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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

This past June 7th, what started out as simple commentary on the dyslexic’s delight (or would that be nightmare?) that a Toyota S-FR trademark could turn out to be mushroomed into a trivia buff’s revelations of a number of dead or abandoned Toyota trademarks and the heretofore unpublished discovery of a new Prius Prime trademark […]

The previous piece this author wrote for Kaizen Factor, on the Toyota Harrier back in mid-January of this year, briefly touched upon the Toyota Venza, a mid-sized 2-row seating crossover SUV that occupies an odd upmarket-but-non-luxury-brand niche dominated by the Ford Edge and the Nissan Murano. Weeks later, the Venza was making news of its […]

Another day, another set of teaser hints and pronouncements over what new or revised vehicles Toyota, Scion and Lexus will introduce during the 2013 calendar year. First, on 11 September 2012, Toyota Division U.S.A. group vice president and general manager Bill Fay predicted that “seven, exciting all-new or updated Toyota and Scion vehicles (will be […]

As the calendar turns from 2012 to 2013 and we look back at our previous predictions (some dating back to 2010) on what new or revised models Toyota, Scion and Lexus models were launched, we are reminded that Toyota is a company that is always Moving Forward, even though its new tagline is “Let’s Go […]