Toyota Entune System – Preliminary Review
At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Toyota announced a new in-car electronics system called Entune that seems to be very similar to Ford’s “Sync” system. While we have yet to actually use Entune, the system might best be described as a smart phone or tablet PC that’s built into your Toyota. It features a large touch screen, a number of built-in applications, and the ability to connect to the Internet by tethering itself to the driver’s smart phone.
How it Works: Entune connects your car to the Internet using your smart phone. You install a special Entune app on your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android-powered phone, and then you use Bluetooth to connect your phone to your car. As long as your phone is on and the Entune app on your phone is active, Entune will be fully functional.
Needless to say, if you don’t have a smart phone with a data plan, Entune might not be useful to you.
Entune Features Include: Read more…
Tundra 2010 Sales Growth Ahead of Chevy, GMC, and Ram
Yesterday Toyota announced their 2010 total sales figures, which were quickly pulled into a 2010 Pickup Sales Totals article on PickupTrucks.com. The highlight? Toyota Tundra sales in 2010 grew 17.5% compared to 2009, which means that Toyota sold a total of 93,309 trucks.
While Ram and GM both sold more trucks (199,652 Rams and 499,929 GM’s), sales growth at Ram was 12.6% and about 16.5% at GM. Ford was the big winner with 528,349 trucks sold in 2010 – 27.7% more than 2009. Titan pulled up the rear with 23,416 sales in 2010, growth of 23%.
While some people might look at the numbers for Ford, Ram, and GM and marvel, you have to handicap these numbers because: Read more…
Ram 1500 Recall For Rear Axle Bearings, Tundra Too?
Chrysler-Fiat is recalling more than 50,000 Ram 1500 pickups because of a rear axle bearing problem that can eventually cause a rear axle failure. The symptoms of this problem are a growling, griding noise coming from the rear axle:
Chrysler is recalling certain model year 2011 Ram 1500 trucks manufactured from September 2009 through December 2010. Some vehicles may have experience a noise (growl, grind) coming from the rear axle bearing which could eventually seize.
If this recall is not completed, a failure of the bearing could cause the vehicle to stall increasing the risk of a crash.
The interesting thing – to me at least – is that these symptoms match a Toyota Tundra TSB (#T-SB-015-10): Read more…
Nitrogen In Your Tires – More Than Just a Gimmick
Proper tire inflation is a good thing, and the number of media reports, government pamphlets, and tire shop recommendations over the years have really highlighted the benefits of making sure that your rubber is properly inflated. Better fuel economy, reduced tire wear, and increased grip and performance are some of the highlights associated with keeping tire inflation at the appropriate level.
But what about filling tires with Nitrogen instead of “Air”?
There is an interesting tool that drivers can make use of to help not only keep their tires more consistently inflated but to also reduce the wear and tear on their rims and rubber, and that is the use of nitrogen instead of air inside the tire itself. Nitrogen is an inert gas that makes up about 78% of “air”, but when used in its pure form for tire inflation, Nitrogen offers several benefits to vehicle owners. Read more…
3 Reasons Toyota Should Unveil A Prius Pickup
On January 10th, 2011, Toyota is going to unveil three new Prius models:
- The plug-in Prius hybrid that’s been rumored for years
- The Prius wagon that Toyota has hinted at for months (and that made an appearance at Toyota’s most recent Las Vegas dealer meeting)
- An unknown concept
I think the unknown concept that is unveiled will probably be a Prius coupe that we were all expecting to see last year. However, it could be a Prius pickup truck. We talked about the possibility of a Prius pickup truck in late September, 2010, and at that time we referenced news that discussed a car-based pickup shared between Prius and Scion: Scion would get the low-cost version that attracted younger consumers with lots of customization options, while Prius would get the higher-cost version with a hybrid drivetrain and great gas mileage.
Is Toyota's old A-Bat concept a future Prius brand pickup truck?
While we’ll always question the logic of a car-based pickup truck, there’s no denying that the marketplace anticipates a need. GM is talking about bringing back the El Camino and the next Ram Dakota will be based on a car. If Toyota decided to invest in a new Prius model in early 2008, there’s a pretty good chance they looked at building a pickup. The popular opinion at the time was that gas prices had really hurt truck sales and that there was a strong need for a fuel-efficient truck. Add in all the news we’ve seen and it sort of makes sense…
Here’s why Toyota should unveil a new Prius-powered pickup next month: Read more…
