1971 Toyota Fj40 Landcruiser Upgrades on 2040-cars

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Toyota unofficially teases TE-S800 plug-in hybrid roadster

We really want to party with the Toyota Engineering Society. With the mothership company showing a bunch of modifications at the Tokyo Auto Salon last month, that nutty engineering group used the event to unofficially show off its TE-S800 PHEV roadster, as you can see in the two-minute video below. The car is a plug-in hybrid that pairs the 115-horsepower gas engine that's standard issue on the Toyota Prius hybrid with a 102-horsepower electric motor. The right-hand-drive two-seat-vehicle also sits on the platform of the little-bitty MR2 (remember those?) so it weighs in at less than 2,000 lbs. And, as you can see, the car's also painted bright green (now there's a hint) and kind of cool-looking. Do the math of combining more than 200 horsepower with a featherweight car, and you've got a rather sporty vehicle that can sprint from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than six seconds, all while getting outstanding fuel economy. Yippee! Engineering Society aside, the Japanese automaker brought more than 30 customized vehicles to the Salon. Those included the Harrier G Sports Concept, a modified version of the Toyota's new crossover, and the Vitz RS G Sports Concept, which is a sported-out Yaris. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: Gas2Image Credit: YouTube (mikichan1984) Green Toyota Electric PHEV roadster

KBB 2013 Brand Image Awards has some obvious and oddball winners

The sixth edition of the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards have crowned a wide range of winners - in a couple of cases the recipient of the laurels might say more about KBB users than they do about the actual winner. Compiled from the responses of more than 12,000 shoppers on KBB.com over the past year, there are 13 categories broken into non-luxury, luxury and truck segments "representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public."
The award categories have been revamped this year, with some dropping off, some new ones appearing and at least one other given a new term. What isn't surprising is that Honda won Most Trusted Brand for the second year running, Best Value Brand for the third year in a row and took Best Overall Brand, which wasn't on last year's list of awards.
On our own shores, in the non-luxury categories Chrysler got Most Refined Brand and Buick took Best Value Luxury Brand. Neither one of those marques won anything in last year's Brand Image Awards, while Cadillac, which won Best Interior Design Brand and Best Comfort Brand last year - those awards disappeared this year - went home without a single accolade.

Toyota's refreshed Sai is a Lexus HS by any other name

Toyota first launched Lexus in the United States back in 1989, but it wasn't until 2005 that it brought the luxury marque home to roost. But don't think that Toyota didn't find a way of selling many of its premium models in the Japanese Domestic Market in the meantime. The Lexus LS was sold as the Toyota Celsion, the ES as the Vista and Camry Prominent, and the SC as the Soarer. (We could go on, but you get the point.)
These days Lexus sells in markets around the world, including Japan, but Toyota still spins off its own versions of Lexus models to sell domestically as well. Like the new Sai, for example. Sharing its platform, hybrid propulsion and much more with the Lexus HS (which you may remember as the world's first dedicated luxury hybrid until it was pulled from the market early last year), the Sai was introduced to Japan at the same time as the HS was rolled out around the world. Now nearly four years on the market, Toyota has given it a bit of a refresh.
Boasting a far more aggressive front end and a restyled rear, the revised Sai features LED headlights, 16-inch alloys and a higher-quality interior in which JDM buyers will find a new center console and trim, along with an optional 10-speaker infotainment system. Toyota also boasts that the new Sai is made of 20-percent Ecological Plastic and recycled resin.