With fastback lines penned by Toyota's Calty design studio in Southern California, and engineered at the automaker's technical center in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Avalon is the first Toyota vehicle developed entirely in North America, said Bob Carter, Toyota Division general manager.
The new Avalon "will lead an exciting new era of design and driving excitement for Toyota," Carter said.
The full-sized sedan market continues to shrink but automakers such as Hyundai and Chevrolet are targeting the segment with new or redesigned models.
The large-sedan segment is forecast to shrink further as a percentage of the overall U.S. market, to 2.9 percent in 2017 from 3.6 percent in 2011, AutoPacific Inc. says.
U.S. sales of the Avalon rose 2 percent last year to 28,925 units.
Among the revamped Avalon's features are 10 standard airbags, blind-spot warning system, preclusion warnings, a hand-stitched instrument panel and a sport-driving mode with quicker throttle response and more dynamic steering inputs.
The 2013 Avalon will carry a price similar to its current $33,955 sticker, including shipping, when it goes on sale this fall, Carter said.
The Avalon will ride on a 111-inch wheelbase, the same as the current model, but will have a 2.3-inch shorter overall length because of shorter front and rear overhangs. Although slightly narrower and shorter in height, rear-seat legroom is still spacious.
Toyota said the redesigned Avalon will be powered by a V-6 engine, but did not give performance specifics.
Toyota estimates it reduced the weight of the Avalon by 120 pounds over the current model.Automobile News
Friday, 6 April 2012
For 2013 Toyota Avalon goes fastback
In a yellow taxi Nissan sees gold
Models last night handed out prepaid credit cards to New Yorkers worth a free cab ride in the city as a way of advertising Nissan's entry into the taxi business.
The canary yellow cab -- a converted Nissan NV200 commercial van -- is being hawked in billboards around the New York auto show, and the only existing model of the van sits prominently on Nissan's display at the show, even though it will not appear on the streets until October 2013.
Why all the hoopla?
Three reasons, according to Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn:
First, New York is only the beginning.
"Eventually, we'll see it in other markets in the world," he says. The company has received queries on the cab from cities in China, India and Britain.
Second, the so-called "Taxi of Tomorrow" will serve as a rolling advertisement for the Nissan brand for millions of New Yorkers and tourists, Ghosn says, showing off Nissan as a technology innovator.
"Six hundred thousand people a day will experience it," Ghosn says.
Among the cab's innovations: interiors made of anti-bacterial materials that neutralize odors and germs; large roof skylights to let visitors gaze at the city skyline while in traffic; rear-seat reading lights; plug-in jacks to recharge cell phones; separate passenger air conditioner controls; a driver-to-passenger intercom system; and an embedded radio-transmission feature that helps hearing-impaired passengers hear the driver.
The taxi also will come as a battery-powered electric vehicle, giving Nissan still more exposure as a maker of electric cars.
"In my opinion, the EV will be the dominant version of the taxi," Ghosn conjectured. "It's quieter, and that will be attractive."Automobile News
Thursday, 5 April 2012
With more technology to move upscale Nissan overhauls Altima
Banking U.S. economy that is coming in better times, Nissan Motor Co. plans to launch a richer picture with the Altima redesigned - not price, but with better fuel economy, luxury services and new technologies, including NASA-inspired seating - - when it goes on sale in June.
This is a bet of Nissan, a brand known for cutting edge design, as it strives to build the increased sales of the Altima and improve its market share in the U.S. amid an avalanche of restyled midsize rivals.
"We're not moving the Altima into a new segment," said Brian Carolin, Nissan North America senior vice president for Nissan and Infiniti sales and marketing. "We're refining it to create the perceived image of a much more upscale car."
The 2013 Altima comes at a critical juncture for Nissan.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who introduced the new Altima today at the New York auto show, is pushing the Japanese automaker to grab 10 percent of the U.S. light vehicle market, up from 8.2 percent last year and 9.3 percent so far in 2012.
Nissan said today the 2013 Altima will be priced from $22,280, including $780 destination, when it goes on sale in June. Models with a V-6 engine will be priced from $26,140, including delivery fees.
It goes into production on May 14, and it will be assembled in Canton, Miss., and Smyrna, Tenn., for the United States and 45 overseas markets.
The relatively short period between its public and showroom debuts is designed to maintain market momentum for the Altima and draw interest as competition in the mid-sized market heats up.
The styling for the new Altima has evolved only slightly, with deeper creases along the sides and across the trunk. The headlights and running lamps have been separated in front to echo the look of luxury vehicles. The door handles are now made of chrome, and chrome now encircles the car's grille and side windows.
But the car's content signals Nissan's ambitions to capture a bigger slice of the surging family sedan market.Automobile News
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Rental-king image to shed aimed by Retooled Chevy Impala
The next-generation Impala, the 10th version of the nameplate introduced in 1958, is an effort to take the car decidedly more upscale and accelerate retail demand while dialing back fleet sales. The 2014 Impala will mark the car's first redesign in eight years and its first platform change since the late 1990s.
The Impala has soldiered on despite being a few years past due for a redesign, a victim of deep cost cutting during GM's bankruptcy and restructuring. Last year's U.S. sales of 171,434 far exceeded those of its large-sedan competitors but were lubricated by fleet sales, which accounted for roughly three-quarters of its volume.
"This is GM staking out their claim for this large-car segment with a significantly better product," said Aaron Bragman, an IHS Automotive analyst. "This is not a fleet special. You're looking at a higher-priced car, a higher-positioned car, a higher-margin car."Automobile News
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Game out of buying a Prius is made by Toyota
[[posterous-content:pid___0]]NEW YORK -- A multipronged advertising campaign to drive millennial attention to the just-released "city" version of Toyota's hybrid Prius is about fun and games -- in this case, Hasbro's Game of Life.
Saatchi & Saatchi L.A.'s campaign for the Prius C incorporates a tie-in with Hasbro's Life, as in the venerable board game that dates back to 1860, carried across multiple platforms, including a pair of TV spots debuting this month, digital programming in partnership with YouTube, Pandora, Hulu and others. Also in the works is a novel online car configurator for potential buyers, with financing advice, and plans for broad-based print and out-of-home spending.
While some may associate board games like Life with an older generation, Toyota sees it a good fit with digital-savvy millennials.
"Our research showed that our target group of ages 25 to 35 views life as a game...not fun and frivolous, but purposeful," said Sara Bamossy, strategic planning director for the Saatchi office. In search of a property, Toyota and the agency approached Hasbro to license the material for the campaign.
Bamossy said the agency "found that many in the target demographic grew up playing the board game and that (real) life for them is a constant media stream of information, but they love social games, they might invent a game at work, and it bonds them together."
One of the 30-second spots is a cartoonish take on Life, full of bright colors and simplistic, toylike images, called "Multi-poo." It will be followed later this month by a spot called "Dolphin Tattoo." The spots will be on network TV shows "30 Rock" and "The Simpsons," among others.
The Saatchi creative "acknowledges the fact that buying a car is a big decision, as well as a new experience for many in this demographic," Bill Fay, Toyota's group vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "We wanted to give our customers something entertaining, yet familiar."
The 2012 Prius C (for city) is a key component in the growing family of the Japanese company's electric/gasoline vehicles, which includes a midsize hatchback and a station wagon.
The four-door hatch, introduced more than a decade ago, has accounted for more than a million unit sales in the U.S. alone, and nearly three times that many worldwide, Toyota says. The EPA rates the Prius C as achieving 53 miles per gallon on its highway cycle.
Toyota reported that 136,463 Prius models were sold in the U.S. in 2011, a 3 percent decline from 2010 attributed to inventory shortages caused by the March 11 Japan earthquake/tsunami.Automobile News