Tundra

Toyota Motor Sales today announced that it will conduct a voluntary safety recall on about 51,000 2011 Tundra trucks to inspect the rear drive shaft. The rear drive shaft in an estimated 0.05 percent of the vehicles may include a component (slip yoke) that could break because of improper casting during the foundry process.

According to the Japanese automaker, there are no reports of accidents or injuries associated with this condition, and no other Lexus or Toyota vehicles are involved in the recall.

Toyota will inspect or replace the rear drive shaft for free. The inspection takes about … Read more

It wouldn't be the SEMA Show without a few tire-smoking drag racers. Toyota throws its hat into the ring early, previewing the heavily modified Tacoma X-Runner RTR. The "RTR" stands for Ready to Race. Obviously, Toyota means business with this project pickup truck.

Toyota calls the RTR a "parts bin" build, meaning that nearly all of the components that went into the project are available Toyota products--supposedly, only the traction bars and driveshaft are non-OEM parts.

Starting with the larger Tundra's standard 5.7-liter V8 and automatic transmission, Toyota's gearheads bolted a TRD … Read more

This last week saw yet another big auto show in the form of the 2009 SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show ran from November 2 to Friday November 6, and boy, was there a ton of eye candy for us car enthusiasts. However, the SEMA Show was not open to the public--only auto industry insiders were allowed inside these doors full of what SEMA refers to as "automotive specialty products." This video is a teaser of some of the many automotive delights that were on display at this year's event.

Here we go … Read more

Probably the only race that Buick and Jaguar would finish in a tie is the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS), but both are on the top of the leader board this week. Each rank highest in vehicle dependability in a tie. Buick improves from a sixth-place ranking in 2008, while Jaguar improves from 10th place. Following in the top-five rankings this year are Lexus, Toyota and Mercury.

Toyota garners five segment awards for the Highlander, Prius, Sequoia, Solara, and Tundra. Lexus follows with four segment awards for the ES 330 (in a tie with the … Read more

It's always a good sign when a cell phone introduced at CES actually makes it to a carrier. And it's an even better sign when that phone goes on sale just a week after the show.

Thursday, AT&T formally introduced the Motorola Tundra VA76r. In case you didn't catch our coverage from Las Vegas, the Tundra is a rugged push-to-talk phone that fits a hole in AT&T's lineup. Features include 3G, a 2-megapixel camera, support for AT&T's TeleNav GPS Navigator, Bluetooth, personal organizer applications, 100MB of internal memory, and … Read more

While visiting the Motorola booth at CES, I had very my own Miss America experience. The company invited me to test its CrystalTalk Plus feature, which is a top feature of its new Tundra VA76r rugged phone. Since I've had good experiences with CrystalTalk before, I accepted the opportunity to see how it could be improved upon. CrystalTalk Plus promises, and as I found also delivers, an even better audio experience by adding a second microphone on the phone's rear side. Along with the primary microphone, it cancels out background noise to enable you to hear your caller, … Read more

Motorola's new Tundra VA76r and Renew W233 were built with the Earth in mind. But while one was designed to save the outdoors, the other was just built to be used outdoors.

The Renew, of course, is the new T-Mobile handset that is made from recycled materials. Up close we found that it has a light--dare we say wispy--feeling in the hand. The green color is unique, not to mention very appropriate, but there's not much else to say about its candy-bar design. The 65,000 color display is about what you'd expect--it's small, and the … Read more

Compared with last year, Motorola is having a quieter CES. While a year ago the company held a high-energy media event at the swank Wynn Hotel to announce its media-friendly phones, in 2009 the company announced its new handsets via a news release even before CES began.

Yet, that's not to say the new models aren't notable. First off, is the Motorola Surf A3100. This touch-screen smartphone offers Windows Mobile 6.1 and a selection of multimedia features. The Moto Tundra VA76r is a rugged push-to-talk phone for AT&T. Besides enduring bumps and bruises, it also … Read more

Motorola Nextel's phones have long shown that the company has a talent for making rugged handsets, which is why we aren't surprised to see the Tundra VA76r for AT&T. Introduced on the eve of CES 2009, the Tundra is a flip phone with a durable design that should meet all the usual military specifications. It should be good for construction workers or even dog sledders speeding across the tundra.

Features include 3G, a 2-megapixel camera, support for AT&T's TeleNav GPS Navigator, Bluetooth, personal organizer applications, push-to-talk, 100MB of internal memory, and a memory … Read more