturally.
The folks from Four Wheeler and PickupTrucks.com joined forces to run just such a comparison test, with the winner named the Ultimate Factory 4x4. A total of seven vehicles showed up to the fight: the 2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, 2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, 2012 Nissan Frontier PRO-4X and Xterra PRO-4X, 2012 Ram Power Wagon, and 2012 Toyota 4Runner Trail and Tacoma TRD T|X Baja Series.
With the contestants in place, the whole crew put each vehicle through a battery of tests that included skidpad and acceleration measurements, a hillclimb, a rocky stairstep course and a rock garden. Considering the nature of the beasts, on-road ride and comfort were not part of the routine.