2008 Toyota Yaris Base Hatchback 2-door 1.5l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

New Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ could move to a Toyota platform

There's more rumormill news about the future of the Toyota 86 and its twin, the Subaru BRZ. Australian website CarSales reports that the next versions of the coupe twins may switch from the existing and heavily modified Impreza platform to Toyota's TNGA platform. The reason? An unnamed Subaru insider tells the site the next-generation versions of the cars will retain their rear-wheel-drive configuration and thus won't move to the new Subaru Global Platform, upon which the automaker is basing all its new all-wheel-drive vehicles. That leaves two options: staying with the current Subaru platform, or moving to the Toyota New Global Architecture, which underpins vehicles including the Prius, C-HR, Camry and Highlander, and can better accommodate real-wheel-drive layouts. The TNGA would also help save weight and provide economies of scale. "It's a very flexible platform, but we make all-wheel-drive vehicles," the insider told CarSales about the new Subaru platform. "That's our forte, all-wheel drive." The 86 and BRZ launched for 2012, the former as the Scion FR-S, sharing the Impreza platform, Subaru's 205-horsepower 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine and a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. Both brands have confirmed they are working on new vehicles but have declined to offer details, and the source tells CarSales that development at Subaru is well under way. Toyota just revealed its heavily anticipated (and much-dissected) Supra in Detroit in January, based heavily on BMW engineering. The automaker is reportedly keen to build a family of sports cars, with a possible third model under consideration, and is developing the new 86 with plenty of involvement from the Toyota Gazoo Racing division.

Daily Driver: 2015 Toyota Yaris SE

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Toyota Yaris SE Hatchback, reviewed by Sebastian Blanco. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Sebastian Blanco here from Autoblog and AutoblogGreen, with the Daily Driver, this time in the 2015 Toyota Yaris SE Hatchback. It's in a fine blue color called Blue Streak Metallic. This car comes in at just under $17,000, but with all the options and we'll talk about that in a minute, it comes to $18,700. It's rated at 30 miles per gallon in the city, [00:00:30] 37 on the highway, and 33 combined. I've driven it a little over 350 miles this week and the dashboard is reading at 36.8 miles per gallon average, so it definitely gets props for hitting the EPA fuel economy numbers. It has warmed up a little, so we're not operating in the cool Michigan winter that some of my previous cars were, so I gave them a little slack for being under the average. This one right on the money her in the spring time. I do like the [00:01:00] roominess of it. I think it feels great for such a small car. Visibility, you can see everywhere you look. All cars should have this but so few of them do. I like that it's a manual transmission. It's been way too long since I've driven a manual. I do like even this little pocket thing up front here. I haven't put anything in it. I just like that it's there. I don't know, maybe you can put your phone in there or something, but it's cool. The worst part about this though is the infotainment screen here. It is unresponsive. It looks like it's something from Windows 95. [00:01:30] It just acts so weird when it connects to my phone. It connects either via Bluetooth or USB. It's for me, maybe I just haven't had enough time with it, but it's very hit and miss as far as getting my music or my podcast to stream over the vehicle's audio system. The nav system is a $900 upgrade, and given how bad it looks and how bright it is at nighttime, I think an after-market system or even just a mount for your phone is a much, much better deal. Like [00:02:00] I said, this is the base model. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm a big fan of utility, practical, don't get anything extra.

Toyota reaffirms commitment to body-on-frame SUVs

Toyota sold 121,055 Highlander CUVs in 2012, according to Automotive News. By comparison, it sold 78,457 examples of four different body-on-frame, truck-based SUVs (4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Sequoia and Land Cruiser). One could argue then, that the traditional SUVs aren't pulling their weight from a sales perspective. Yet that isn't stopping Toyota from reaffirming its commitment to a segment that has seen its former champions - Ford, General Motors and Chrysler - abandon it with alarming speed. Ford and GM still offer body-on frame utilities, but only in the very largest offerings, catering to seven or even eight passengers. Everything outside of the Expedition or Tahoe rides now on a unibody.
Toyota's decision to stick with the technology is good news if you're in the market for smaller SUVs that are still capable of heading well off the beaten path. Outside of the Jeep Wrangler, Grand Cherokee (a unibody) and perhaps Nissan Xterra, there's not much in terms of capable SUVs between $20,000 and $50,000. As the Toyota brand's US head, Bill Fay, says, "Clearly, the trend has shifted, but there is still an owner base that is interested in these vehicles."
We don't doubt Fay on that, but it may also be somewhat telling that Toyota's SUV lineup is aging, and we haven't seen or heard much about replacement models in the pipeline. Admittedly, the 4Runner (pictured) has been facelifted for 2014, but it's mostly cosmetic in nature. Despite Toyota's posturing, we still expect its body-on-frame lineup to thin in the coming years as sales dwindle and escalating fuel-economy standards make business cases even tougher. Here's hoping that Toyota manages to keep at least one rough-and-tumble SUV in its lineup in the coming years.