Toyota Advice

Study shows top sellers are not always the most affordable cars to own. One of Australia's cheapest cars is also the most affordable to own and operate -- even though it must use premium unleaded petrol which can cost up to 20 cents a litre more than regular fuel.   The Suzuki Alto hatchback, which starts from just

Despite much of our motoring history being dominated by six-cylinder engines, it’s no secret Australians love a V8 engine.

It looks like we're going to be stuck on our island continent for a little while. Not that it's really a problem because between the exceptional beauty of places like the Victorian High Country and the remote paradises of northern Australia, we have pretty much everything we need for a great escape right here. 

Think “first car”, think “budget car”. Price is the key to unlock the best choices in vehicles for first-car buyers, but if you’re in this bracket, your second criterium should be safety.

One of the biggest cinematic franchises of the last two decades, the Fast and Furious movies loosely follow the wacky japes of a crew of former street racers as they have slowly transition into international anti-terrorist action heroes. Where once it was all about punk kids not liking the tuna and closing off roads for pizza boys to find another way home, these days it is all secret agency tac-op

In 2020, the Toyota Tacoma celebrates 25 years as one of the United States’ most popular pick ups.

There’s nothing too top secret about how the Toyota HiLux got its name way back in 1968. But there is a degree of irony involved. From a 2020 perspective, anyway.According to Toyota’s official source on such matters, HiLux is simply the merging of the words `High’ and `Luxury’. So where’s the irony? Everywhere you look, because that original N10 model of 1968 was anything but high or luxurious.Based on the Hino Briska (Toyota took over Hino in 1967, the year before the first HiLux) the N10 was also actually assembled at the Hino plant and it (the car, not the plant) was small. At 4.3 metres long and 1.5 metres high, it was about the same size as a current-model Toyota Corolla, so hardly the hulking, 5.3-metre long behemoth we now know as a HiLux. You could forget about four-wheel drive back in 1968, too; the HiLux was a rear-drive two-door pickup or nothing.And luxury? Well, given that the N10 was still the subject of vinyl floor coverings, a column-gearshift and a shapeless bench seat, it’s fair to say that limousine duties were not part of its design brief either.What the HiLux did provide Toyota with, however, was a franchise that not only replaced the old-fashioned Stout ute range, but also allowed the Corona and Crown brands to revert to being passenger cars rather than having a foot in both passenger and commercial camps. Yep, it seems odd, but both the RT40 Corona and MS45 Crown models were available as utilities at the same time as the HiLux launched.Oh, and don’t make the mistake of thinking, even though it’s the dominant body style these days, that the HiLux was Toyota’s first dual-cab ute. Because it wasn’t, and the Corona, Corona Mark 2, Crown and Stout could be had in dual-cab form…after a fashion. And significantly, all before the HiLux arrived in single-cab form.Back then, The Stout was available in a three-door layout (two doors on the passenger’s side) as could the Crown. The Corona dual-cab was available in two and three-door variants and, like the others, featured a fairly tight rear bench seat that was accessed by the split-bench front seat in the two-door version. Naturally, the tub on these dual-cabs was shorter, but that’s something with which dual-cab ute owners still grapple.The all-new HiLux that is hitting Toyota showrooms about now might not owe much to the original concept, but at least these days, it truly lives up to the origins of the name.

Ask any Toyota LandCruiser nut, and they'll know what the 1HD FTE engine is. They might even have a tattoo of that engine code!

It wasn’t the first Toyota LandCruiser aimed at families, but the 60 Series was a game changer in Australia.

Think the 100 Series and 105 Series are the same? Think again.