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by bringatrailer · Bring a Trailer · Jan 8
News
1993 Toyota TownAce Camper 4WD 5-Speed at No Reserve

1993 Toyota TownAce 4WD Camper: Japanese Import Getting Harder to Find

This JDM TownAce is a legitimate piece of domestic Japanese camper culture—A'm Craft conversion, pop-top setup, the whole thing. It's the kind of utilitarian box that never made it stateside originally, which is exactly why importing one now hits different. Values on clean examples are climbing as the 90s JDM wave hits everything that moves.

The TownAce camper conversion market is doing what it always does: proving that Americans will eventually pay for whatever Japan figured out 30 years ago.

by Michael Gauthier · Carscoops · Jan 8
News
Buick’s New Electra E7 Looks More Toyota Than Buick

Buick Electra E7: When a PHEV Looks Like Everything Except a Buick

GM's new plug-in hybrid arrives with the styling conviction of a corporate committee meeting—competent driver tech and a powertrain that works, but hobbled by the fact that it's China-market only. Another reminder that Buick's actual identity died somewhere around 2010.

Buick stopped making cars for Buick buyers years ago. Now they're just making cars that could be anything, for markets that aren't America.

by Charlen Raymond · CarBuzz · Jan 8
News
PreRunner: The Origin Story Of Toyota's Special Tacoma

PreRunner: How Toyota Built a Desert Racer for the Street

The N50/N60 Tacoma PreRunner arrived in 1998 as Toyota's answer to trophy truck culture—a 2WD truck with coilover geometry and geometry lifted from actual Baja competitors. The platform proved that you didn't need four-wheel drive to move dirt, just the right suspension tuning and the kind of understated confidence Toyota does better than anyone.

PreRunner was the last time Toyota made a truck that felt like it had a reason to exist beyond spreadsheet optimization.

by Peter Johnson · Electrek · Jan 8
News
Toyota was the top-selling domestic EV brand in Japan for the first time

Toyota finally dethroned Nissan in Japan's EV market—what took so long

Toyota's EV sales in Japan surpassed Nissan for the first time, a milestone that says more about Nissan's stumble than Toyota's ambition. The bZ4X and bZ3 are competent, but neither moves the needle like the Leaf once did. Market shifts happen quietly.

Nissan built the EV template with the Leaf and then spent a decade letting Toyota steal the narrative.

by Ty Duffy · CarBuzz · Jan 8
News
2027 Kia Telluride Price Starts At $39,190, Tops Out Over $56,000

2027 Kia Telluride Still Undercuts Pilot and Grand Highlander—But For How Long

Kia's keeping the Telluride pricing aggressive: $39,190 to $56,000 for the three-row. The real story isn't the starting number—it's that Kia's willing to eat margin on family haulers while Honda and Toyota play portfolio math. Base model gets the 3.8L V6; top trims add the amenities that actually move units.

The Telluride's value proposition won't last once supply stabilizes and Kia needs profitability more than market share.

by Peter Johnson · Electrek · Jan 8
News
Ford goes all in on L3 eyes-off driving, starting with the $30,000 EV pickup

Ford's $30K EV Pickup Gets L3 Autonomy—But Can It Actually Deliver?

Ford's betting big on eyes-off driving in an affordable electric truck, promising RAV4-level interior space at a price point that actually matters. L3 autonomy in a $30K vehicle sounds like marketing theater, but if the implementation works, it fundamentally changes what budget EV buyers can expect. The real question: will regulators let it happen, and will Ford's software actually be ready.

L3 in a $30K truck sounds like vaporware until we see real-world rollout—Ford's autonomy track record isn't inspiring confidence.

by bringatrailer · Bring a Trailer · Jan 8
News
1995 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80

1995 FZJ80 Land Cruiser: The 80-Series Finally Got Expensive

A California-registered FZJ80 with a modest refresh—Dobinsons lift, refreshed serpentine belt and starter work—just passed through Bring a Trailer. Nothing exotic, nothing rare, but the fact that a 29-year-old Land Cruiser with routine maintenance is auction-worthy tells you everything about where values sit right now. These things stopped depreciating five years ago.

The FZJ80 is the last Toyota truck that feels like it was over-engineered instead of cost-reduced, and the market knows it.

by Allison Barfield · Motor Biscuit · Jan 8
News
Toyota Trucks Are Flooring It in Opposite Directions

Toyota's Truck Gamble: Tacoma Surging While Tundra Stalls

The new-gen Tacoma is finally eating the full-size segment's lunch—better proportions, modern chassis, and a price point that actually makes sense. Meanwhile, the Tundra's bloat and feature-creep are costing it ground to Ram and Ford. Market data showing buyer preference for the smaller truck isn't hype; it's a real inflection point.

Toyota built the Tacoma to compete with itself and won. The Tundra just became the expensive truck nobody asked for.

by Allison Barfield · MotorBiscuit · Jan 8
News
Toyota Trucks Are Flooring It in Opposite Directions

Tacoma's Finally Got Momentum. Tundra's Watching From the Sidelines.

The N3G Tacoma is doing what mid-size trucks are supposed to do—winning market share while the full-size Tundra gets outgunned by F-150 and Silverado. Toyota's portfolio strategy is bifurcating hard: one's hitting, one's stalling.

When your smaller truck outsells your flagship, it's not a win—it's a tell that your full-size offering missed the brief.

Autosport · Jan 8
News
Heavy snow forces Hyundai to postpone Neuville Monte Carlo test

Monte Carlo's Early Snow Catches Hyundai Off Guard—Neuville's Pre-Event Test Postponed

Heavy snowfall in the south of France forced Hyundai to reschedule Thierry Neuville's crucial pre-event shakedown ahead of the WRC season opener. Monte Carlo's notoriously unpredictable conditions—mixing snow, ice, and asphalt in the same stage—mean lost test miles hit harder here than anywhere else on the calendar. Neuville's i20 N Rally1 needed seat time to dial in the setup before January 22-25.

Weather delays aren't news. But losing test days before Monte Carlo, the one rally where conditions change mid-stage, is the kind of operational friction that separates title contenders from also-rans.

by Bryon Dorr · Tread Magazine · Jan 8
News
Toyota 70 Series Maltexplorer Overland Build with Carbon Fiber Camper

FJ60-Series Carbon Fiber Overland: When German Builders Finally Get Toyota Right

Maltec's '88 70-Series Land Cruiser restomod swaps weight for capability—carbon fiber camper, modern chassis work, the kind of thing that makes sense when you're actually using the truck instead of posing it. FJ builds have been done to death, but this one actually solves problems instead of just looking the part.

The 70-Series is having its moment because it's finally cheap enough for real builders to work with, and expensive enough that someone will actually finish it.

by bringatrailer · Bring a Trailer · Jan 8
News
62 BaT Auctions Closing Today

62 BaT Lots Closing Today: 2.9L Carrera RS, 512 TR, and the Truck Renaissance

Today's Bring a Trailer slate spans the full spectrum—from air-cooled 911s to family-kept '51 GMC pickups to a fresh 992 GT3 RS still wearing dealer plates. The trucks are the real story here: vintage F-250s and Dodges are moving on no reserve, a sign the market finally remembers that 1970s iron holds its own against euro exotica. One eye on the Ferrari 512 TR; Euro cars from that era are getting their due.

BaT's truck presence has quietly become the most honest meter of collector priorities—when 45-year-family-owned pickups outsell hype cycles, the market's telling you something real.

by machielvdd · Autoblog NL · Jan 8
News
Nieuwe Toyota-sportwagen is geen Toyota én geen Lexus

Toyota Gazoo Racing ditches the badge—what happens when a racing division becomes its own thing

Toyota's spinning off Gazoo Racing as a standalone brand, abandoning the corporate umbrella entirely. It's the same move that turned Century into its own luxury outfit, except this time it's about motorsport credibility instead of S-Class competition. When a manufacturer stops hiding behind its own name, something's either very right or very wrong.

Toyota finally realized that 'Toyota sports car' reads like a contradiction to anyone who actually cares—Gazoo Racing as its own marque is the only honest move.

Team-BHP · Jan 8
News
BHPians share their favourite OEM wheels; What are your picks?

OEM Wheels That Actually Mattered: What BHPians Are Running

Wheel design separates the thoughtful builds from the poseurs. Team-BHP dove into factory alloys across platforms—Golf GTI's Spielvogel designs, IS300's BBS-adjacent work, Camry's overlooked restraint—and the discussion reveals how OEM engineers understood proportion in ways modern trend-chasing rarely does. Clean examples are getting harder to source.

Factory wheels are the last place manufacturers were allowed to take risks. Everything else got focus-grouped into beige.

Kompas Otomotif · Jan 8
News
Modifikasi Interior Toyota Hiace yang Bikin Alphard Minder

Hardy Classic turns a workhorse Hiace into something that makes Alphard owners nervous

A Toyota Hiace—the van that hauls crew and cargo across Southeast Asia—just got a full interior reimagining from modifikator Hardy Classic. We're talking luxury trim, modern tech, and materials that blur the line between utility and hospitality. The question isn't whether it looks better than stock. It's whether a van conversion this clean actually belongs in a different market segment entirely.

The Hiace is finally getting the builder attention it deserved. When your $25k van interior outclasses a $70k premium crossover, the market's already made its decision.

Autocar UK · Jan 8
News
Debate settled: We name every car maker's best model of all time

Every manufacturer's peak, ranked—and yes, the arguments are worse than you'd think

Autocar's staff went to war over which model defined each marque. From the MG ZT-T 260's sleeper credibility to whether a 911 variant beats the 356, they're parsing the real difference between good and generational. The gap between what journalists remember and what the market actually values keeps widening.

Ranking 'best ever' by brand is content comfort food—safe, divisive, and missing the point. The real story isn't the pick, it's that half these manufacturers peaked 15 years ago and everyone knows it.

Autosport · Jan 8
News
Dakar 2026, Stage 5: Ford strikes back to win but Toyota maintains lead

Ford's Stage 5 Masterclass Means Nothing—Toyota's Still Running Away at Dakar 2026

Mitch Guthrie and Nani Roma swept a 371km desert stage, but Henk Lategan's Toyota isn't sweating. One stage win in rally raid is noise. Lategan's maintaining overall lead because consistency beats heroics on terrain that swallows mistakes.

Rally raid results pivot on fuel strategy and machinery durability, not single-stage aggression—Ford's showing speed but Toyota's showing they built the better car for the distance.

by Editorial Team · India Car News · Jan 8
News
Toyota Urban Cruiser EV India Launch on Jan 19 – Price Expectations

Toyota Urban Cruiser EV arrives January 19—it's a rebadged Maruti e Vitara

Toyota's playing the badge-engineering game in India with the Urban Cruiser EV, a cosmetically tweaked version of the Maruti Suzuki e Vitara hitting dealers next month. It's a midsize electric SUV that'll compete directly against Mahindra's offerings in a market where platform-sharing is the only way to move volume. Same bones, different grille—the OEM playbook nobody asked for.

Badge engineering in EVs is just admission that platform development costs are crushing profit margins.

by Surendhar M · GaadiWaadi · Jan 8
News
Engine Failure On Stage 3 Ends Sanjay Takale’s Historic Dakar Rally Journey

HDJ 100 Engine Failure Ends Takale's Historic Dakar Run

Sanjay Takale's HDJ 100—a Land Cruiser 100-series diesel—made history by winning Stage 1 of Dakar 2026, the first four-wheel stage victory for an Indian driver. The engine gave up on Stage 3, a brutal reminder that even purpose-built rally machines are fighting against the desert's attrition. Sometimes talent and preparation aren't enough when you're pushing 30-year-old iron to its limits.

The HDJ 100 is a bulletproof platform, but Dakar doesn't care about your lineage—it breaks everything eventually, and the ones who finish are the ones who get lucky.

by Brad Anderson · Carscoops · Jan 8
News
The Ranger Has Done What No Other Ford Has Managed In Australia In 37 Years

Ranger's 37-Year Australian Winning Streak Faces Real Pressure From Toyota and BYD

Ford's Ranger has dominated Australian pickup sales for nearly four decades, but market dynamics are finally shifting. Toyota's refreshed lineup and BYD's aggressive EV truck strategy are poised to genuinely crack what's been an untouchable market position, forcing Ford to actually defend territory it's taken for granted.

When a truck has owned a market this long, complacency becomes the real competitor—and the Ranger's finally meeting one.

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