Toyota Corolla 2006 News

Cars are either being built worse -- or companies are getting better at detecting faults.a range of models made over the last 10 years replacing potentially deadly Takata airbags in 1.3 million cars in Australia. a second, airbag-related recall for the Priusreplacing potentially deadly Takata airbags in 1.3 million cars in Australia

This will go down in automotive history as one of the weirdest automotive recalls of all time.

Toyota Australia has recalled more than 180,000 vehicles over fears that faulty airbags could spray shrapnel when deployed.

Toyota issues its seventh recall in six months, doubles up on one from last year.

SIMON and Sue Evans won back the Australian Rally Championship crown with a double success in Adelaide last weekend. The former Toyota team members lost out to Corolla driver Neal Bates in 2008, but turned the tables this year driving a privately-entered Mitsubishi Lancer which they used to dominate the title decider in Adelaide and claim a third national crown.TEAM Red is opening the doors at its Clayton race base for the first time with the inaugural Toll Holden Racing Team family day on September 20. The event, from 10am to 3pm, will give fans access to the four race cars from Walkinshaw Racing, as well as displays of Holden concept cars, interactive displays and autograph sessions with Garth Tander, Will Davison, Paul Dumbrell and David Reynolds.RYAN Briscoe began his push towards the Indy Racing League championship with a nail-biting victory under lights at Kentucky on the weekend. He beat Ed Carpenter by only 0.016s to score his second victory of the season for Team Penske as the championship moves into its final half-dozen races, with Briscoe holding a narrow points lead.Jay Marmont repeated as Australian motocross champion when he took the final round of the Pro Open class championship on the Sunshine Coast last weekend on his Yamaha YZ450F. Luke Styke also took the under-19 championship, Tori Dare dominated in the women's championship and Darryll King completed a clean sweep of the veteran's series. KIM Jane celebrated his 150th start as a V8 Ute racer in the best possible way, winning at Sandown on Sunday in the third of three starts for the Aussie fan favourites. Jane is now fifth in the ute championship, as Jack Elsegood leads from defending champion Layton Crambrook and Gary Baxter.MIKKO Hirvonen was the predictable winner of his home event, Rally Finland, with a victory which extends his points lead over five-time champion Sebastian Loeb in the race to the 2009 World Rally Championship. Hirvonen drove his Ford Focus to first place with a solid margin over Loeb's Citroen, with his Finnish team mate Jari- Matti Latvala third in another Ford.AUDI swept the latest leg of the German Touring Car Championship with a 1-2-3 result headed by defending champion Timo Scheider. The best of the Mercedes runners was Paul di Resta.BLAKE 'Bilko' Williams took a gold and silver from the freestyle motocross events at X-Games 15 in Los Angeles. After taking the runner- up spot in the Best Trick competition with a '360 Indian air' and no- hands landing he got to the top in the Moto-X Freestyle competition, taking a one-point win after three runs.CITROEN has extended its involvement in the World Rally Championship until at least the end of 2011, even though its lead driver Sebastian Loeb could soon be headed to Formula One with the Toro Rosso team.There is no news yet on the technical regulations beyond 2010, with a major change planned but rival camps pressing either for simpler and cheaper S2000 cars or a switched to turbocharged 1.6-litre engines in existing World Rally Cars.A re-run of the 1970 Repco Reliability Trial begins today (Aug 8) when 40 rally cars built before 1980 leave the Melbourne Showgrounds on the way to Kingoonya. Several of the special stages from '79 will be used on an eight-day course set by the Historic Rally Association. 

RETIRED V8 Supercar racer Paul Weel is going back to his motorsport roots with an all-out attack on the 2009 Australasian Safari.Weel began as an off-road racer and is heading back into the bush for the Safari, driving a V8-engined Holden Colorado.But there is a twist.He is doing the outback enduro in Western Australia with his father, Kees, as his co-driver. And their car is one that Weel Snr crashed in last year's Safari.Weel is so committed to success he even ran a 500-kilometre test last week, the first time he drove a competition car since a massive crash at Bathurst last year which could easily have been fatal. He was T-boned in his PWR Commodore at the top of Mount Panorama."I'm pretty excited. It's been quite a while since my Bathurst accident, so it's great to finally be back behind the wheel of a racing car again," Weel says."I'm learning how to drive on dirt again after so long racing V8 Supercars. You feel like you're going pretty quick, racing through the bush at 200km/h with trees flashing past on either side of you."The Safari begins a week from tomorrow, August 1, and covers 3600 kilometres from Perth to Kalgoorlie, with overnight stops in Geraldton, Mt Magnet, Leonora and Laverton.DAVID Wall continued his romp towards the Australian GT championship title when he swept two of three sports car races at Eastern Creek last weekend with his Porsche GT3 Cup S. The other star on the packed Shannons Nationals program was Mat Sofi, who broke through for his first win in Formula 3 while Tim Macrow reduced overseas raider Joey Foster's lead in the championship battle.CHAD Reed continues to lead the chase for the 450cc title in the AMA Pro Motocross championship following a 1-2 result at Millville last weekend. He is now 37 points clear on his Rockstar Suzuki with five rounds to run.NEAL Bates is looking for more speed this week from his Toyota Corolla as he prepares for the winner-take-all showdown with his former team-mate, and championship leader, Simon Evans at Rally SA next weekend. Bates knows Evans has a top-speed advantage with his Mitsubishi Lancer and has several tweaks to test in Canberra before packing for the trip to Adelaide and the last event of this year's national championship series.Off-road superstars Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki will tune up for next year's Dakar Rally by competing in the 2009 Australasian Safari with their Isuzu D-MAX ute in Western Australia. The five-time Safari winner was third last year and expects better in his latest beast thanks to engine upgrading, which he also believes will allow him to improve on his 11th overall in this year's Dakar in South America.FRENCHMAN Jamie Alguersuari will become the youngest driver to race in Formula One, at 19 years and 125 days, when he replaces Sebastian Bourdais in the Toro Rosso team at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alguersuari is a former British Formula 3 champion who was groomed through the Red Bull young driver academy.CHRIS Atkinson is back in Monaco to try and revive his stalled career in the World Rally Championship, including a start in his home event, Repco Rally Australia, in September. His trip to Europe included a stopover in the USA to visit Ken Block, a Subaru driver who also stars in the X-Games, perhaps pointing to more American action for the speedy Australia.DANIEL Ricciardo continues to lead the race for the British Formula 3 championship despite finishing slightly off the pace in both races at Donington Park last weekend. The young Aussie was quickest in qualifying but fell back to seventh in the first race before recovering for third, but in the second heat could do no better than fifth with the Carlin Motorsport team.THE son of John Surtees, the only racer to win world championships on both two and four wheels, was killed last weekend in a Formula 2 crash in Britain. Henry Surtees had taken his first F2 podium at Brands Hatch in the first of two heats, but died after being hit in the head by a wheel from another car that crashed in the second race. 

   GLENN and Matt Raymond scored a breakthrough first overall win in the Australian Rally Championship when they took the Forest Rally in Perth last weekend in a Toyota Corolla. Defending champions Neal Bates and Coral Taylor won one of the two heats with their Corolla and now lead the series from their former Toyota team mates Simon and Sue Evans, who broke the engine in their Mitsubishi Lancer.JAMES Davison made a lacklustre start to his Indy Lights season in the USA, only managing to run home 17th of 27 runners in the race at St.Petersburg in Florida. The third-generation racer, cousin to V8 Supercar stars Alex and Will, is hoping to eventually graduate to the Indy Racing League in America. HONDA rider Todd Waters is the early leader in this year's Australian Motocross Championship after taking top points from the opening event at Albury-Wodonga. Waters took one of the three heats, sharing success with Yamaha riders Jay Marmont and Andrew McFarlane, but scooped more points with second places in the other races. 20-year-old F1 hopeful Chris Wootton made the podium again in the Formula BMW support races at the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend.The youngster was second in the first F-BMW race on Saturday and led early in the second on Sunday, before sliding off the road in a downpour and recovering for the runner-up spot. The Asian series continues at Sepang in Malaysia in late May with four more races. CHAMPIONSHIP drag racing has found a new home, and more exposure, with a deal for the new ONE HD sports network. There will be 32 one-hour shows on ANDRA events in the coming year, growing to 40 hours over the next three years. MARCOS Ambrose showed his improving status in Nascar racing with 14th in the latest round at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. He has now become a regular in the top 20 with his Toyota Camry but gets no time to relax as he fronts to Ford Worth in Texas this weekend to continue his Sprint Cup campaign. MOVING to Britain has paid an immediate dividend for Molly Taylor, who won the first round of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup in Wales. After claiming titles in Australia the 20-year-old rally rocket is committed to a full year in Britain driving a Suzuki with support from the Australian Motorsport Foundation, moving next to the Pirelli International Rally on April 17-18. 

...by the withdrawal of the last official factory team in the series and top-name drivers Neal Bates and Simon Evans.Toyota withdrew its support from rallying yesterday as it ended all involvement in Australia motorsport as part of a move to cut non- essential costs from its troubled local sales operation.It followed Ford and GM Holden in slashing its spending on motorsport but took it to the next level, trumping its rivals' multi-million dollar cuts on their V8 Supercar programs with a total withdrawal.The decision ends 20 years in the Australian Rally Championship, the speedway support of national champion Brooke Tatnell, a blossoming program in drag racing and even support of the youth-focussed Australian drift championship.The biggest casualty is Neal Bates, who has won three national rally titles for the company and provided the cars to give Simon Evans two more."I'm devastated by it. I only got the news last night," Bates said yesterday."I'm sad but I feel privileged to have had the success we have had in all sorts of cars, from the original Celica through to the latest Corolla we designed and built at our base in Canberra. The worst thing is that people are going to lose their jobs and this is like a family."Bates and his co-driver Coral Taylor still plan to compete in the opening event of this year's ARC, Rally Tasmania next month, as well as the team's home event in Canberra. He is also hopeful of finding buyers for Corolla rally cars."I want to keep doing but I don't plan to send myself broke." We've already had a few possibilities come along today, but there is an enormous difference between a possibility and a signed deal," Bates said.Evans' plans are unknown for the moment, although he has rallied before in Subaru cars and has had offers to compete in the China Rally Championship with his co-driving wife Sue. 

According to research and statistics, it seems they are making pretty sensible buying decisions.In a national survey of young drivers, 93 per cent rated value for money as an important factor when buying a car, followed by safety and security (85 per cent).More than half (52 per cent) of the 1053 drivers aged 18-25 years polled in the Just Car Insurance survey rated environmental friendliness as a key factor.Items such as brand, colour and how the vehicle looks to others rated lower on the scale.It comes as no surprise that the most popular car for young drivers is the Holden Commodore.Except for a couple of months this year and last year during high petrol prices, the Commodore has also been the biggest-selling car over the past 10 years.That very fact means there are a lot out there and that reduces second-hand prices, making them more affordable and attractive to first-car buyers.Commodores make up about 8 per cent of the 32,000 vehicles registered for road service under the RACQ's free2go youth membership program.Second favourite is also no surprise. The Toyota Corolla, which was the car that pipped the Commodore for sales and is consistently the second-highest seller, accounts for 6.25 per cent for free2go members.Next were the Ford Laser at 5 per cent and Hyundai Excel at 4.75 per cent.The financial realities of first car ownership is reflected in the average ages of those vehicles: an average 12.1 years old for the Commodore, 14.8 years for the Corolla, 15.7 for the Laser and 9.2 for the Excel.The average age of the top 40 models driven by free2go members is 12.4 years, with the Toyota Corona — number 20 on the list — soldiering on at an average 21.4 years.The free2go program offers free RACQ membership for three years to all Queensland residents from the age of 17 or school year 12.Roadside assistance on any vehicle being driven by a free2go member is included in the first year. In the second and third years, members can opt to nominate a vehicle for road service at half the full RACQ membership fee; or simply maintain access to all other standard RACQ services at no charge.While sensible factors are top-rating among young people in the Just Car Insurance survey, car image still plays a major role with 27 per cent believing you can tell what somebody is like by the car they drive.The poll also found 30 per cent saying they are more likely to take notice of somebody who has an expensive car.However, 38 per cent claim the look of the car doesn't matter — it only needs to get them from A to B.Sex appeal is also important with 18 per cent more attracted to someone who drives a nice car and 40 per cent claiming a nice car helps attract the opposite sex.Some of the results differed between the sexes and overall the guys were more interested in vehicle style and the impression it gives: 57 per cent rated how it looks to others as important versus 40 per cent young women; 91 per cent of women were more interested in safety and security compared with 79 per cent of men.Contrary to the perception that youth drive modified vehicles, 72 per cent drive standard vehicles without modifications.Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) believe young drivers are unfairly criticised for their driving.

It will look almost exactly the same as the Corolla concept car which has just been previewed at the Paris motor show, billed as the Auris. Other cars in Paris were more advanced and more outrageous, but the Corolla is the one with the greatest global impact and Toyota upstaged the stunning concept cars from rival brands with the single most important newcomer of the entire show. The Corolla is so important to Toyota that all official images of the car were held back until after it was revealed in Paris overnight. Our artist's impression is close to the final car and gives a clear indication of Toyota's styling direction, which has evolved from the baby Yaris and was tweaked after Honda set a new standard for the compact class with its latest Civic. The Corolla is the best-selling car ever, after passing both the T-Model Ford and Volkswagen Beetle, and still shows no sign of ending its run. It is vital to Toyota Australia, as it is the company's top seller and has even managed to top the Ford Falcon in two months this year. "Our normal policy is not to comment on concept cars," says Toyota Australia spokesman Mike Breen. "But the next-generation Corolla is a very important car for Toyota and Australia in particular." Breen confirmed that the Auris would become the new Corolla hatch but could not give a showroom date. The new name will be used on the cars sold in Europe but Australia will stay with Corolla. "The new Corolla will be here in the middle of next year," Breen says. "We don't have any firm date yet." The car is the 10th generation with the same name and comes just after the Corolla nameplate celebrated its 40th birthday. It was shown in Paris as a hatch and with some body trickery, mostly spoilers and 19-inch alloy wheels, but the basics are no different from the way the car will look in showrooms. There will also be a sedan and wagon, but the styling of the sedan will be different from the new hatch, just as Toyota has distanced its Yaris sedan and hatch to draw different groups of customers to each of the baby cars. The road-ready Corolla will be unveiled in Tokyo next month but the exact plans for Australia are still being finalised. They include an assault on the Australian Rally Championship which has just been won for the first time by Neal Bates and his Canberra-based Corolla crew. "We will get the sedan and hatch simultaneously," Breen says. "There will be a wagon variant in Japan but we won't be taking it in Australia." The biggest mechanical change for the newcomer is the engine. "It is still a 1.8-litre four, but it is a new generation of engine, with more power and technology," Breen says. The Corolla sold in Australia is built in Japan and that will be the same for the newcomer, after an unsuccessful experiment in South African sourcing for the Sportivo and hatches. It's too early to determine price, Breen says, other than to say it will be competitive. The Auris space concept is tall and roomy. The high waistline, short overhangs and forward balance of the cabin architecture ensure it retains a sense of dynamism. "We call this perfect imbalance," says Toyota's managing officer of global design Wahei Hirai. He says the car has an energetic look and a strong face. It was shown in Paris with gold bodywork (the Auris name comes from the Latin for gold) and 19-inch alloy wheels, spoilers and chromed exhausts.