2011 Toyota Price Adjustments

The price increases on Toyota models range from $200 for the Yaris Liftback to $900 for both the Land Cruiser and Sequoia large sport utility vehicles (SUV). The model-by-model adjustments reflect individual percentage increases ranging from 1.2 to 2.2 percent. A complete list of model-by-model price adjustments is attached below.

The new prices for North American-produced vehicles will become effective with May 2011 production. For models sourced from Japan, updated pricing will be effective for vehicles with scheduled May arrivals. Japan-sourced vehicles include 4Runner, Corolla, FJ Cruiser, Highlander Hybrid, Land Cruiser, Prius, RAV4, Yaris Liftback and Scion xD.

Toyota MSRPs do not include a delivery, processing and handling (DPH) fee of $760 for Toyota passenger cars, $810 for Toyota small/medium trucks, and $975 for large trucks (Sequoia and Tundra only). The DPH fee for vehicles distributed by Southeast Toyota (SET) and Gulf States Toyota (GST) may vary.

2011 Scion Price Adjustments

The 2011 Scion xD five-door urban sub-compact receives an MSRP increase of $65 or 0.4 percent.

Scion MSRPs do not include a delivery, processing and handling (DPH) fee of $720. The DPH fee for vehicles distributed by Southeast Toyota (SET) and Gulf States Toyota (GST) may vary.

2011 Lexus Price Adjustments

The Lexus price adjustments range from $600 for the GX 460 luxury utility vehicle to $900 for the IS F high-performance sedan, LS flagship luxury sedans, GS 450h hybrid luxury sport sedan and LX 570 premium luxury utility vehicle. The model-by-model adjustment reflects individual percentage increases ranging from 0.8 to 2.1 percent.

The new prices will become effective for vehicles with scheduled May arrivals for all Lexus vehicles except North American-built RX units which will have its pricing change effective with May production. A complete list of model-by-model price adjustments is below.

Lexus MSRPs do not include a delivery, processing and handling fee of $875.

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Maintain your Scion and stay connected to Scion Owners on the go.

01.18.2011– Scion is making it easier than ever for Owners to maintain their vehicle on the go with the all-new Scion Owners iPhone application. Now Owners can connect and show unity virtually anywhere!

Scion’s latest application is your one-stop shop for keeping track of the Scion ownership experience on your smartphone. Just download this handy iPhone app for free and you’ll be able to track your service history, get roadside assistance, and access cool components like the new Car Locator feature that ensures you never lose track of your Scion again! Owners who register on the application will also be automatically registered on the Scion Owners website too!

With the Scion Owners iPhone app, you’ll have the power at your fingertips with these cool key features:

• Find and set a preferred dealer
• Track your vehicle service history
• Shop for new genuine Scion accessories
• Downloadable maintenance manuals and warranty guides
• Mileage and Lease Tracker
• Scion How To Videos Tailored to your Scion
• Find customer service and roadside assistance contacts
• Find Scion Insider info and Events near you
• Customized Alerts
• Car Locator

Take control of your Scion Ownership experience today! Check out the trailer for a special video sneak peek, then head over to http://scion.com/scionownersapp for your free download – or download it directly on iTunes at http://ax.itunes.apple.com/app/id408113157.

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The automotive editors of Consumer Guide have recognized Toyota and Lexus with five prestigious “Best Buy” honors in their 2010 “Best Buy and Recommended Awards.”  The Toyota Prius mid-size hybrid, Avalon full-size sedan and Tacoma pickup took “Best Buy” honors in their respective segments, while the Lexus LS premium luxury sedan and RX premium mid-size SUV also captured top prizes.

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Hybrids – and particularly Toyota’s complicated Hybrid Synergy Drive – feature two distinct sets of drivetrain components that are each capable of powering the vehicle under certain circumstances. As such, they are more expensive to produce than typical internal combustion engine-powered vehicles. Add in an expensive battery pack, and the expected cost for a hybridized Scion shoots past the self-imposed $20,000 ceiling that Toyota has set on its entry-level marque.

So, if not hybrids (at least not in the near-term future), what innovative technology is Toyota considering for Scion? For starters, all-wheel drive, likely cribbed from Subaru, of which Toyota owns a 16.5-percent stake. Apparently, Toyota believes it can manage an all-wheel-drive Scion that doesn’t break the $20,000 barrier more easily than it can one with a hybrid powertrain. Where that falls into the Japanese automaker’s stated goal to produce ever more fuel efficient vehicles, we don’t yet know.

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Take a look at the current pickup truck market and you’ll see that the only currently available machine that even remotely fits into the compact role is the Ford Ranger, which hasn’t been updated in eons and sees its sales dwindle every single year (55,600 in 2009). This being the case, there may be room for a small urban pickup from Scion, though the automaker indicates it would need to be careful not to infringe on the class-leading Toyota Tacoma.

If Scion did indeed build a true compact pickup with an eye toward reasonable fuel efficiency, what would it look like? Perhaps an xB with a small bed? Or might it look something like the Hako concept from the 2008 New York Auto Show (perhaps in modified form)?

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“It feels like I’m down on power!” yells Tanner Foust in the general direction of the gathered throngs containing both his crew and assorted media. Tanner and myself are currently five-point bolted into his new stock car-engined Formula D Scion tC. We’ve just exited an aborted lap around the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale because something – so says Foust – is amiss with the car.

Rockstar Energy Drink Drift captain Stephan Papadakis comes charging towards the Scion and begins earnestly, if not frantically, checking the car’s vitals through the steering wheel’s digital readout. Steph floors the motor a few times, checks the numbers and exasperatedly tells Foust that everything looks fine. “Oh,” says Tanner, patting me on my beer belly. “Must be him.” Very funny, jerk.

Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
Rockstar invited us out to Toyota Speedway at Irwindale to take a few laps in Tanner’s ludicrous new sideways ride. In fact, the last time we’d seen Tanner drift it up was at the Speedway last year when he became the first ever back-to-back (and first ever two-time) Formula D champion. Meaning he knows the track pretty darn well, thank you.

Today is a shakedown day: aside from giving husky journalists hot laps, Papadakis and the rest of the Rockstar crew are trying to iron the kinks out of the mighty Scion before next weekend’s 2009 Formula D final event known as Judgment Day, taking place October 16-17. They’ve been having some sort of fuel problem and are (obviously) hoping to get it fixed.

In case you haven’t heard, Mr. Foust is no longer behind the wheel of a supercharged Nissan 350Z. Instead he’s been rocking the absolutely earth-shaking NASCAR Scion. Why earth-shaking? Well, the Toyota V8 for one. Yup, the same Toyota V8 that Toyota runs at NASCAR events. While it’s ostensibly a Toyota motor, it was 100% designed in the USA by TRD and Ed Pink Racing Engines.

The carburetor has been removed and replaced with fuel injection, but other than that, this is the same engine you’d find under the hood of a NASCAR stock car (with shorty track pistons, shorty pipes, etc). Power? “Oh, about 600 or so to the wheels,” says Papadakis. All that small block fury gets routed to the smoky rear tires via a four-speed Muncie-style dog-engagement G-force gearbox, then through a MKIV Supra rear end. The car is essentially a little ball of wow. And you have to hear it to believe how deaf I am.

Ace photographer Drew Phillips and I spent the morning standing behind concrete barricades in the middle of Irwindale’s infield watching Tanner and fellow Scion dorifto driver Ken Gushi (in his Avensis-based tC) make dozens upon dozens of practice runs. You’d think they’d take fewer runs than that, seeing as how a set of rear meats is only good for about two laps, but hey – that’s what tire sponsors are for.

Eventually, they both left the track but then Foust came back in golf cart to set up the clipping cones. Tanner was nice enough to give us a lift back to the paddock as long as we helped him with the cones. I should have been asking him auto-journo type questions at this point (“compare this new car to your old Z”) but instead we just joked about the golf cart’s Momo wheel and how Tanner’s should take it drifting.

Right, so after Tanner’s little joke (the one where he made fun of my fat gut), it was time for two laps with arguably the world’s best drifter on his home track in a snorting monster of a car. And we’re off. There’s a Mitsubishi EVO IX camera car in front and to the right of us filming the laps. At first the acceleration isn’t all that. But then Tanner drops it into second gear. I’ve felt some epic thrust in my time, but the only way I can describe the experience of a 650+ hp Scion at full tilt is to ask you to imagine a big guy standing behind you and swinging a baseball bat as hard as he can into the small of your back. CRACK! The little “Scion” takes off like a moonshot. A moment later we are traveling at well over 100 mph, rocketing towards both the EVO and a cement wall. Suddenly, up goes the handbrake.

Somehow, and honestly I really have zero idea how, Tanner threaded the Scion through a maybe seven-foot wide gap between the Mitsu and the wall. We’re totally sideways at this point, with the Scion’s rump pointing at the curving concrete barrier and its snout nearly facing the middle of the track. I was reminded of a time when I got a couple laps in a decommissioned stock car on the California Speedway’s big oval. My right ear was less than a foot away from a huge wall and we were going over 180 mph. In both instances, what’s actually taking place is so loudly violent, so cataclysmically crazed, so on the ragged edge of both the laws of physics and my own sense of self-preservation that I just let go. It’s as if you must turn to faith to get you back alive in one piece, as logic and reason have long ago exited the car. Doing so turns everything almost serene.

We slow down (a little) as we approach the first clipping point and by doing so some of the seemingly endless smoke generated by the quickly-melting tires begins filling the cabin. I would later ask Papadakis what the lung-cancer rate amongst drifters is, and he replied, “The sport’s too young to tell!” It turns out, that tire smoke not only tastes awful, it prefers clinging to exposed metal over human flash and t-shirts. Which is why for a second I’m convinced that the A-pillar corner of the roll cage is on fire. Before I have time to process that thought, the handbrake goes up again and we’re pointed nearly 180 degrees in the other direction. Oh look, another solid concrete wall accompanied by triple digit forward velocity. Were today actually a Formula D event, this particular part of the track would be home to the VIP grandstands. Meaning that this is where the real action/showboating happens.

And dude, did it happen.

Tanner yanks hard on the handbrake and the Scion pitches itself more than 180 degrees to the left. I was told later that for some reason, Tanner took this particular run a little deeper than he’d been doing earlier with other passengers (jerk). As the turn is such an incredible change of both direction and momentum, the result is almost nothing but smoke. Tons of it. So much smoke that people on the other side of the wall (and probably riding in the camera car) lose sight of us for a second. Tanner quickly transitions it back the other way (more like fishtailing it from where I’m sitting) for the last set of cones and this time, he really punches it, trying to use up what’s left of the Hankooks for a sort of mini grand finale. More smoke, more stupid silly sideways g forces, more deafening roar. I’m beginning to really like this.

I’m in a daze as we make a U-turn in the paddock for lap two. Foust asks me how I liked it. I begin applauding. First of all, I’m stunned that not only didn’t we crash and burst into flames, but somehow, I’m still breathing. Second, how in the hell did he just do that? I make up my mind to watch Tanner’s hands and feet on this lap to try and see how he’s able to maintain such phenomenal control. Big mistake. Foust is making so many moves, and dancing between the pedals, wheel, stick and handbrake so quickly, that it’s nonsensical. I just can’t process it. To me, he’s having a seizure. My poor little brain can’t cope with what my eyes are telling it and for the first time I’m frightened. Best to just look out the side window at the looming mass of approaching concrete. Honestly, that calms me down.

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Wednesday, August 26th 2009, 4:00 AM

When I’m listening to the radio and I happen to hear a song come over the airwaves sung by Ringo Starr as a solo artist, I always say to myself, “He was really an underrated Beatle.”

In other words, he’s much better than he ever got credit for. That’s sort of how I view Scion.

This is a brand that’s not getting its proper notice. It’s the Ringo of the Toyota trio. Everyone knows the star performers — Toyota and its rich sidekick, Lexus. And there’s little Scion, a Johnny-come-lately, strumming away in the background with its three-car lineup.

As I spent time this week in the 2009 Scion xB, with a base price of $16,700, I kept thinking of all the different types of people who would get enjoyment from ownership of this five-door car. Tops on my list are older folks who need a functional utility-type car that is easy on the knees.

The xB is box-shaped like a sport-utility vehicle, yet it is more user-friendly with its low-to-the-ground entry/exit status. The xB has a ground clearance of 5 inches, whereas most SUVs have 8 to 9 inches of ground clearance.

The xB offers a cavernous interior with five-passenger seating capacity. Cargo volume when the second row is folded is nearly 70 cubic feet.

Scion describes its xB interior as lounge-like. The driver has a right-side armrest and the seats recline fully, not only for cargo space but also for a roadside rest. Adding to the flexible functionality is the array of interior storage units.

I wasn’t expecting much in the area of performance, but there I go, underrating the Scion. I stepped on the accelerator and was really pleased with the smooth, linear response from the electronically controlled 4-speed automatic transmission as it seamlessly and quietly moved through the gears.

Contributing to the smooth ride is the MacPherson suspension system up front.

The xB is quite easy to maneuver with a curb-to-curb turning circle of 35 feet. The xB rides on standard 16-inch steel wheels.

The engine breathes so well, allowing all of its 2.4-liter four-cylinder capability to be enabled. Variable Valve Timing with intelligence is the key to better performance, as well as the lightweight aluminum alloys used in the engine block and head.

The four-cylinder in the 2009 Scion has 55 more horsepower than the previous generation. The new xB has 158 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 162 pounds-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. The xB is offered in both 5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic; and both transmissions get the same EPA estimated fuel consumption of 22 miles per gallon city and 28 mpg highway.

Copyright, Motor Matters

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First shown as a concept (above) at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, Scion will reportedly bring the iQ to market by the Fall of 2010.

After receiving an excellent reception at the show, Scion’s VP, Jack Hollis has said he is fighting to get the car to market. One large Toyota dealer has however, spilled the beans, telling the folks at AutoWeek that an agreement has been reached to bring the diminutive car to the U.S.

At a length of just 117.5-inches, the iQ is only slightly larger than a SMART fortwo. Unlike the SMART, however, the iQ can fit three adults and a child… at least that’s what Scion says. Taking a look at the car, however, it appears as though seating for two is about all there’s room for.

While several engine options are available in Europe the iQ will most likely get the largest (1.3-liter four-cylinder) when it debuts in the U.S. That engine makes 99hp and gets 66 mpg.

Scion is a company desperate to reinvent itself, as its popularity is based as much on fresh product as it is on customizing that product. “Scion is a good business mode that will be valuable and viable in the future, but for the business model to be successful, product freshness is key,” said Toyota North America president and COO Yoshi Inaba. And fresh-product isn’t something Scion has much of. Currently the company is working on a replacement to the tC coupe while the iconic Scion, the xB, is already starting to lose out to new models like the Kia Soul.

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