Back in February I took a look at Toyota's new Optimal Drive engine. Toyota have released their new Corolla 1.3 Optimal Drive and it's time to see if this really is the fuel efficiency breakthrough we've been waiting for.

Before I leap right in and tell you what the outcome was, let's re-cap and take a look at what the Optimal Drive was supposed to deliver. The Optimal Drive promised almost 15-20% more fuel efficiency. It was also said that the engine would be more powerful (3-5%) than other engines of the same class. But what about the environment? Toyota claimed a drastic reduction in CO2 output, making this one of the worlds 'greener' engines.  read more »

NAAMSA vehicle sales figures for December 2008 show total deliveries of 32 765 units for the month, a number that took total vehicle sales for the year to 533 327 units, which is 21% down on the 676 098 sales for 2007. In contrast vehicle exports of 284 213 vehicles were up by 66% on 171 237 exports for the previous year, due mainly to the success of Toyota’s Corolla and Hilux export programmes.

“Right from the start of 2008 we believed that the South African motor industry would endure a period of consolidation with significantly reduced sales volumes off a high base. High commodity prices in the first half of the year, crude oil in particular, impacted on disposable incomes as did continued upward pressure on interest rates. A total wild card was the devastation of the global financial system brought about by unmanageable levels of toxic debt accumulated in the system over years of global over indulgence. This situation accounted for a drop in sales of between 4 and 5% more than expected."

- Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota S.A.  read more »