2012 Toyota Tundra Double Cab Pickup 4-door 5.7l on 2040-cars

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Toyota sees Camry share loss despite predicting increasing sales

Toyota may be set to lose share the midsize sedan market. While speaking with Automotive News, Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz said that if his company kept pace with the current swell in the market for family four doors, Toyota would need to sell around 500,000 Camry models. "I'm not sure we can do much more than 400 [thousand] today," Lentz said.
But that doesn't mean Camry sales are shrinking - on the contrary, Lentz thinks Toyota will likely sell more Camry units in 2013 than it did in 2012, it's just that the company isn't keeping pace with segment's current explosion in popularity. Industry wide, midsized sedan sales have increased by 20 percent. "Are we going to lose [Camry] share? Probably so," Lentz said, "but we will continue to grow in raw volume."
Toyota sold 404,886 Camry units last year, and the company just revised its 2013 sales objective from 2.18 million units earlier this year to 2.2-million plus units, so while things are looking up for the brand and Camry sales may be on the rise, Toyota may not have the muscle to keep up its share in the sedan segment. Whether that's because of a production bottleneck or a predicted sales ceiling isn't clear. We've got a call in and will update this news item if/when we learn more.

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata battles Toyota GT86 on track

It's got two doors and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine up front, driving the rear wheels. It's made in Japan, and as far as bang-for-your-buck goes, it's a downright bargain. So which are we talking about, the Mazda MX-5 Miata, or the Toyobaru coupe known alternately as the Subaru BRZ, Scion FR-S, or Toyota GT-86? The answer is "yes," and it just goes to show, roofs notwithstanding, how close these two vehicles really are to one another. Which one is your favorite may come down to a matter of personal taste, but for its latest video, Auto Express set out to find out which laps faster around the track. On paper at least, the Toyota's 200 horsepower will trump the Mazda's 155 any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Then again, the Miata does weigh a good 400 pounds less, even with the 2.0-liter engine and despite its convertible bodystyle – but is that enough to make up the difference? You're going to have to just watch the video for yourself to find out. All we'll tell you is that the match is pretty darn close – what you might call a photo finish, if they were actually racing each other at the same time as opposed to each racing the clock separately. So watch the video above and voice your support for your favorite little Japanese sports car in the Comments section. Related Video:

4th-gen Toyota Prius production delayed by 6 months

If you were holding off buying a new car in anticipation of the fourth-generation Toyota Prius arriving in 2015, your wait might be a little longer. Company insiders are claiming that production of the bestselling hybrid is being pushed back from spring to possibly as late as December 2015. Toyota is reportedly still making alterations to make sure everything is just right before it unleashes the all-important, efficient hatch on a waiting public.
According to unnamed sources speaking to Automotive News Europe, the main reasons for the delay aren't completely known. It's believed the engineers are still working on making the hybrid powertrain more efficient and improving the new Toyota Global Architecture modular platform. The insiders claim that the final production prototype of the Prius is still under development, and it might be November before it's finalized. From there, it usually takes around 12 months to tool up and for the first car to roll off the assembly line. It would be another year after that before the plug-in variant starts assembly. The national manager of Toyota Product Communications, Michael Kroll, told AutoblogGreen, "As you might expect, we can't comment on future product plans."
Despite the delay, some potential details have already emerged about the new hybrid. A company spokesperson recently told Autoblog via email that Toyota is engineering the next-gen Prius to have smaller, more power-dense electric motors and greater thermal efficiency. The new modular platform is also rumored reduce weight, and the changes could lead to a targeted 10 percent improvement in fuel economy.