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Toyota celebrates 30th anniversary of Land Cruiser 70 with Japan rerelease [w/videos]

It's a common refrain among auto enthusiasts to bemoan the current models being sold for being overly complex and expensive and to wish that automakers would just make vehicles like the old days. Sure, they might not have been as safe or efficient, but there was often a certain rugged simplicity that's gone today. Well, Toyota is actually doing it and thinks there's enough demand to put the Land Cruiser 70 back into production in Japan for its 30th anniversary. Sadly, it's only for one year.
The original Land Cruiser 70 served a long life in Japan from 1984 to 2004. Even today, the proven model remains in production in some regions abroad. People in its home country still love the vehicle though, and Toyota is brushing off the mothballs to give customers what they want. For the first time ever there, it's also offering the double-cab pickup version in addition to the traditional enclosed body. The company thinks that it can move about 200 of these classic trucks this year, which isn't too shabby for a vehicle that's three decades old.
Looking at the pictures above, these look like the same old Land Cruisers, but Toyota is updating them slightly to meet modern safety rules. The grille, hood and headlights are all tweaked, and they now come with airbags and anti-lock brakes. A 4.0-liter V6 is under the hood making 228 horsepower (170 kilowatts) and 266 lb-ft of torque (360 Newton-meters), and the only available gearbox is a five-speed manual. Part-time four-wheel drive is standard. If you're really afraid of getting stuck in the wilderness, locking front and rear differentials and a winch are available as options.

Toyota announces Geneva plans including droptop FT-86 Open concept

Automakers from around the globe are gearing up for the Geneva Motor Show next month, and Toyota is giving us a couple teasers of what will be in its display. In addition to what appears to be a single-seat concept called the i-Road (shown at right), Toyota will also give us our first look at a droptop Scion FR-S courtesy of the FT-86 Open Concept.
All we have to go on right now is this sketch shown above, but we do see that this car will retain its rear seats, which could be a potential advantage over one of its key rivals, the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Toyota says that this concept will be used to gauge public interest in such a convertible, but we've already heard that a Scion convertible is already planned to go on sale as soon as early next year. As far as Toyota's other concept, there also isn't much information about the i-Road except that it will be a zero-emissions vehicle and it will have seating for two passengers, which based on the drawing will have the driver sitting in front of the passenger.
Toyota will also show off the European version of the new RAV4 as well as its new Auris Touring Sports, which it refers to as a "medium-size estate." Scroll down for Toyota's tease of a press release.

General Motors became second-largest US advertiser in 2013

General Motors might be mired in several recalls, as well as the ongoing investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Congress into the automaker's response to those recalls. However, the company can celebrate taking the title of the US' second-largest advertiser in 2013. According to Ad Week examining a recently released study, total advertising spending in the US posted its fourth consecutive year of rising expenditures with 0.9-percent growth to $140.2 billion. Of that, the auto industry spent $15.2 billion to promote its goods in 2013, up 3.8 percent.
The country's biggest advertiser was Procter and Gamble, which dropped $3.17 billion in 2013, an increase of 11.8 percent. GM became the nation's second largest promoter with $1.794 billion in spending, up 10 percent. The biggest proportion of that money went to sell Cadillac and GMC. AT&T barely lost out with $1.793 billion in advertising, 15.2 percent growth. The 10 businesses with the highest ad investments spent a cumulative $15.9 billion during the year, 6.6 percent higher than 2012. Toyota came in eighth place making it the only other automaker to rank in the top 10.
The study also indicates that there is a shift in advertising spending from television and print to the Internet. There was 15.7 percent more money outlaid to promote products online in 2013 than the previous year. In comparison, television dropped 0.1 percent, newspapers were down 3.7 percent and radio fell 5.6 percent.