Next time you think about using a generic part for your vehicle, you need to watch this little clip on what Genuine Toyota Manufactured Parts will do for your vehicle. Don’t hurt your vehicle, help your vehicle!
Toyota continues to offer its free-of-charge safe driving skills program, Toyota Driving Expectations, and comprehensive online resources with the goal of reducing motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death among teens. Upcoming behind-the-wheel safety events will be held in Torrance, Calif., Denver and San Antonio for newly licensed or permitted teens and their parents to learn about defensive driving skills, crash avoidance techniques and the dangers of distracted driving during the 2.5-hour program.
Moving into its 10th year, Toyota Driving Expectations supplements standard driver’s education to prepare inexperienced drivers for the challenges they’ll face on the road. In recognizing the importance of parents’ involvement to help their teens develop responsible driving habits, the program requires a parent or guardian to accompany their teen.
Kicking-off in Torrance, Calif., professional instructors in the Toyota Driving Expectations “On The Road” program tour lead teens through driving courses and in-classroom discussions, while encouraging continued learning at home and demonstrating safe driving habits. This year’s events will be held at:
“Safer drivers lead to safer roads, so Toyota is committed to helping educate and empower teens and parents around smart driving choices,” said Michael Rouse, Toyota’s vice president of diversity, philanthropy and community affairs. “Through our safe driving programs, partnerships and online resources, we hope more young drivers will absorb the sobering lessons of distracted driving and learn key skills to keep themselves safe behind the wheel.”
To further the connection with teens in local communities, Toyota Driving Expectations has launched teen driving assemblies in high schools and dealerships across the country. Free Toyota Driving Expectations safety clinics at select Toyota dealerships will be led this summer by professional drivers who address vehicle safety features, defensive driving, distracted driving and vehicle maintenance.
–Courtesy of Toyota Newsroom
When you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, just remember when Toyota Tundra towed a 292,000 lb Space Shuttle.
Did you know that three out of every four child car seats in the United States are not used or installed correctly? Or that almost 50 percent of children who are fatally injured in motor vehicle crashes were unrestrained? To address this alarming public health issue and encourage greater safety for child passengers, Toyota and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have teamed up to launch a national, online education campaign on Causes.com.
Thecampaign – at http://www.Causes.com/Toyota – invites people to take action online:
The campaign builds on the success of Toyota’s and Cincinnati Children’s groundbreaking Buckle Up for Life child safety program in communities.
In recognition of everyone who participates in the campaign, Toyota will donate 10,000 child car seats to families in need.
“While cars and trucks today are safer than they’ve ever been, motor vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death in the United States for children between the ages of one and 12,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, group vice president of National Philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation at Toyota Motor North America. “Tragically, so many of these deaths and injuries could be avoided through the proper use of child car seats and seat belts. We are pleased to be working with the visionary medical experts at Cincinnati Children’s to help empower parents and caregivers to make an even bigger difference in protecting young passengers, while also bringing thousands of new child car seats to families in need.”
“The goal of our partnership with Toyota has been to help keep as many children safe as possible and to educate families on the importance of properly buckling children up during every ride,” said Dr. Victor Garcia, founding director of Trauma Services at Cincinnati Children’s, professor of pediatric surgery and a co-founder of Buckle Up for Life. “The campaign on Causes.com expands our ability to fulfill this vital mission and to reach even more people across America with information that saves lives.”
Toyota and Causes will host a live Twitter chat to help parents learn valuable tips about child passenger safety. The event will start on Jan. 22 at 2:00 p.m., ET, with certified child passenger safety technicians from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The technicians will be available to answer questions, in English and Spanish, about proper car seat installation and other ways to keep child passengers safe. The chat will be hosted by Corinne McDermott, family travel expert, Huffington Post contributor, and founder of Have Baby Will Travel, a leading website offering travel tips for busy parents, which regularly addresses child safety issues. Follow @Toyota and @causes and learn some great tips on how you can #BuckleUpforLife.
Courtesy of Toyota Media Newsroom
Toyota’s 2013 Prius line dominates this year’s Greenest list, an automotive ranking by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
The Toyota Prius C, a compact version of the Prius with a 53 mpg city and 46 mpg highway efficiency, received the highest green score with 58 points. The Honda Fit electric car was ranked in the No. 2 spot. The original Prius, Prius plug-in hybrid and the Honda Civic hybrid rounded out the vehicles with the five highest green scores.
Aggressive national fuel economy standards kicking in for model years 2012 to 2025 have helped push automakers to provide more efficient vehicles, ACEEE said.
This year, conventional vehicles were largely pushed off the Greenest list by hybrid-electic, plug-in hybrid-electric and all-electric vehicles. The Scion Iq and SmartForTwo are the only non-hybrid, non-plug-in vehicles to remain on the list. Even the eight-time first-place winner Honda Civic natural gas vehicle was pushed out of the top 12 in 2013, said ACEEE.
The Greenest list analyzes vehicles based on their “green score,” which incorporates tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases. Consumers can view the list on the ACEEE-sponsored site greenercars.org, which also allows users to view the eco-performance of any 2013 model.
A number of updates were made this year to the methodology to more accurately estimate vehicles’ environmental impacts, ACEEE said. These include updates to emissions from the vehicle manufacturing process; changes to gasoline, diesel and natural gas upstream emissions; and updates to the forecasted mix of fuels used to generate the electricity used to power electric cars.
The ACEEE also publishes a “meanest” list, highlighting the cars least friendly to the environment. This year a number of trucks pushed out European sports cars as the least environmentally friendly. The dirtiest vehicle for 2013 is the Ford F-350 FFV pickup truck with a green score of 17, followed by the Ford F-250 FFV and the Ford E-350 wagon.
Courtesy of EnvironmentalLeader.Com
Toyota will help make history tonight as a sturdy Tundra pickup helps pull the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour across a major freeway overpass during a journey from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the California Science Center.
The 2012 Toyota Tundra CrewMax 1.2-ton pickup is slated to tow Endeavour nearly a quarter of a mile across the Manchester Boulevard Bridge over the 405 Freeway sometime late tonight in Pacific Daylight time zone.
Tundra will pull the 5-story shuttle and custom tow dolly weighing a combined 292,000 pounds over the bridge at about two miles per hour. The pickup is assembled at Toyota’s San Antonio, Texas plant, and is equipped with Toyota’s powerful 5.7-liter V8 engine.
The area surrounding the Manchester Bridge will be closed. There will be a few spots along Endeavour’s route where people can catch a glimpse of the massive space shuttle, but Los Angeles Police Department officials say access will be limited and security will be significant during the move. To view an outline of the shuttle route, please visit the KNBC-TV website at www.nbclosangeles.com. The California Science Center, the eventual home of the shuttle, is inviting people to watch the move in real time at a Goggle+ event site: http://bit.ly/RmAZMr.
Toyota’s relationship with the California Science Center started 20 years ago with a commitment to inspire youth in the fields of engineering, innovation and future technology. Tundra has been a part of the Center’s display, supported a bio-diversity focused expedition for the center and will be part of the future Endeavour museum display.
Toyota has launched a mico-website at www.toyota.com/tundraendeavour to provide shuttle and Tundra information, as well as offer an opportunity for visitors to contribute support to the Science Center.
The Daily Breeze, a local news organization, said it plans to provide continuous live coverage of the shuttle Endeavour’s slow-speed journey from LAX to the California Science Center from pre-dawn Friday to late Saturday – including photos, videos and live updates at www.dailybreeze.com.
