Ford buyers appear to love their cars more than customers of any other automotive brand, returning back to the American automaker when it comes time to purchase their next vehicle. According to a study by Experian Automotive, six of the top 10 vehicles for customer brand loyalty wear badges from the Blue Oval. That includes the Ford Fusion (62.4 percent), Ford Edge (57.9 percent), Ford Five HundredTaurus (56 percent), Ford Freestyle (51.9 percent), Ford Escape (49.4 percent) and the Ford Focus (47.57 percent).
Other vehicles making up the top 10 include the Toyota Prius (52 percent), Chevy Impala (51.7 percent), Toyota Camry (47.8 percent) and Toyota Corolla (47.56 percent). This brings up an interesting question: With the closing of automotive brands like Saturn and Pontiac, where are those buyers to turn for their next automotive purchase?
Apparently, not back to General Motors. According to Experian, Pontiac owners are most likely to look to the Ford lineup for their next car or truck and Saturn shoppers will switch to Toyota or Honda – not particularly surprising given that Saturn was meant to compete with import brands. Experian predicts that GM's overall market share will fall from 20 percent to about 17.5 percent, with most of the slack being picked up by Ford, Honda and Toyota.
Talk about a foregone conclusion. Researchers at Canada's John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal took thirty-nine typical young men (i.e. college guys) and placed them in one of two cars. The first was a Toyota Camry. The second was a Porsche 911 Cabriolet. They then let the men drive up and down on two streets. One was busy and filled with women. The other was deserted. After each little cruise, each man's saliva was measured for levels of testosterone. Results?
Interestingly, whether there were ladies present or not, the mens' testosterone didn't increase at all after driving the Camry. Can anyone else hear Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda groaning? The Porsche? Well, this is interesting. When a young man drives down a skirt-filled street in a Porsche droptop, his testosterone level rises. And when then same young man drives down a totally empty road all by his lonesome in a Porsche convertible his testosterone level... rises. To the same level, in fact, as it did when all the ladies were around.
Says lead researcher Gad Saad, "In other words, just put a guy in a Porsche, and his testosterone levels shoot up, whether people watch or not." This biological reaction, according to Saad, is a form of "sexual signaling." A way of signaling to potential mates that the driver of said car is the best breeding stock, the best potential mate. Continues Saad, "It's saying, 'all you pretenders out there - you couldn't be driving this Aston Martin - you couldn't even rent it.'" Insert crack about auto journos borrowing it for a week here.
The faster you drive, the more fuel you use. Common sense, right? Absolutely, but it's still helpful to see real-life data, as you'll see by checking out the results of a recent test performed by Consumer Reports. Not all cars perform the same at various speed limits, and as you might expect, America's most fuel efficient models are also the vehicles most affected by higher speeds.
A total of seven vehicles were tested by CR: a Acura TSX with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder; a new 2010 Honda Insight; a Lexus RX350; a Mercury Mountaineer with 4.6-liter V8; Toyota Camry and RAV4 with 2.5-liter four-bangers; and a Yaris with a 1.5-liter four.
As you're probably aware, today's hybrids are optimized for high fuel economy at city speeds and therefore lose much of their miserly ways on the highway. As it turns out, this was especially true of the new Insight hybrid, which lost over 15 miles per gallon moving the needle from 55 mph to 75 mph – the largest drop in the contest.
If you just got into your China-made Toyota Camry only to notice that your door panel has inexplicably melted, it's probably not your fault and the problem is going to be fixed for free. That's good news for you, we suppose, but not so much for Toyota. New reports say the Japanese automaker is recalling 688,314 Chinese-made sedans for faulty electronic window control systems. The damaged switches were reportedly caused by excessive lubricant used during manufacturing, which can cause overheating and, in rare cases, melting. The excessive lube issue has been traced to a single supplier, according to China's breathlessly named General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
The vehicle most affected by the recall is the Camry, with 384,000 recalls. The Corolla comes in second with 245,000 units affected, followed by 35,000 Vios and 22,000 Yaris models involved in the recall. A Toyota China spokesman reportedly told Gasgoo that no accidents have occurred as a result of the defect.
Next year, Toyota Australia will begin local production of the Camry Hybrid. To celebrate this (and drum up some PR), Toyota Style Australia has created the HC-CV (Hybrid Camry Concept Vehicle) for the 2009 Melbourne Motor Show. What is that, exactly? Well, it's essentially the recently-updated 2010 Camry Hybrid, gussied up with a custom white paint color, a modified fascia, some snazzy wheels, blue decals and accents, and leather seats that incorporate the Hybrid Synergy Drive wave logo. Strip away the assorted pieces of flair, and you get the production car that's already been unveiled, only with the steering wheel moved over to the wrong side.
Toyota has just announced prices for its facelifted-for-2010 Camry, and the best-selling sedan will range from $19,395 for a six-speed manual, four-cylinder model (*$20,115 including destination charges) to $29,045 for the high-content V6 XLE automatic ($29,765 w/dest.). Hybrid buyers can expect to pay $26,150 ($26,870) before hitting the options list. Those prices represent an increase of 1.2 percent ($281), which strikes us as reasonable in light of the updated interior, exterior, and content including standard stability control. 2010 Camry units begin hitting dealers next month.
The 2-ton SUV is sliding completely off its intended course. The steering wheel is at full opposite lock, yet uncontrolled oversteer flips the rear end of the Toyota 4Runner around like a cat with its tail on fire. In one last-ditch attempt to halt the pendulum process, I stab the throttle. All four tires desperately claw at the frozen surface, but it is too late to really help. The grip the four small contact patches manage to find simply drives me directly into the thick snow bank on the side of the road. The truck immediately comes to a stop and I sit there stupefied shaking my head with embarrassment. Over the radio, my instructor tells me to back up and try it all over again. No harm done, as the "crash" is all part of the learning process at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School. Follow the jump to read all about our full-day experience in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
In addition to the 2010 Toyota Prius and iQ-based FT-EV, ToMoCo is taking the wraps off the redesigned 2010 Camry at the Detroit Auto Show later today. Due to go on sale this March, the restyled Camry offers the same soul-sucking practicality and Maytag levels of usability as its forbearers, but features a few engineering and design tweaks to bring it into the next decade. On the outside, the 2010 Camry receives a new front bumper with enlarged air intakes, uprated headlamps and a set of restyled taillights. The XLE model includes 16-inch, ten-spoke wheels, while the SE rolls on 17-inch hoops and the base LE makes due with wheel covers. Inside, a new optional stereo with USB port, Bluetooth, satellite radio, single CD and MP3 capability is fitted, and Vehicle Stability Control is now standard on all models. The Camry Hybrid gets a slightly reworked fascia, along with a new gauge cluster and silk protein/synthetic fiber cloth seats that Toyota claims are more gentle on the skin. Under the hood of the base Camry, LE and XLE models is a refreshed, 169-hp 2.5-liter four equipped with VVT-i. The SE model uses the same engine, but comes packing another 21 hp and can be had with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearbox. Both the 268-hp, 3.5-liter V6 and the hybrid drivetrains soldier on unchanged.
If you visit the Toyota Jamaica website and have a look at the box under Toyota cars, you'll see these models listed: Avensis, Camry, Corolla, Yaris. Look at the pictures next to the cars listed, and you'll see an Avensis, an Accord, a Corolla, and a Yaris. That's right -- there's a Honda Accord thumbnail pictured next to the link for the Toyota Camry. According to tipster Michael, it's been that way for more than a year. We can certainly understand the odd spelling error or even the wrong picture... for a little bit. But substituting your bread-and-butter for your direct competitor's bread-and-butter for more than a year? Well, life is indeed relaxed in Jamaica town.
Hybrid vehicles are increasingly becoming mainstream, but so far all of the production units available on the market have used gasoline exclusively as the fuel for the internal combustion engine. Various manufacturers have also shown concept and one-off test hybrid vehicles with diesel and E85 capable flex-fuel engines. One combination we don't recall seeing is a CNG fueled hybrid. Toyota plans to address that oversight at the LA Auto Show in November with a CNG fueled Camry Hybrid. Vehicles running on compressed natural gas are nothing new, although the only one currently offered by a major automaker in the US right now is the Honda Civic GX. Since CNG vehicles have a shorter range, they have primarily been used by fleets with centralized filling stations. Toyota has built this vehicle as part of its wide ranging sustainable mobility strategy. With domestic supplies of CNG being comparatively plentiful, something like a CNG hybrid sedan could be a good option for someone who does most of their driving locally.
