Toyota Entune Receives Two Prestigious Awards at 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

•    Toyota Entune wins CNET “Best of CES” Award in Car Tech category
•    Popular Mechanics honors Entune with Editor’s Choice Award
•    Entune to be available on 2012 Prius v

 

TORRANCE, Calif., January 31, 2011 – At the just-concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the debut of Toyota’s Entune™ multimedia system won both a “Best of CES” award from CNET (www.cnet.com) in the Car Tech category, and the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award.

 

“We were amazed by the media’s overwhelming reception of Toyota Entune at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show,” said Jon Bucci, vice president of the Advanced Technology Department at Toyota. “We listened to our customers and we worked hard to develop a truly easy-to-use, upgradeable multimedia system. It looks like our hard work paid off. We are honored to receive these prestigious awards from both CNET and Popular Mechanics.”

 

Toyota Entune brings popular mobile applications, including Bing, iheartradio, MovieTickets.com, OpenTable.com, and Pandora to select Toyota vehicles beginning in 2011. Featuring advanced voice recognition and intuitive in-vehicle controls, Entune is compatible with a wide range of smart phones and features phones. Toyota Entune brings personalized information and data services to the vehicle, and is wirelessly upgradeable, so in-vehicle applications are never obsolete.

 

The first vehicle to offer Toyota Entune will be the all-new 2012 Prius v, the first in a new line of vehicles in the Prius family. Prius v will be the most spacious dedicated hybrid vehicle on the market, with 50 percent more cargo volume than the Prius sedan, and will achieve a combined EPA fuel economy rating of 40 miles per gallon. The new Prius will also offer Safety Connect, which provides Automatic Collision Notification, Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance, Emergency Assistance, and Roadside Assistance.  Safety Connect combined with Toyota Entune offers comprehensive safety services and mobile applications not found in any other vehicle make. Prius v will go on sale in late summer of 2011. 

 

Toyota Entune also includes location-based services, such as personalized traffic, fuel prices, stocks, weather, and sports.  These are combined with a fully featured entertainment and communication system, which includes XM radio, HD Radio, CD player, USB connectivity, Bluetooth® streaming and phonebook.  A high quality JBL sound system is available as an option as well.

About CNET “Best of CES” Award/Car Tech Category
“Each year, CNET editors spend hundreds of hours on the show floor to find the hottest technologies that will drive industry trends for the coming year and beyond,” said Scott Ard, Editor in Chief of CNET. “Toyota Entune was chosen from thousands of products at the show, and demonstrates the innovation to be honored with one of our ‘Best of CES’ award.”

 

Selected by CNET’s unbiased expert editors, winners are recognized as having the hottest products in their respective technology categories for their unmatched innovation and creativity, and their ability to excite consumers and help them explore a world gone digital.  CNET editors reviewed hundreds of entries, as well as scoured the 2010 CES show floor for products to consider for the prestigious award.

 

About Popular Mechanics
"At Popular Mechanics, we've been waiting for a car maker to harness the power and convenience of the mobile phones drivers are already carrying. Toyota's Entune system is a genuine breakthrough that points the way forward," said James Meigs, editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics.

 

Popular Mechanics, published monthly by Hearst Magazines, inspires, instructs and influences almost 9 million curious readers. Issues engage readers with breakthroughs in the latest innovations in science and technology; educates with informative “how-to” stories on automotive, the home and digital technology; and motivates action with product reviews and comparison tests of the newest equipment and products. Popular Mechanics is also the #1 ranked men’s monthly magazine when it comes to reaching an environmentally conscious audience.

 

About Toyota
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion.  Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of nearly 1,500 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers which sold more than 1.77 million vehicles in 2009.  Toyota directly employs nearly 30,000 people in the U.S. and its investment here is currently valued at more than $18 billion.

 

For more information about Toyota, visit http://www.toyota.com/ or www.toyotanewsroom.com/entune.

Consumer Reports Recognizes Several Toyota Vehicles

         Recommended- Consumer Reports recommends 20 out of 26 Toyota, Scion
     and Lexus products, the highest of any manufacturer (Pages 56-69)

     Best overall fuel economy- Toyota tied for the most with three out of
     thirteen vehicles (Page 10)
     Top picks- Toyota took 3 out of 10, more than any manufacturer;
     Sienna, Prius and RAV4 ( Pages 7-9)
     Best- Toyota has the most models listed in the "Best of the Best"
     used car category (Pages 80-81)
     Best vehicles under $20,000- Toyota tied for the most with four out
     of fourteen (Page 11)
     Five year ownership costs- Toyota has three out of the five least
     expensive vehicles to own (Page 12)
     Best values- Corolla, Prius, Camry, Sienna, RAV4, and Highlander
     (Page 20)
     Reliability over time- Toyota has the most reliable vehicles overall.
     Toyota vehicles have the fewest problems per 100 as the vehicles age.
     After five years most manufacturers' vehicles have twice as many
     problems as Toyota (Page 78)
     Problem free- The most problem free 5 year old model is the 2006
     Toyota Highlander V-6 (Page 78)
     Green car- Prius named green car of the year (Page 8)

Consumer Reports has more than 7 million subscribers and their survey is
influential because of how many consumers consider it before buying a new
vehicle.  Their latest results yielded data from over 1.3 million
responders.

Toyota Launches Entune In-Vehicle Multimedia System

It’s a match made in heaven: On the one hand, “Consumers have grown accustomed to having the world at their fingertips through their mobile phones,” according to Jon Bucci, vice president of the Advanced Technology Department at Toyota. And on the other, those buyers also have grown accustomed to Toyota meeting all their transportation needs. Now the automaker is putting both those expectations together with the Toyota Entune multimedia system, recently introduced at this year’s International CES consumer electronics show.
“And unlike other industry solutions, Entune allows the driver to interact with informative and entertaining mobile content without fumbling with their phone,” added Bucci. “We offer features that our customers demand and integrate them seamlessly in the vehicle.”
Among those features will be:

• Mobile Apps—Entune will launch offering the Bing search engine to help drivers find more than 16 million points of interest, with destinations sent directly to the vehicle’s navigation system; OpenTable, capable of making reservations at any one of 15,000 restaurants across the country; MovieTickets.com, providing access to film tickets and reviews; and the ability to get customized, real-world information about traffic, fuel prices, weather, stocks and sports.
• Music—Tuning into Entune will deliver more than 750 local radio stations via iheartradio, access to the Pandora music-streaming service, XM satellite radio, HD radio and USB connectivity for personal media players.
• Voice Recognition—Entune’s best-in-class voice-recognition system is able to respond to conversational speech commands, so there’s no need to worry about memorizing thousands of specific voice directions to operate the system.

In addition, Entune can be upgraded wirelessly, so it always packs the latest applications and functionality, and it was designed to be compatible with a wide range of current cell phones.
“Toyota has always been a leader in the automotive industry, so it makes sense it would bring the latest in mobile technology to the car,” said Chris Daniels, general manager of Bing for Mobile, Microsoft Corp. “By bringing Bing Maps and Bing for Mobile technology to the car, we are helping Toyota enhance the overall in-vehicle experience to be as rich and robust as possible, which means personalizing the information to each driver’s needs.”
The new Entune multimedia system will be available in select Toyota vehicles beginning later this year.

The Only Minivan On The 2011 IIHS Top Safety Pick List: Toyota Sienna

By Toyota in the News on February 22, 2011

With minivans once again growing in popularity, there are a lot of new choices on the market today—but only one earned a place among the 2011 Top Safety Picks chosen by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS): That was the all-new Toyota Sienna. Only vehicles that offer electronic stability control and score the highest possible marks in the IIHS’ front, side, rear and rollover crash evaluations earn the award, so this is no small honor for Toyota’s “Swagger Wagon.”

But it is further evidence of Toyota’s renewed dedication to customer safety, which also includes making the company’s Star Safety System a standard feature on the Sienna. This comprehensive suite of safety technologies includes anti-lock brakes, brake-force distribution, brake assist, vehicle stability control and traction control. Seven airbags are standard as well, ranging from dual-stage front and seat-mounted airbags for the front seats to a new driver’s-side knee airbag and side-curtain airbags that extend the length of the cabin to offer protection to passengers in all rows.

The 2011 Sienna stands apart from the crowd for other reasons, too. Completely redesigned for the new model year, Toyota’s minivan offers a choice of both four- and six-cylinder engines, front- or all-wheel drive, a sporty SE model that delivers a surprisingly dynamic driving experience, aggressive sheet metal, a roomier and more versatile interior than the 2010 model, and much more. In fact, thanks to these kinds of advantages, sales of the Sienna were up nearly 20 percent through November of this year.

Impressively, seven other Toyota products also were named to the 2011 list of IIHS Top Safety Picks:

• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota Venza
• Toyota Highlander
• Toyota Avalon
• Lexus RX
• Scion tC
• Scion xB

“Toyota is pleased to have received eight IIHS Top Safety Picks for 2011, which we believe is reflective of our ongoing commitment to developing safe and reliable vehicles for our customers,” said a company representative.

 

Toyota wants to salute do-gooders by giving 100 cars over 100 days to organizations that could really use a new set of wheels. And voters like you decide who gets a new ride every day!