New Corolla is streets ahead (Apr 02)
Johannes Thammer, Toyota’s director of product and research in Europe, talked with me at the Frankfurt launch of the car about the ‘real build feel’ in its quality, something very important for Europeans, writes Trish Whelan. It seems we like to tap the dash, and it is reassuring for us to hear a solid sound.

Toyota get it right with Corolla saloon (Sep 03)
The latest Toyota Corolla saloon kind of just slipped into our consciousness in recent months, writes Brian Byrne. The company here didn’t make any ballyhoo about it, and it was only when I started to see a few on the road that I realised it was already picking up Irish customers. It has to be the smartest-looking 3-box Corolla ever. And it clearly came from the same styling pen as did the latest version of the large car Camry.

An Avensis for the ups and downs of life (Dec 00) - Trish Whelan
There’s a length of road over my part of the country between Rathangan and Kinnegad which is where I first began to realise the worth of the latest Toyota Avensis in turbodiesel. I don’t use it much because its Bog of Allen underpinnings have left it with switchbacks and crazy surface curves worthy of a roller-coaster gone wrong, and though it is arrow-straight for long sections, any pushing a car is likely to have it attempting many times to head for the peat and its water-filled holes. more

Avensis Verso is a true MPV (Aug 02)
Picnic would never have made me want to buy the Toyota of that name, however worthy, writes Brian Byrne. Avensis Verso doesn’t exactly drag me towards the showrooms, either, though it is a bit less, well, sunshine, songbirds and flowers? But the Verso (Toyotaese for MPV variant) based on the Avensis is a car prepared to do much more than hang around while you munch the paté and quaff the champagne.

Avensis is a jewel with a slight flaw (April 03)
I liked the look of the new Avensis from the moment I saw the first picture, and it was an anticipation confirmed when I saw it in the metal, writes Brian Byrne. And the interesting thing is, it looks totally individual within the current Toyota family. Unlike the strong similarity between the Corolla and the Camry, Avensis has its own distinct style.

Toyota leapfrogs again (April 03)
Car making is a game of leapfrog, writes Ray Bernard. One maker builds a new model, it is overtaken in mid-life by another maker's offering, then maybe a third takes the podium for a while, and the brand new version of the original takes its turn again. With the launch of the new Avensis, I'll stick my neck out a little. The latest car is arguably the best Toyota ever built.

Toyota Prius makes motorsport history (Jun 02)
The world's first hybrid rally car, a Toyota Prius, has finished the gruelling 5,000 mile, three-week Midnight Sun to Red Sea Rally in a provisional 14th place overall, writes Raymond Bernard. This secures the Prius’s place in motoring and motorsport history as the first hybrid car to enter and finish an official, FIA sanctioned event.

Prius II is quiet and green (Oct 03)
It's a little unnerving to sit at a traffic lights and only hear the sound of the aircon fan, writes Brian Byrne, knowing that you're going to need power to accelerate at any moment and there's no engine running.

Land Cruiser in the high sierras (Jan 03)
If there’s one good reason for driving through the Sierra de Almijara mountains in southern Spain, it is the stunning scenery, backgrounded by the snowcaps on the even higher Sierra Nevada towering over Granada over to the north-west, writes Brian Byrne. If there’s a better reason, it has to be doing that journey in the next generation Toyota Land Cruiser, because that allows you to get right into the high rocky areas of the Almijara.

Land Cruiser at exhilerating heights (Jan 03)
The mountain track was just two feet wider than the car, with rock face to my right and a nasty drop to jagged rocks below if I cared to look left, writes Trish Whelan. I didn’t. I don’t like heights and this was hair-raising stuff for me. The ravine had come upon us suddenly as we rounded a corner on the first leg of our test drive programme in the next Toyota Land Cruiser. I carefully made my way round all those blind corners, and through the enormous deep ruts carved by monsoon-type rains that can hit this part of the world.