2003 Toyota Matrix Xr Wagon 4-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Toyota says you might have the 40-millionth Corolla ever built

The guy who bought the 50-millionth Toyota in the US got a free Camry and RAV4, but whoever in the world bought the 40-millionth Corolla in August gets a hearty "thank you" from the Japanese automaker. On sale since 1966, the Corolla is the best-selling nameplate in the world by a goodly margin (more than the Volkswagen Beetle and Ford Model T combined). So while you'd think that vehicle number 40 million would be sitting in a museum somewhere, Toyota can't even say in which country this milestone Corolla was sold, let alone to which customer.
One reason that Toyota is unsure where this Corolla was sold is the fact that the Corolla name itself is more than just the compact sedan sold in the US. On our shores alone, sales of the Matrix are lumped in with the Corolla, but around the world, numerous vehicles wear the Corolla name or share its platform. Scroll down for Toyota's press release, and it has also put together a website celebrating 47 years and 40 million sales for the Corolla... and counting.

Autoblog fan favorite car ads from Super Bowl XLIX

Super Bowl XLIX is in the books, and the New England Patriots emerged victorious. Of course, if you're like us, the big game wasn't so much about the battle between the east coast and west, so much as a fight between the world's automotive advertisers. We collected and collated all of last night's new ads and put them together for you to vote on. And yes, we're limiting this year's contest to last night's new features. That's why you aren't seeing Dodge's epic Wisdom among our collection of commercials, and it's a similar story with Chevrolet's Truck Guy Focus Group series, which highlights the new Colorado. You can still vote for your favorites. We won't be closing the voting on our Super Bowl page, so while the winners and losers are correct as of this writing, it's entirely possible that there could be some changes in the rankings as time goes on. So, without any further ado, here are the winning ads based on your voting. Nissan: With Dad Fiat: Ready For Action Jeep: Beautiful Lands BMW: Newfangled Idea Mercedes-Benz: Fable NASCAR: America Start Your Engines As for those ads that failed to impact you, loyal readers, Toyota was the absolute, undisputed loser. The Japanese brand ran four ads in total – two for Toyota and two for Lexus – and all of them have negative tallies as of this writing. Lexus' Make Some Noise and Lets Play and Toyota's One Bold Choice and My Bold Dad both had very weak showings among the commercials that aired, although they weren't alone. Neither Mazda nor Kia scored particularly well, despite featuring celebrity magic act Penn and Teller and former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, respectively. Chevrolet was the winner of the losers, as of our writing, recording the fewest downvotes for its audience-punking The Big Game ad. If you want to take a second look at the losing ads, you can head back to our Super Bowl page for the complete collection. But for now, head into Comments and let us know what you think of the results.

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.