2wd Double C 5.7l (2) Front Pwr Points & (1) Rear Pwr Point 5 Passenger Seating on 2040-cars

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2015 Toyota Camry ushers in 'sweeping redesign' [w/poll]

With a dozen years atop the nation's best-selling car charts, you might think that there wouldn't be a lot of incentive for Toyota to rework its Camry, particularly so early in the life of the current model. But despite its unassailable sales totals, the midsize sedan has come in for substantial criticism for its milquetoast dynamics, piecemeal interiors and bland design.
As part of CEO Akio Toyoda's mantra to build more exciting cars, the 2015 Camry has arrived with a fresh new look and content that goes far beyond the Japanese automaker's typically slight mid-cycle redesigns. Featuring some 2,000 new parts, the 2015 Camry casts a 1.8-inch longer shadow and stretches across a widened track (0.4 inches). And it won't be just the widened track that should help deliver a more dynamic performance - Toyota is citing a stiffer chassis thanks to additional spot welds along with a rejiggered suspension, retuned electric power steering and a new two-stage brake booster for improved braking feel.
A new XSE trim promises the sportiest performance yet, including model-specific shock absorbers and springs, stiffer bushings, unique stability control programming and 18-inch wheels to go along with a unique front end treatment featuring mesh grille inserts and a revised fascia.

Final decision on Toyota/BMW sports car due by year end

BMW and Toyota signed a memorandum of understanding to share technology and build a sports car way back in 2012, and months later, they made that partnership official. This oft-rumored model from two auto industry titans still hasn't hit the road, and the time has come to make a final decision about its future. Thankfully, the model's fate is just a few months from being known. "By the end of the year we will approve whether or not we will make it," a Toyota spokesperson said about the sports car project, according to Automotive News Europe. "The whole study before that, on what kind of platform, on what kind of architecture, that's been progressing quite well. We haven't yet decided to give the green light to the project, but it's coming up." The collaboration is supposed to result in jointly developed fuel-cell tech, composites, and research into lithium-air batteries. Little is officially known about what Toyota and BMW are planning for the sports car project, but there are plenty of rumors about what's in store. Both automakers are supposed to get their own version of the vehicle. Some reports say the Japanese model will be the revival of the Supra, and the Bimmer-badged one might end up being a replacement for the Z4. The potential powertrains have been suggested as a German-sourced, turbocharged inline six with rear-wheel drive and a super-capacitor-powered plug-in hybrid with all-wheel drive.

2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser Ultimate Edition

Introduced at the end of 2006, this is the last year for the Toyota FJ Cruiser, the reincarnated FJ40-series Land Cruiser that will shortly journey to Takama-ga-hara, the Plain of High Heaven. In its first model year, we drove it to SEMA and found it, shall we say, coarse. It bobbled on the freeway and droned in the cabin, its boxy interior providing four bounce-boards for unpleasant frequencies. Tall mirrors helped one work around the eclipse of vision aft of the B-pillars, but navigating traffic required forethought and technique. Its turning circle was measured in kilometers. For the first two years of its life, it needed premium gas. It may have been fun to look at, but we couldn't wait to get out of it.
That's not the case anymore, and now the FJ Cruiser is poised to join a long list of vehicles that got better and better, then got axed.
Driving Notes