The Toyota Harrier most likely resonates only with hardcore followers and fans of Japan’s largest automaker (including its Lexus marque) and regular Kaizen Factor readers. We wrote a pair of stories on the 3rd-generation (XU60) Harrier (on July 2013 and January 2015) primarily to debunk the widespread misconception that it was a thinly-veiled preview of […]

It is the result of an older sibling’s uncontrolled growth spurt and a crosstown rival’s geekily proportioned, willfully ugly rally car/small crossover SUV mashup that succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. It’s also the last idiosyncratic hurrah of Toyota’s ultimately failed attempt at creating a separate, youth-oriented marque to better attract buyers that saw the parent brand […]

As the 2017-2018 auto show season kicks off in this author’s home town of Miami, closely followed by the first of the truly international “A-list” shows in Frankfurt, we find auto shows themselves in a state of flux. Shock-and-awe unexpected surprise carmaker unveilings are few and far between, a quaint memory of the past. (The […]

Colloquially, to 86 something means to get rid of it, kill it or throw it out. So there was a hint of irony when Toyota discontinued the Scion brand that the FR-S model name was also 86ed in favor of…86! The carmaker itself couldn’t resist having some fun with this, titling the official announcement Toyota […]

Hardcore, deep-dive Toyota fans know that, in the 21st century, the rarest, most sought-after ne plus ultra of Japanese domestic market (JDM) Toyota-branded high performance is represented by four initials: GRMN. Only a quintet of rare, limited-edition Toyotas were deemed worthy of wearing this vaunted badge. Just 100 copies each of four of them were […]

A late October 2016 article by Roger Schreffler of WardsAuto discussed Toyota’s revived interest in turbocharged engines. In writing about the largest of the carmaker’s two new gasoline-powered 4-cylinder turbo powerplants, Mr. Schreffler noted that The 2.0L gasoline 8AR-FTS, which debuted in April 2014 on the Lexus NX200t CUV, now is available on seven models. […]

Although the Fall 2016/2017 auto show season kicked off in Miami with world debuts of a Nissan mid-life facelift and new model/trim level variants from Nissan and Ford, it rolls into high gear at Los Angeles Auto Show in mid-November with “more than 50 vehicle debuts and 25 press conferences”, according to an e-mailed PR […]

Back in late April of this year, Automotive News Europe‘s blog featured an entry by Nick Gibbs titled Lightweighting push puts pressure on leather . Its “teaser” introduction, citing the lighter weight of “an upmarket leather alternative” led me to expect a discussion on the use by luxury car brands of vinyl synthetic leather in […]

Does each and every bit of information, rumor and innuendo reported by the legacy major print car magazines appear on their websites? Conventional wisdom would suggest so, but, in reality, that is not always the case. Car and Driver, for instance, tends to lag a month or two before their columnists’ writings migrate from the […]

As we noted in a May 2016 article, the future of the 2nd-generation Lexus CT premium C-segment hatchback has been the subject of much conflicting conjecture. In June 2014, Glenn Brooks of just-auto reported rumors of an additional 4-door sedan body style and of a plug-in hybrid variant. On February 2015, GoAuto.com.au‘s Byron Mathioudakis wrote […]

Every year since 1991, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch corporate and investment banking division puts together their Car Wars study that assesses the relative strength of each automaker’s product pipeline in the US. Most commentary articles out there tend to fixate on the study’s broad conclusions that X, Y or Z carmaker should see its […]

Trying to predict a carmaker’s future product pipeline and cadence of new-generation model releases is a fascinating sport for a sizable portion of the car enthusiast community, yours truly among them. Among the automotive publication universe, Automotive News’ annual July/August predictions, going out 3 years or so, are widely read and commented on. Flying under […]

Ever since the 29 June 2012 announcement of a joint BMW-Toyota sports car, there has been relatively little said or shown in public save for a Toyota FT-1 concept or two, although consensus has centered around a 3rd-generation BMW Z4 roadster (possibly rechristened Z5) in conjunction with a Mk5 Toyota Supra (a trademark revived on […]

The world of automotive Concours d’Elegance is a wildly and widely variable one. Wikipedia translates the French term as a “competition of elegance” (although “contest of elegance” is probably a more literal translation). Search most mainstream automotive media, and more than likely they’ll fixate on the elite, hoity-toity, 1-percenter world of ultra-rare automotive classics with […]

A little over 2 weeks after Toyota filed a trio of UX trademarks – presumably for the Lexus brand – another new crossover/SUV-centric trademark surfaced in Europe: RX 350 L. As with UX, the news first appeared on AutoGuide and then expanded upon in far greater detail by the Lexus Enthusiast blog. Three days after […]