Mark Miller Toyota Downtown

Despite the fact that the Toyota Venza made its original debut four short years ago, it will be seeing some major changes soon. That's right; Toyota is an auto brand that likes to keep up with current trends, and it's decided the time has come for some serious upgrades. The 2013 model Venza was previewed at the New York Auto Show recently, and, we have to say, it's more stylish than ever. It also comes with several new options and packages, as well as upgraded standard features.

We have some bad news, Toyota fans. The Japanese auto brand has announced its innovative Toyota Hybrid Le Mans Racer will be missing its debut competition due to a collision during testing. Though the Toyota TS030 racer was set to premiere at the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5^th, it can no longer make the race.

It's true. Toyota is extremely focused on keeping its customers as far away from the gas pump as possible, and its efforts are paying off- especially in the state of California- which has the highest gasoline prices in the nation. Five of its models are especially impressive, as they offer an average combined fuel economy rating of an amazing 44 mpg.

Are you a manager or a member of a nonprofit community organization that needs some extra help in the transportation department? If so, you should really look into the Toyota "100 Cars for Good" program, which has now been launched for its second year. During the huge philanthropy project, the Japanese automaker is donating a hundred cars to a hundred nonprofit organizations over a hundred-day span. Every day during the competition, the winner will be selected through a public voting process on the auto brand's Facebook page.

The Toyota Highlander, a sporty SUV with a fun personality, has always been built in Japan, home base of Toyota, but times are changing. The Japanese yen continues to grow in value, which is great for the country, but is proving problematic for automakers and auto manufacturers that export vehicles built there to other countries. Soon, the Toyota Highlander will move its production to the United States, and Toyota has stated it will invest $400 million to expand its Princeton, Indiana plant. This plant already builds the vehicle, but its capacity will grow by a large margin. Toyota has also enlarged production at its new Mississippi plant with a second shift to reduce the needed number of Toyota Corolla imports from Japan.

Toyota has stayed far away from rental-car sales in the past, but this year, it breached the market much more deeply and saw a huge increase in profit, as compared to last year's numbers. In January 2012, Toyota sold over 24 thousand new cars and trucks to U.S. rental car fleets- a 47 percent increase from 2011. Without these extra fleet sales, the company would have only seen a one percent increase in sales, instead of the 7.5 percent increase it achieved.

Toyota already has a best-selling line of hybrid vehicles in the Toyota Prius, but it still isn't satisfied. It seems there is more work to be done and more vehicles to be produced for the company to be happy about its fuel-efficient offerings. That's why the automaker launched its 2013 NS4 Concept at the recent 2012 Detroit Auto Show.