Well, that went well… Back in the spring of 2011 Toyota had celebrated 1 million Prius vehicles sold in America between 2000 and April 2011. So, they decided to do something special for the Prius owners… It hasn’t even been a full half year since I registered to receive the Prius Goes Platinum badge here [...]

If you’re in the market of a new car, you could do yourself and the planet a favor by buying a hybrid vehicle. It is both environmental friendly and good for your budget. Car manufacturers improve the hybrid technology each year. Because of these developments, mass production of hybrid vehicles is becoming cheaper. Hybrid vehicles [...]

October 10th, 2010 : Mark your calendar, there is going to be a celebration soon!

So, exactly how affordable can it be to drive a car producing zero tailpipe emissions?

Look for an e-mail from Toyota HQ in your Inbox. Check your spam filter for emails from toyota-quality.com domain to be sure if you don't see one. If you drive their vehicle, help Toyota improve! It only takes 5 minutes.

Toyota is getting ready to recall some 270,000 third generation Priuses sold in the US since their introduction in May 2009. This US recall is expected to be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 09 2010 and is expected to be just a firmware update for the car’s computer. The firmware update is designed to address the [...]

As the news come in about yet another Toyota recall, this time involving the 2010 Prius (Japan only so far), it starts to look very much like the issue is not the mere 1.5″ long piece of metal pictured here. I honestly don’t know what is more embarrassing in terms of PR for Toyota: admit [...]

A relative newcomer to the field of environmentally friendly cars, Nissan does not yet have a production vehicle based on it’s own hybrid technology. Nissan Altima Hybrid is based on Toyota Camry’s Hybrid Synergy Drive. However, with the North American debut of the Nissan LEAF car at upcoming LA Auto Show , Nissan appears to [...]

Conceived by famed Italian designer Giugiaro of ItalDesign, the Toyota Hybrid Priapus is not only an energy efficient sport car, but also a sizzling and sleek fast car that catches the eye of every sports car enthusiast. It contains a 3-liter V6 enhanced by dual front and rear electric motors. The Priapus is powered by [...]

Toyota has been making some news lately with their runaway vehicles and they are trying to do something about it. I’ve just received the Interim Notice letter I’ve been hearing about for a few weeks now and set out to see if the floor mat could be a likely culprit, as described in the letter. [...]

Not a big post, rather a Twitter-style update. Just to confirm that I saw the first 2010 Prius on the streets of Seattle, WA a week ago. There are still waiting lists galore at the dealers but this lucky guy (or gal) had probably been on the list long enough to get the first 2010 [...]

I am going to see the Third Gen Prius this weekend in NYC! Have been looking for it in Philly in Feb 2009 but I guess it has not been ready (or Philly Auto Show is not important enough – seems plausible ) The show is at the Javits Center, not too far from the [...]

It has a peculiar name, rather unremarkable appearance and humble origins but it gives its manufacturer an invaluable edge against all the big names in the auto industry: real-world experience in marketing, production, operation and servicing of a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It may end up being difficult or even frustrating experience but it puts appropriately [...]

July 10, 2008 Toyota said today that it will start assembling its Prius hybrid car in the US. The assembly will take place at their brand new plant (currently under construction) in Blue Springs, Mississippi, just northwest of Tupelo. The production will start in late 2010. It is our hope that the plant will produce [...]

More than a year after the dramatic unveiling of Chevy Volt last January here is what GM brings to Philadelphia Auto Show 2008 – a carcass. Sure, people were stopping to look at the slowly turning display with a somewhat puzzled look and then (usually in less that 10 seconds) moved right onto exploring other [...]

Well, this post is here just to register a trend. You would not call driving a 2-seater car with 4.8Liter V6 engine and yet unpublished MPG environmentally friendly driving. However, I see nothing wrong with every car manufacturer’s desire to pair an internal combustion engine with an electric motor for all kinds of different reasons. [...]

Well, let’s see: a new color – Spectra Blue Mica, as pictured here. A new 5th generation DVD navigation – DVD update, not hardware from what I can tell. 2008 Prius has narrower wheels – 5.5 in vs. 6 in on a 2007 model. An attempt to make them even less rolling resistant? The specs [...]

Those of you lucky ones on the West Coast: do not miss a great opportunity to catch up on the latest and greatest in the alternative cars and other non-traditional means of transportation. There is a show at The Barker Hanger in Santa Monica on October 19-20. Attendance is free! There promises to be a [...]

Honestly: I do not have a Chevy Volt-sinking agenda. I truly want an American manufacturer to succeed in building a car that is capable of keeping up with the rest of the traffic in all-electric mode albeit for the first 40 miles only. It does, however, look like GM is so much further away from [...]

This post is here just for fun. There is no high-tech stuff below. Not a single chunk! In case you were not sure how spacious the trunk of a Toyota Prius is or how useful a Prius can be in gardening, here is the proof 12 cubic feet of red cedar mulch neatly stacked inside [...]

I came by this Saturn ad today and could not resist to click. The ad said: “Most affordable hybrids in America”. Wow, wouldn’t that be interesting to look at? I clicked off to the Saturn website expecting to see the specs of their hybrid vehicles. Nothing really jumped at me and so I looked around [...]

I was working on a larger post about Prius plug-in conversion kits (come back soon for it) and this mini-rant I wrote up for the post did not quite fit here, so I made a separate post for it. Here is what the peculiarities are: The energy screen of the 2007 Prius has a battery [...]

When I first saw news about Chevy Volt, it was in Green Car Journal where the author of the advertorial (Kellen Schefter) had proclaimed that GM is “back in the electric car business”. Never mind strange remarks from the advertorial like “truly wonderful but now infamously defunct GM EV1” (why defunct if truly wonderful?) and [...]

No, it does not mean that Tesla Roadster 100 development was put on hold. Quite opposite. It simply means what it says. They brought it to Arvidsjaur, Sweden in a middle of a winter and took it out for a spin (pun intended) . I came across this video on Darryl Siry’s (VP of Marketing [...]

Toyota unveiled a new concept on the Geneva, Switzerland Auto Show on March 6, 2007. First thing that comes to mind: Does it look like Prius to you or what? I would guess Prius’s 0.26 aerodynamic drag coefficient is hard to beat which is going to dictate the shape of the future fuel saving cars. [...]