Toyota HiLux 2007 News

A Federal Court case has been launched against unscrupulous importers of bogus brake pads as Toyota tries to locate the dodgy parts.

Toyota HiLux tops the list of Australia’s most stolen cars

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

Toyota has issued a global safety recall on 6.58 million vehicles, with the impact hitting the popular Hilux ute, RAV4 SUV and Yaris small car.Statements issued by Toyota Australia today said that 179,000 of the Hiluxes built between April 2004 and December 2009 have been recalled for a defect that could see a cable between the steering wheel and  column sustain damage when the wheel is turned, activating the airbag warning light and preventing the driver's airbag from deployingA separate safety recall on 118,600 of the Yaris hatches and sedans built between June 2005 and May 2010 is to fix a defective seat track spring on the driver's and front passenger's seats. The statement says the spring can break and become stuck, giving the false impression that the seat is properly locked in place.In the meantime, the Yaris can still be driven but if there is any difficulty in locking the seats in position, owners should contact a dealer to arrange an inspection. The repairs will take about 1.5 hours for the five-door hatch and sedan, and about three hours for the three-door hatch in which the front passenger seat will also have to be removed.The number of RAV4s being recalled is not yet confirmed. Toyota says neither of the problems with the Hilux and Yaris have resulted in any accidents or injuries in Australia. Vehicle owners are being contacted by Toyota, but can get more information on the brand's campaign helpline on 1800 643 242. 

A sought-after Holy Grail it came so tantalisingly close to reaching last year.For the industry, it will be a moment of triumph — but even more so for one manufacturer than any other.Toyota, which entered the local market with its quirky little cars taking on the might of General Motors and Ford, will have sold around 70,000 more cars than any other manufacturer.For Toyota's divisional manager of national marketing, Peter Webster, the most satisfying element of all was that in October Toyota outsold Ford and Holden combined for the first time.You could forgive Webster for leaping in the air and shouting “Oh What a Feeling”.Dominating 23 per cent of the market does not happen by accident and Webster says that marketing, more than any other factor, is the reason.“Our job is to create the optimum environment for a sale to take place,” he says.“So the brand image and the way consumers see Toyota is very much drawn by the marketing messages we put in the marketplace.“This is a sales-focused company and I absolutely see the marketing department's role is to pave the way.”Webster believes that consistency has been central to the success of the Toyota brand in the local market — not just at an umbrella brand level, but throughout its range of vehicles.“Unlike many of the other brands, we have stuck with one key marketing slogan if you like, or marketing undertone which has been `Oh What a Feeling',” he said.“That was a campaign that was launched back in about 1988 and is still relevant today, and I think the thing that put us in such good stead is that `Oh What a Feeling' is supposed to represent the overwhelming sense of satisfaction you have when you own and drive a Toyota.”It is a message that has become a part of the vernacular — the elusive desire of any great marketing message.“I still remember when Australia won the 2000 Olympics bid that photo that I think was on the front page of every newspaper the next day was John Fahey jumping out of his seat and the headline said `Oh What a Feeling', so it's in the landscape, it's in the spoken word.“I think if you look at any other brand, that consistency of message has made a big impact on the way Toyota has come to market since the early 1990s.”But beneath the banner the company has also made sure there have been single stand-out statements to represent each of its models. Hilux is presented as unbreakable, LandCruiser as king of the road.“Our strength from a marketing perspective is our range. Our weakness from a marketing perspective is how do you present a broad range to individual consumers?“So we have fundamentally worked on a philosophy that you demonstrate to customers the single-word attribute of that car. While the Hilux is unbreakable, the reason it gives that `Oh What a Feeling' was that `unbreakable' was the particular key thought we believed was applicable when the car was launched. So each vehicle has its own individual key thought.”While most consumers would see the marketing messages aimed squarely at them, Webster admits that more than half of it is in fact aimed at talking to Toyota's own people. “Every single person who has worked in the Toyota marketing department for the 17 years that I have been here, every single advertising agency that we employ regardless of what sort of marketing discipline they are focused on, understands one statement we have made to everybody and that is 52 per cent of our advertising is directed at the dealer network,” he says.“What the dealers see in the marketing sometimes reflects how they need to act in terms of representing the brand. You can't even explain the difference a motivated dealer makes to the success of a car franchise and we spend an inordinate amount of time communicating our messages with our dealer network.“We often see advertising and marketing departments who are focused on the work that they are doing but not on actually communicating it to their relevant supplier base or their retail base.“Every person in the Toyota marketing department has a little card that sits on their desk that says `I'm in the communications business' and that's really a reminder to them to say `I know what I'm doing but how do I make other people both internally and also the dealer network know what we are doing?”'By the close of play on New Year's Eve, Webster expects to have sold around 238,000 vehicles under the Toyota banner as well as a further 8000 Lexus vehicles. It's a figure that gives what has become a very Australian company — key sponsor of the AFL — almost a quarter of the entire market.

A seven figure tally was “in the bag,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar said as record sales figures for November were released.New car and truck sales in Australia leaped by more than 10 per cent last month with 92,081 vehicles were retailed last month. That took demand for the 11 months to the end of November to 963,732, an 8.8 per cent improvement compared to the same period in 2006.Buyer confidence had not been noticeably interrupted by rises in interest rates and fuel prices or by the Federal election.“Unless a comet hits Australia the million mark will be comfortably surpassed,” Mr McKellar said.“The passenger vehicle market has consistently grown at more than eight per cent. As for 2008, at the moment we would again expect a volume of around one million.”While importers flourished on the strength of the strong Australia dollar, local manufacturers continued to bleed as private buyers continued to favour imported cars such as the Mazda3 and Mitsubishi Lancer to traditional six cylinder family cars.Buyers also gravitated to medium SUVs and twin cab pick ups such as Toyota's HiLux. New model activity has grown the total SUV market by 15.6 per cent during the year.Toyota was the top selling company last month with 20,956 vehicles, ahead of Holden with 12,498 and Ford on 9,219.Toyota was also the leading company on a year-to-date basis with 216,034 vehicles, well clear of Holden on 136,216 and Ford on 99,094.In the process it sold more vehicles to the end of November than any automotive company has sold in a year.Toyota remains the only automotive company to have sold 200,000 vehicles in a year.Even worse for the locals, the fully imported Japanese brand Mazda claimed that “more private buyers put down their money for our cars” than either the Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon, sales of which are sustained largely by sales to fleets.Mr McKellar said it was “critical” that the new Federal Government reviewed the form of assistance it provides to already heavily subsidised local manufacturers. 

There has been a rash of locally developed high-performance off-roaders such as the Ford Territory FPV F6 and Toyota's HiLux TRD. Now Holden Special Vehicles is looking to get in on the act.

Toyota announced at the Australian International Motor Show, that a near stock-standard Aurion TRD will tackle Australia's premier tarmac rally in 2008.News of the competitive future for the locally developed performance car follows the announcement the TRD Aurion will go back on sale next week, after being withdrawn three weeks ago while the company investigated an engine failure in one car.The Toyota Racing Development-designed-and-built 3.5-litre supercharged V6 Aurion, which has been prepared for Targa by the Neal Bates Motorsport team; the same group behind Toyota's multiple-championship-winning TRD rally outfit.Former Targa winner Bates was an integral part of the TRD Aurion's development; and believes the car has the potential to knock off some of its race-bred competitors on the 'testing Tasmania roads.'“We have only made minor modifications to the standard car, like fitting a roll cage, racing seats and safety equipment,” Bates says.While the TRD Aurion may have supplied the flash and dash of Toyota's motor show presentation, the most significant event was the world premiere of the next-generation 200 Series LandCruiser.Toyota's senior executive director for sales and marketing, David Buttner, says the LandCruiser has been a pivotal part of the company's history in Australia.“New LandCruiser has been tested and evaluated here for several years over more than 200,000km,” he says.The all-new 200 Series LandCruiser features a twin-turbocharged V8 diesel engine; with more than 600Nm of torque, and will also be a delivery platform for some of the world's most advanced off-road technology.High on the features lists are the Australian-designed Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS), which provides greater stability on all surfaces and an extended suspension stroke in off-road driving.The LandCruiser will also feature the world's first 'crawl control' system for negotiating surfaces such as rocks, sand or steep hills (petrol models only), a Torsen limited-slip centre differential and a multi-terrain anti-skid braking system.Safety advances include a stronger body structure, standard vehicle stability control and up to 10 airbags; front, side and knee airbags for the driver and front passenger, side airbags for the outboard second-row seats and curtain shield airbags for all three rows.For the first time in Australia, LandCruiser 200 has four-zone climate-control airconditioning at the top of the range. This system gives first- and second-row passengers access to individual climate controls on both sides of the vehicle with air being distributed through 28 vents.Toyota also announced the arrival of the RAV4 V6 which is now on sale in dealerships.The new model continues the growth of what was once Toyota's small off-roader for the funky-inclined. “Last year, we launched a new RAV4; and this month we add more than 200kW of V6 power to the range,” Buttner says.The company also confirmed that the second TRD-badged Toyota will be the 4.0-litre supercharged HiLux.  

It cost $5 million to bring their first car, a 241kW supercharged Aurion TRD, to market.The most powerful front-wheel-drive production car in the world will be the first of many TRD special sports vehicles, followed by the Hi-Lux TRD late this year.Toyota product management divisional manager Peter McGregor said they had been working on the TRD project since 2002.“We wanted to gain market leadership back and asked for projects to strengthen the brand and increase sales and market share,” he said.In the absence of sports vehicles such as the Supra, Celica or MR2 the company recognised it was under-represented by buyers aged under 30, so a special vehicles operation was suggested.The first special vehicle operations meeting was held on February 27, 2003.“We knew this would not be big volume but would be about emotion and inspiration,” McGregor said.“The business case was built around the belief that TRD would generate more than just sales in the long term.”He said TRD would trade on its motorsport heritage through Formula One and rallying and recognition of the brand through the Gran Turismo PlayStation game.Toyota Australia sales and marketing senior executive director Dave Buttner described the move to launch TRD as “a leap of faith by the company."TRD Australia corporate manager Greg Gardner said the project began as a part-time activity that brought together “a band of closet enthusiasts”.The first task was to build a design team. Designer Lee Moran of Toyota Style Australia in Melbourne, was charged with the external design for the first TRD product.“There was no DNA for TRD so we had to start from scratch and create one,” said Moran who has worked for Ford on WRC car design.“We could steer the direction of the brand any way we wanted.“We chose F1 for our DNA inspiration.”The cars are developed by low-volume sports vehicle specialists Pro Drive with final assembly at Toyota's Altona plant.While TRD has announced the next vehicle will be a supercharged Hi-Lux, there are no firm plans yet for follow-up vehicles or whether it will continue with superchargers.Currently TRD is conducting a feasibility study for the third vehicle with an announcement expected early next year and the final production vehicle released within about two years.TRD Australia has appointed 41 dealers with 25 metropolitan dealers on line for the launch of the Aurion TRD and 16 regional dealers added for the Hi-Lux launch.The Aurion TRD release last week was aptly timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Toyota's first involvement in motorsport anywhere in the world.That event was the first Mobil Gas Around Australia Rally in 1957 when a Toyopet finished a credible 47th out of 86 entries.In Australia, Toyota has won four rally driver's championships and a manufacturer's trophy, 11 class victories at Bathurst, the inaugural 2-litre Touring Car title and the inaugural Bathurst 12-hour in 1991. 

The traditional six-cylinder family sedan is clawing its way back into the minds of car buyers.In doing so, family car buyers are helping the market continue its record run, according to the latest Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries sales figures.Last month, large-car sales rose 1945 vehicles, or 18.6 per cent, medium-car sales increased 1323, or 21.7 per cent, and compact crossover-wagon sales were up 1468, or 23.7 per cent.The Holden Commodore continues to be the most popular six, and 5134 sold last month. Ford sold 3186 Falcons, Toyota's Aurion managed 1925 and Mitsubishi sold 949 of its 380.Vfacts industry figures for July show that a record 86,291 cars, trucks and buses were sold, up 8729 vehicles, or 11.3 per cent, on the same month last year.Though most segments enjoyed reasonable growth, the strongest additional sales were in the family-oriented segments of large and medium cars and compact off-roaders.FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar says sales growth this year is more widely spread across segments than last year.“In 2006 the dynamics of the automotive market were dominated by small and light-car sales but this year sales action has been more broadly based,” he says.So far this year the market total of 610,667 vehicles is running 8.9 per cent ahead of the same period last year.The FCAI continues to forecast a record sales year of more than one million vehicles.McKellar says the continued sales buoyancy is pleasing, but he is cautious about the future because of economic challenges ahead.“The overall strength of the market in July is a tremendous result and we are on track for record annual sales, but we shouldn't take the strength of the motor-vehicle market for granted,” he says.“In particular, there is nothing in these sales figures that in any way supports the case for an interest-rate increase. There is no evidence of excess demand in the motor-vehicle market.“Supply has responded strongly to meet consumer demand, competition is intense and vehicle affordability is at record levels.”  Top 10 makes1 Toyota 19,0472 Holden 12,3433 Ford 90064 Mazda 64565 Mitsubishi 53086 Honda 56327 Nissan 45978 Hyundai 40059 Subaru 300710 Volkswagen 2383 Top 10 models 1 Holden Commodore 51342 Toyota Corolla 44603 Toyota HiLux 33004 Ford Falcon 31865 Mazda3 29096 Toyota Yaris 24497 Toyota Camry 19908 Toyota Aurion 19259 Hyundai Getz 172010 Mitsubishi Lancer 1676(Source: VFACTS)