Toyota Compact Cars

If you follow the tuner scene, you are, most likely, familiar with the Rocket Bunny body kits. Originating from Japan, the Rocket Bunny body kits are as striking and as aggressive as possible for a road-going car. Kei Miura’s wide-body designs can make even the most docile-looking car look like a road-going predator. As soon as we learned of the new Toyota GR 86, we knew it was a matter of time before a dedicated Rocket Bunny kit was in the making. Now, we finally have images of the Rocket Bunny 86, and we like what we see.

If you look at sales figures for the Toyota RAV4 in both Europe and the U.S. you will see that it is a very successful model. Back in 2020 the RAV4 was the best sold SUV in the States for the fourth year in a row, while in Europe it is in the top 3 best sold Toyota models.

So, it was to be expected to see that Toyota is doing its best to further improve the model and come with more ways to attract more customers. Its latest attempt is called "RAV4 Adventure" and, according to Toyota, it "reinforces the model’s “go anywhere” spirit with stand-out rugged styling that’s ready for life in the great outdoors."

There’s no denying that we are spoiled for choice when it comes to hot hatchbacks. The Honda Civic Type-R, Hyundai Veloster N, and VW Golf GTIare currently some of the most popular global models out there, but now there’s another one on the way. It seems Toyota Gazoo Racing is not done with launching hot versions of boring cars and a GR Corolla is on the way. However, it’s not going to arrive when initially expected.

Until recently the name "Corolla" made you think about Toyota’s compact sedan that is giving the Honda Civic a lot of headaches. Well, as of June, 2021 Toyota added a new version to the Corolla lineup: a compact crossover that will go after cars like Kia Seltos or Subaru Crosstrek.

The 2022 Corolla Cross will go on sale in October, 2021 and prices will range from $22,195 to $27,625, depending on the trim level and driveline.

The Toyota bZ4x electric crossover concept made its global debut a couple of months back. Now the automaker has revealed it in the U.S. The bZ4x is roughly the size of the RAV4 and will be launched in the production form later this year. The company hasn’t revealed a whole lot of details about it yet, but did mention that it will come with an all-wheel-drive configuration, which means it could have a dual-motor setup. The all-electric crossover will go on sale from early 2022.

The folks at Carwow brought the Yaris GRMN to the drag strip to take on the new GR Yaris. But, little did anyone know that the GR is playing on a different field altogether. This came as quite a shocker because you would consider the flagship GRMN, which stands for Gazoo Racing Meisters of Nurburgring, to be the better one on a drag strip. I mean, it literally has “Meisters of Nurburgring” in its name. But, that was not the case here.

Toyota has taken the engine from a Toyota GR Yaris and modified it to the extent that it burns hydrogen as opposed to gasoline – a strange move for a company that insists that cars like the Mirai that convert hydrogen to electricity will be the future. This engine is aimed at endurance racing first, but could eventually find its way into production road cars. This new development got me thinking: can hydrogen-powered engines delay the continuous shift to an EV only future?

Toyota is in the midst of reorganizing its lineup and the Yaris Cross will be the next one to step in, as the brand’s newest compact crossover. With the Yaris Cross being positioned under the C-HR, Toyota will now have a complete portfolio of crossover vehicles. The model is aimed specifically for Europe, where compact dimensions, combined with a high seating position and rugged design are valued. The model will be assembled in France, where more than 150,000 units per year will be made. Here’s why Toyota is betting so much on it.

Remember earlier this year when it was revealed that the Toyota Supra actually produced more power than Toyota advertised? Well, it looks like it isn’t the only Toyota that’s more powerful than we thought.

A recent dyno test conducted on the GR Yaris revealed that Toyota’s firecracker of a hot hatch comes with a 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine that produced more than Toyota’s claimed output of 268 horsepower and 272 pound-feet of torque. A video of the GR Yaris getting tested on a dyno shows just how much more power the turbocharged three-cylinder can crank out, and without dumping any spoilers, it’s a lot of extra power that we didn’t think the GR Yaris had at its disposal.

Toyota’s range of performance-spec models under the “GR/GRMN” family has a new member in the fold. The C-HR GR Sport, which Toyota first unveiled in October in Japan, is heading to the global market packing enough sporty bits to qualify as a GR Sport model.

The upgrades are mostly cosmetic in nature, but Toyota also worked on improving several of the crossover’s technical elements. Considering that GR Sport is the entry-level line of Toyota’s growing performance-spec lineup — the GR sits in the middle and the GRMN rules the roost — the C-HR GR Sport is both a walking advertisement of what you can expect from future GR Sport models and a good example on the kind of performance potential that the C-HR has.

The 2021 Toyota GRMN Yaris is an upcoming high-performance version of the fourth-generation hatchback. Toyota has yet to confirm the GRMN Yaris, but word has it the Japanese brand is planning to introduce a range-topping GRMN version of its GR-badged cars in a variety of segments. What’s more, Toyota recently tested a beefed-up GR Yaris on the Nurburgring and its appearance hints at an upcoming GRMN variant.

Just like the GR model, the GRMN is being developed by Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division. However, development takes place under a more hardcore performance arm called Gazoo Racing Masters of the Nurburgring. The 2021 GRMN will arrive with a sportier exterior and various upgrades to the drivetrain. Let’s find out more about it in the speculative review below.

The Toyota GR Yaris made waves in the Euro market. As a pint-sized hatchback, its 1.6-liter engine is good for an impressive 257 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque. It even has a six-speed manual transmission and all-wheel drive. It’s the definition of a perfect recipe for a performance-oriented hatchback. Here in the States, our Yaris is based on the underpinnings of the Mazda 2 – another model that isn’t available Stateside – so a 257-horsepower GR Yaris will never call the U.S. home, unless you build it yourself, of course. However, that doesn’t mean Toyota has forgotten about the U.S. Market altogether, and a recent post on Twitter is clear cut proof that something good is coming our way.

Toyota has recently joined the hot-hatch market with the beefed-up GR Yaris, but it wants to expand to new segments now. With the GR Yaris aimed at the Volkswagen Polo GTI and the Ford Fiesta ST, Toyota wants a competitor for the larger and more popular Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST. So the Corolla is next in line for the Gazoo Racing treatment and the good news is that it will come to the United States.

Whenever a carmaker takes out the good stuff out of its know-how box and spreads its on a new car, well, that’s when you know you’re in for a treat. That’s exactly what Toyota did with the GR Yaris, its second global GR-badged car after the Supra GR and at the same time a homologation model that will sometime in the future spawn a fully-blown rally racer.

Originally arriving in 1994, the Toyota RAV4 is one of the Japanese brand’s older nameplates, especially within the crossover segment. In the quarter century since the debut of the original RAV4, demand for crossovers has grown substantially, and sales of the compact Toyota have grown with it, eventually becoming the Japanese brand’s number-one seller in the U.S. However, the RAV4 last got a redesign in 2013, so to keep it fresh, Toyota just pulled the sheets on a new fifth-generation at the 2018 New York International Auto Show, bringing updated exterior styling, a redesigned interior, the latest safety tech, and a new architecture under the skin.

Update 10/11/2019: Toyota has announced the all-new RAV4 PHEV that will debut at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. Check out our new section below to learn more about it.

The Toyota Corolla is one of the last cars you’d think of as being special. But something about the new Corolla TREK variant qualifies as “special.” It’s the latest addition to the Corolla Touring Sports estate lineup, and it’s a promising showcase of the Corolla Touring Sports’ understated versatility as a personal ride and a family hauler for those weekend adventures away from the city.

The Corolla TREK comes as a result of a collaboration between Toyota and bicycle manufacturer Trek. It’s a partnership that stems from a recent partnership between the two companies at this year’s Vuelta a Espana cycling race where 16 Corolla TREK models were used as support vehicles.

Well, they’re not support vehicles anymore. The Toyota Corolla TREK is now available for public consumption. Pricing details will be announced in the coming weeks — it’s estimated to cost around £29,000 ($36,00) — but order books are now open with the initial batch of deliveries scheduled to begin sometime before the year ends. Unfortunately, the Corolla TREK isn’t headed to the U.S. market.

The Toyota Tacoma is a classic example of ’looks don’t matter’. This pickup truck is one of the most plain-looking models to have graced the industry, but even today, people swear by its durability and reliability. Despite the invasion of modern trucks, the craze for the Tacoma is still pretty high and it doesn’t seem like it will die anytime soon. Because of this, the Tacoma enjoys a high resale value. Tacomas that have clocked five-, or six-digit miles still manage to sell in the used market without any effort. The latest example of the same was a mint-condition 2000 Tacoma that had just 7,000-odd miles on the odo. Despite being a 19-year old model, the owner demanded $14,000 for it, and I’m guessing it was sold pretty soon because the original poster has already deleted the ad.

Ford has just launched an all-new, fourth-generation Escape crossover, a model known as the Kuga in Europe and some other markets. The vehicle enters one of the most competitive and hotly contested segments where all rivals are hugely talented (there really isn’t one bad car to speak of) and picking one above all others is by no means an easy task. But if you were to choose an important rival to compare the Escape to, then that has to be the aggressive-looking Toyota RAV4.

Toyota went for a dramatic visual reinvention of the RAV4 for its fifth generation since the model had really become rather boring to look at in its previous incarnation. Frankly, no subsequent RAV4 had anywhere near the visual flair of the first generation model, a car that looked better without painted bumpers and side trim - that’s how quirky and cool it was. Now, thankfully, the latest RAV4 tries to rekindle that flame, albeit with fresh, edgy styling that makes it look contemporary, although it doesn’t look visually related to the original RAV4 in the way older generations did.

The Blue Oval, on the other hand, didn’t want to risk anything with its new Escape, so it made the vehicle look pretty much exactly like a puffy high-riding Focus. That’s literally all there is to its design, so in this respect, the RAV4 is already starting to look like the more daring, flamboyant option, yet being a Toyota, it doesn’t automatically have associated shortcomings.

The Toyota Corolla Sedan has long been a torchbearer in the compact four-door segment, and the latest 2020 model year continues that tradition with a long list of standard safety technology features as part of the Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 suite. Read on for details on what makes the Corolla a leader in this space, and how the competition stacks up.

Toyota just introduced the twelfth-generation Corolla Sedan for the 2020 model year, and while the latest generational changeover brings a long list of updates, one of the biggest is the addition of a hybrid powertrain option. But why would the hybrid be our pick when there’s a new, more powerful 2.0-liter offered as well? Read on to find out.

First rolling off the production line in 1966, the Toyota Corolla has been around for over five decades. In 2013, Toyota celebrated an astonishing 40 million units sold for the nameplate, which makes it the most popular car in history. Now there’s a new twelfth generation for the 2020 model year, and it offers refreshed styling, a new interior stuffed with a wide variety of technology and features, a new architecture, and a new Hybrid trim level, all at a reasonable price point. However, with SUVs and crossovers dominating the sales charts, does the 2020 Toyota Corolla have what it takes to carry the torch for the sedan segment? To find out, I flew out to Savannah, Georgia, to experience it first hand, all courtesy of Toyota.