The Toyota Mirai feels like any other upscale electric car
Back in the ’80s and ’90s, when alternate fuel technology was at a fever pitch, one of the possibilities that seemed the most promising was hydrogen power. It’s clean burning, abundant, and fuel efficient, and a slew of manufacturers, including Mazda, BMW, and Toyota, spent enormous amounts of time and money pursuing the idea of…
Available with either a four-cylinder or V6 engine, this generation was offered in a variety of trim levels
There wasn’t much to separate the Toyota Camry between 2010 and 2012, aside from minor styling cues and options packages. These were all pretty good years for Toyota’s mid-size sedan, and it maintained its reputation as one of the more reliable cars on the road. Available with either a four-cylinder or V6 engine, with a…
Standard equipment includes telescoping steering, split folding rear seat, anti-lock brakes and more
In 2012, the Toyota Corolla sedan accounted for 40 per cent of the company’s total Canadian sales. It had been at or near the top of the sales heap in the compact car category for the previous two decades. This generation of the Corolla received a re-do in 2009, apparently styled in part in Turin,…
Made for Canada's winters? Let's find out
Talk is cheap. Toyota tells consumers the AWD Sienna is up for adventure. But does that mean a truly Canadian adventure? Normally, automotive journalists are often forced to assess vehicles based on just a few days’ experience – the equivalent of that honeymoon period. There isn’t much time to discover a new vehicle’s warts. No…
The C-HR is practical and easy to get along with – except for the CVT, which is its undoing
If you’ve ever driven in southern British Columbia, chances are you’ve spent some time on the Coquihalla Hwy, also known as Hwy 5. Constructed to coincide with Expo 86 in Vancouver, it’s a spectacular stretch of road, soaring over the coastal mountain range from Hope to Kamloops, with Hwy 97C branching off at Merritt, taking…
From the funny little Toyota zipping around the Olympics to the Honda Monkey and Acura NSX to the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Fefe Dobson
Time for some automotive odds and ends that have come my way lately. First, if you’ve been watching the Tokyo Olympics, you may have noticed these funny little model cars zipping all over the place. They’re especially obvious during the athletics events, such as shot put, javelin, relay races and so on, where they schlepp…
The year's version of this mid-size pickup truck has plenty of bells and whistles, but can it live up to the reputation of its predecessor?
A few lifetimes ago, I decided to bring in the new year by taking a long hike up a well-known trail near Harrison, B.C. The Clear Creek trailhead is on the road to Port Douglas on Harrison Lake, and makes its way northeast, until it kind of peters out somewhere just west of the Fraser…
Plenty of power, almost completely silent and no worse on gas than most of the competition
Kissing cousin to the 4Runner, the Lexus GX 460 is the upscale version of Toyota’s popular SUV. It has a body-on-frame design and more stuff and a higher price tag, but features the same basic body style, wheelbase, seating capacity and driving experience. In 2011, it was powered by a 4.6-litre V8 engine that delivered…
When you purchase a Camry, you usually get a four-wheeled appliance that at a minimum gives you years of hassle-free motoring
The year 2010 wasn’t the best of times for Toyota. Unintended acceleration complaints and floormat glitches were giving the company fits. No model in the company’s lineup, it seemed, was immune and Toyota appeared to spend most of its time putting out fires. But as it turns out, this was a pretty good year for…
The RX 450 is roomy, cheap to run and very comfortable. For most folks in this market, that’s more than enough
Although hybrid vehicles have been around for decades (Ferdinand Porsche developed a gas/electric vehicle in 1899), Toyota/Lexus really got the ball rolling when they introduced the Prius in 1997. The Prius has been phenomenally successful, selling over a million units worldwide, and remains the benchmark by which all other hybrids are judged. So successful has…