yaris

Toyota today announced the unveiling of several new and revamped models at the 2011 Frankfurt International Motor Show, which runs Sept. 13 to 25.

Toyota plans to roll out the 2012 Avensis, the updated Prius and the Prius Plug-in and Prius+, as well as the 2012 Hilux.

According to Toyota, changes to the British-built Avensis sedan will "include revised exterior styling, incorporating a frontal treatment that follows Toyota's new design language." These changes are the largest midlife investment the company has made for any model, the company said in a press release.

The new Prius family of … Read more

CULVER CITY, Calif.--With the 2012 Yaris, Toyota is promoting an image as much as a car. The automaker is gearing up to target the four-cylinder at entry-level buyers as likely to spend their money on video games and MP3s as they are a new set of wheels. ("Yaris! It's a car!" reads a cutesy little ad campaign with bright, cheery letters).

The youth-centric campaign is primarily marketing hype, as the Yaris is no more or less appealing to someone in a Captain America T-shirt in San Francisco as it is to a middle-class family in Milwaukee. An inexpensive car that saves you money on gas can sell itself in this repressed economy if it's put together correctly. And the Yaris is a fun, unassuming ride that falls a little short of adjectives like zippy or thrilling. It doesn't feel as cool as a Fiat 500, as powerful as a Volkswagen Golf, or as substantial as a Ford Fiesta, but for $14,115 to $17,200 (depending on the setup) it's close enough for young drivers entering the market. … Read more

When you think subcompact, you're probably thinking giving up horsepower, cargo space, tech options, and safety. But this isn't so for the 2012 Hyundai Accent.

The new Accent comes in a smart four-door GLS spec and a sporty five-door hatch, in GS and SE trims. With a direct-injection 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, the Accent offers 138 horsepower at 6,300rpm and 123 pound-feet of torque at 4,850rpm.

The Accent four-door is slightly larger than its predecessor (3.5 inches longer and a wheelbase that's 2.8 inches longer). It also bests the Toyota Yaris, Ford Fiesta, … Read more

Toyota's U.K. press site released two photos of a restyled Yaris, along with engine specs. The styling of this third-generation model should reflect the next version of the car to be offered in the U.S.

An exterior shot reveals a more sculpted car that, however, retains the same basic shape and size as the hatchback model. The front-end treatment comports better with Toyota's newer styling language, featuring an almost vertically aligned front badge. The hood opening shows a curved cut instead of the straight line from the current generation.

A large intake on the front gives it a more aggressive look, and a strong side contour line seems to lead back to a traditional hatchback rear pillar.

In the U.K., the Yaris will be available with three engines: a 1-liter, a 1.33-liter featuring dual variable valve timing, and a 1.4-liter diesel.

An interior shot shows a navigation screen. The press release refers to it as Toyota Touch & Go, with a 6.1-inch full-color touch screen. The interior photo shows a left-hand-drive car, suggesting that it is a picture of the next-generation European Yaris. … Read more

A highly stylized video of the 2012 Toyota Yaris HSD concept landed on YouTube last week. The subcompact with Hybrid Synergy Drive was unveiled at the 2011 International Motor Show in Geneva.

The 2012 Yaris is touted as the first B-segment hybrid; it can be driven in full-electric mode.

The sporty new Yaris features a sharply sculpted front bumper, bigger inlets, a wind-sheering rear spoiler, and rear diffuser riding on 18-inch alloy wheels--all designed for a more efficient ride.

Vehicle information, such as fuel efficiency and other specifications, has yet to be released from Toyota, as the current focus of … Read more

At the upcoming 2011 Geneva auto show, Toyota will find a new hood under which to cram its Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) with the unveiling of a Yaris HSD concept. The automaker will also grow its Prius family of hybrids (in more ways than one) when it rolls out the larger Prius+.

In the wake of the 2011 Detroit auto show's unveiling of the compact Prius C and larger Prius V concepts, the compact Yaris HSD and larger Prius+ concepts seem like a bit of déjà vu. However, the upcoming Prius+ will seat seven passengers versus … Read more

It has proven itself to be a fun little ride. It even sort of defeated a super car. Now, the upcoming 2011 Ford Fiesta earns bragging rights at the pump with an EPA-certified fuel economy of 40 mpg highway when equipped with Ford's PowerShift automatic transmission.

To achieve this level of efficiency, Ford started with the Fiesta's new 1.6-liter Duratec engine. We found that this 120-horsepower mill was no neck-snapper during our First Drive, but it does feature an assortment of fuel-saving technologies including variable camshaft timing, aggressive fuel shutoff on hard deceleration, and a more efficient … Read more

About 50 years ago, a nonprofit organization called the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was founded to conduct research on consumer automotive safety and preventive measures to reduce vehicular crashes and personal injuries that occur in car crashes. Recently the IIHS made news by crash testing a car from the era of its inception, the 1959 Chevy Bel Air, against a 2009 Chevy Malibu. The video for the Chevy crash test is readily available, but to sum it up, automobile safety features have come a long way, baby.

Today's video clip is also part of the IIHS crash experiment … Read more

Playing games with a joystick is officially yesterday's news, thanks to the Nintendo Wii, and the new Sony Ericsson Yari is so onboard that train.

The Yari is a gaming phone that supports motion gaming with an accelerometer that can sense when you're chucking that bowling ball, but it's also the first phone outside Japan to sport gesture gaming. That means the phone's forward-facing camera can detect your movement compared to the background, allowing you to control games with the wave of a hand.

Hit play to see a video of us waving our hands around … Read more