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Reader's Letters: Suzuki Equator

Reader's Letters — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:35:00 +0000

Dear Truck Trend , I just received my latest issue of Truck Trend and found your story about the Suzuki Equator interesting. In the first paragraph, you state, "One compact truck has unfortunately eluded the automobile...

Our Cars: Part 5 – Journey's End With The Mini Countryman S All4

Our Cars — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:35:50 +0000

More than 2500 miles and 42 hours on the road, our West Coast journey stretching nearly from Canada to Mexico and back in our long-term 2011 Mini Countryman S All4 is finally finished.The biggest Mini proved to be a...

Tim Esterdahl: Distracted Driving Federal Government Head Scratcher

Tim Esterdahl — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:36 +0000

In yet another Federal Government head scratcher, there seems to be some confusion as to who in the Federal Government can enforce any new distracted driving laws.

Who is supposed to enforce Federal distracted driving laws? Nobody knows.

According to a story in Automotive News, the power of the Federal Communications Commission ends at the phone itself and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ends at the vehicle. When you combine the two, it is unclear which organization would be in charge of overseeing new legislation.

This hasn’t stopped the NHTSA from holding meetings and developing recommendations. They have even tried to convince automakers to alter their car designs to deter distracted driving. All of this work has been done without a clear mandate to do so or clarity on the agency’s role in overseeing distracted driving.

While NHTSA Administrator David Strickland can hope that Congress adds this issue to his agency responsibilities, it might be for not. Currently there are 37 states and the district of Columbia that have distracted driving laws . And unlike the NHTSA’a recommendations, these laws actually have fines and possible jail time. However, anyone driving these days has seen the lack of enforcement on these laws.

Strickland hasn’t backed down from this issue and he has testified to Congress on addressing what he calls “a legislative donut hole.”

Also caught up in this issue is U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He has made it a signature effort of his department to crack down on distracted driving by appearing on TV and at several high profile speaking engagements. Simply put, his department doesn’t have the authority to impose any federal restrictions.

The big question is why do we have a fight between three agencies to enforce federal laws and does it even matter with individual states passing laws that aren’t enforced. Sounds like more government posturing and red tape.

Find new Tundra info in our official 2012 Tundra buyer's guide.

Road Trip Day Five: Williams to Los Angeles - Homeward Bound In the Frontier

Road Trip Day Five — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:35:43 +0000

Yesterday's drive included a milestone: the Frontier hit 2000 miles on the odometer. When we started, the truck had about 280, which indicates how far we've gone in a stretch of a few days. Yesterday, we'd agreed that...

Tim Esterdahl: Shelby Racing And Toyota 2000GT

Tim Esterdahl — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:44 +0000

With the news of the passing of automotive legend Carroll Shelby, a little known fact might have been missed. Shelby played an integral role in bringing prestige to Toyota’s 2000GT.

This is the 1967 Shelby Toyota 2000GT his team raced with in the 1968 C-Production SCCA racing circuit.

Carroll Shelby was fame came from many different automotive ventures, however, he is probably most known for his cars while at Ford. He helped develop several cars there including the Shelby Cobra and Mustang-based Shelby GT350, GT500. He also helped Dodge develop their Dodge Viper. His work on these cars brought him much fame and fortune. But, he was also a race car driver setting 16 U.S. and International speed records while also winning several races. He was even Sports Illustrated’s driver of the year in 1956 and 1957. His driving and the work he did with Ford grabbed a lot of attention from people including Toyota.

In the 1960′s Toyota was looking to build and race a high performance sports car. They ended up building the 2000GT which is known as the “first seriously collectible Japanese” super car according to Toyota. This car was so cool Motor Trend magazine at the the time called it “A fantastic engineering masterpiece on wheels, a magnificent manifestation of complete automotive ingenuity.”

The 2000GT design came from Toyota who partnered with Yamaha. Originally Nissan was going to build the car with Yamaha yet when Nissan backed out, Toyota jumped in.

Eager to see what it would do against other cars like Porsche and Corvette, Toyota contacted Shelby Racing Team, headed by Carroll Shelby. They signed a one-year contract in February of 1968 to enter the car in the C-Production SCCA racing circuit. Shelby would build three of the 2000GT cars for the competition. The 2000GT placed second to Porsche in the first race and won the Grand Prix in its third outing.

With his help and the fact it appeared in the 1967 James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice”, the 2000GT was on the map as a super car.

At its debut, the MSRP price was $2,000 higher than a Porsche or Corvette. Prices now for a fully restored version are between $100,000 to $150,000.

While Carroll Shelby’s legacy will be headlined with his work with Fords, his teams victories in the 2000GT will have a place there as well.

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Our Cars: Part 4 – Hard-Working Mini Countryman S All4 Gets a Rest

Our Cars — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:35:37 +0000

Our Mini Countryman is well on its way back to Southern California. This post comes to you from Northern California, near Infineon Raceway for a press event. The Countryman has been a mostly trusty companion for the long...

Tim Esterdahl: Toyota Sponsors Mini-Machine Student Competition

Tim Esterdahl — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:00:57 +0000

Toyota sponsored a three-day mini-machine competition with schools all around the globe in late April, 2012. Not your average “rubber bands and popsicle sticks” competition, these kids got some serious engineering prowess.

Toyota sponsored a mini-machine student competition in Detroit, Mi. Photo credit NY Times.

The event held at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Mi brought in many schools including several from Detroit spots for them are reserved and one all the way from New Delhi, India.

The competition has teams of three to four students working together to create vehicles from kits they are given in the morning. The students are allowed to only use parts from those kits and are not allowed to receive any engineering assistance. Industry volunteers are used as judges.

Matt Miller, director of the SAE Foundation, the charitable arm of SAE International said that each day is a little different. “The student-built vehicles are powered by electric motors on Day 1 of the competition, balloon-fueled jet engines on Day 2 and proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells on the third day of competition,” he said according to a story in the NY Times.

After the students build the cars, the vehicles were put the test with steep ramps, sharp turns and obstacle courses. The teams were assigned lanes and for the rest of the competition they were allowed to use that lane for practice and competition. Each lane was one meter wide and four meters long.

The event has become very popular over the years and with good reason. The competition is the culmination of classroom instruction which is sometimes led by industry experts. These kids aren’t your average students, they are the next generation of automotive engineering.

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Video Find: British Nissan Juke Commercial Gets Extreme

Video Find — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:35:23 +0000

Nissan has been known to take some artistic liberties in its commercials. One of the more recent examples is that of a Frontier pickup "skiing" down a hill and going a barrel roll before coming to a stop at the bottom of...

Road Trip Day Four: Amarillo to Williams - The Old Southwest In the Frontier

Road Trip Day Four — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:35:31 +0000

Waking up at a hotel where a giant bull on a trailer -- ready to be towed at a moment's notice wherever a giant bull would be needed -- a giant cowboy boot, and multiple cars with bull horns on the hood in the parking lot...

Road Trip Day Three: Marathon Day -- Memphis to Amarillo In The Nissan Frontier

Road Trip Day Three — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:03:52 +0000

When I woke up this morning, the sun was still about two hours away from rising. It was 4:15, and we had to hit the road before 6, because we were driving to Texas today. While yesterday's travels allowed some time to...

Tim Esterdahl: Toyota Announces Electric Rav4 â

Tim Esterdahl — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:45 +0000

Toyota recently revealed an all-new Toyota RAV4 electric-powered SUV, a result of the partnership with Tesla, that took only 22 months to develop. With this new model on the market, a plug-in Hybrid Tundra should be quick to follow.

Toyota recently introduced an Electric RAV4, is a plug-in Hybrid Tundra on the horizon?

The new Toyota RAV4 was on display at the 26th annual Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles. According to Toyota, “this all-electric SUV has an expected driving range rating of approximately 100 miles and charging time of approximately six hours on a 240V/40A charger.” They also claim that the RAV4 electric has the same driving performance and cargo capacity as the gasoline version. A fully-equipped RAV4 has an MSRP of $49,800.

The question for Tundra owners, is a plug-in Hybrid far behind. It doesn’t seem so with this news and the fact there was an electric Tundra “mule” spotted at Tesla’s headquarters recently. That Tundra looked like it was a “proof of concept” vehicle that just needed to move some of the parts into the engine compartment to free up cargo room.

The feeling that many auto industry insiders have is that a hybrid Tundra will come to the market sometime in 2015 or 2016.

With limited range, an all-electric version of the Tundra wouldn’t be too popular with consumers, nor would it be particularly attractive to fleet buyers who can buy electric conversions of the F150 and Silverado right now. However, a plug-in electric hybrid powertrain for the Tundra seems very logical. Even if plugging in your Tundra hybrid every day only gives you 8-10 miles of all-electric cruising, the impact on fuel economy would be pretty tremendous. Considering the additional expense of a plug-in hybrid over a regular hybrid, this seems very likely although unconfirmed with our Toyota sources .

What do you think? Will a plug-in Hybrid Tundra make sense or are you concerned about towing and power loss with an electric?

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Tim Esterdahl: Indian TaTa Car Runs on Air, Literally

Tim Esterdahl — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:31 +0000

For weeks we have been reporting on all sorts of alternative fuels. Now, Indian-manufacture Tata has built a car that runs on compressed air. Yep, take a breath. Your car might run on that someday.

This Cab/Taxi 6 passenger concept runs on Compressed Air. Talk about being kind to the environment!

Tata has developed what is calls Tata Mini CAT, or Air Car, a compressed-air concept small car/taxi that could max out at 50 mph and would get 80 miles per gallon.

The real nice part? The infrastructure for fueling it up is already in place. Where you might wonder? At the gas station, not the gas pumps, but the air pump for filling up your car/bike tires. Many of these places allow you to fill up your tires for $1 per one minute. According to an article on Gas 2.0, the thought then is that it would take $2 to fill up the tank of the TaTa car/tax concept. That means it would run 80 miles on $2 worth of air.

Now there is some conflicting reports on whether these air pumps would be strong enough to actually fill up the tank. However, with the air already in place, it doesn’t seem to be so much of a stretch of the imagination that adding more infrastructure would be feasible.

The TaTa Mini Cat Engine sure looks pretty clean.

According to a story by Car Advice.com, the vehicle itself is a six-seat mini van using two 340-litre carbon fibre gas tanks which are filled with air to 4350psi. It also uses a tubular chassis design with fibreglass panels that are glued together, helping to keep weight down. All the accessories and in-car equipment are powered by a microprocessor. From the exhaust the only thing that is emitted is air, of around zero to minus 15 degrees in temperature.

TaTa has previously built a few different models including the Nano, a 58 mpg very inexpensive car and a very small Emo EV. While these models have proven that Tata is open to a lot of new, different ideas. It will take a lot of work to get consumers to buy into this new concept.

Reports have it that Tata is aiming to release the Mini CAT Air Car in India in 2012. The prices are expected to start around $12,000.

Higher Fuel Efficiency = Higher Taxes

Should Electric Car Owners Pay A Special Usage Fee?

Fuel Economy Rules Set Through 2016 – What it Means for Full-size Pickups

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Our Cars: Part 3 – 2011 Mini Countryman S All4 Homeward Bound

Our Cars — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:05:10 +0000

After the trek up through the heart of the Golden State on I-5, through Oregon and on to Seattle, the Countryman finally is headed southbound again toward SoCal. But in the meantime, I'll be stopping off at Infineon...

Road Trip Day Two: Marathon Day -- Memphis to Amarillo In The Nissan Frontier

Road Trip Day Two — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:05:25 +0000

Tim Esterdahl: Toyota Customer Service Complaints â

Tim Esterdahl — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:26 +0000

An unfortunate part of being a buyer of any company’s product is that sometimes you have to complain to get an issue resolved. While we expect our Toyota’s to work perfectly, this isn’t always the case. Here’s our recommended process for registering your customer service complaints with Toyota:

Calm down – if you get emotional, you’re more likely to be viewed as a “crazy person” rather than a person with a legitimate problem.
Make a plan – Decide what you want the dealer or Toyota to do to solve your problem.
Call the local dealership and ask to speak to the General Manager FIRST – do NOT call Toyota’s national hotline right away. Instead, gradually escalate from the local dealership to the regional office to the national hotline.
Certified mail is legal correspondence, so use it if all else fails*

Here’s a breakdown of all the steps, with explanations as to why we recommend this process.

Always remember: the more you yell at someone, the less likely your problem will be resolved.

Step 1 Remove Your Emotions

This first step to getting anywhere with a complaint is to first remove all the emotion out of it. If your complaint consists of yelling, obscenities, or personal insults, you’re not helping yourself. Customer service representatives work with hundreds of people and are all too conditioned to this behavior for it to have any effect. What’s more, the more outrageous your behavior, the easier it is to discount your complaint. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to speak and act in a calm, professional manner.

So, before you talk to someone at the Toyota dealership be sure you’re calm. Take a deep breath, remember what your goal is getting your problem solved , and then work towards that goal in a rational and collected manner.

Step 2 Make a Game Plan

Before making a complaint, sit back and ask yourself “What do I want?” If your desire is just to share your frustrations, calling Toyota customer service or speaking with someone at your local dealership is all you need to do.

If your desire is instead to get something fixed or replaced, you need to think about what that means in specific terms, and then make sure you can express it clearly. Something like “I am really frustrated with the way item A looks/feels/functions and I would really like item A replaced.” That tells the person what the issue is and how you would you like it resolved.

Step 3 Start Local, then Regional, and then National if All Else Fails

Start Local

While it is tempting to pick up the phone and call the national Toyota help line right away when you have a complaint, it’s in your best interests to start at your local dealer. The reason? Toyota expects your local dealer to fix your problem for you. When you call the national hotline, all Toyota does is take a message and then forward that message back to your dealer!

If you think about this process it makes sense – your local dealer is looking to make long-term customers. They know that if they help you directly, you’re more likely to return to the dealership for sales and service in the future. Therefore, Toyota’s national hotline wants your dealer to solve your problem, and they even go so far as to hold your local dealer accountable for complaints you register on the hotline.

Put another way, if your dealer doesn’t solve your problem, Toyota will penalize them.

Therefore, calling the Toyota national customer service number right out of the gate can be counter productive. When you call and report your problem to Toyota, Toyota starts their official process. At this point, the dealer knows that Toyota is going to potentially review their behavior, and often times they respond by going 100% “by the book.” This limits what your dealer can do for you.

Instead, call the local dealership FIRST. Ask to speak to the General Manager GM , explain your problem clearly and calmly, and then ask for your desired solution. If you keep Toyota’s national customer service team out of the process, you and the local dealership GM can work something out quickly and easily.

Besides, if you can’t work it out with the GM yourself, you can always call the national hotline later.

Escalate to Regional

If your local dealer isn’t able to help you to your satisfaction, it’s time to go regional see below for phone numbers . Bringing in the regional office adds some more pressure to the problem while saving that last resort of calling the national number. Many times the regional office may have resources that local dealers don’t.

Go National Last

Lastly, if neither the local or regional office is able to help then it is time to call the national Toyota customer service number. By this time, hopefully, you have gone through the local and regional options and have a good understanding of your issue and Toyota’s issue with fixing it. All of this information will prove to be especially helpful as you layout the situation to the national customer service representative. Just understand at this point you’re hoping for a bit of a miracle, because the national hotline typically isn’t very helpful.

Step 4 Send A Letter via Certified Mail

If you ever decide to hire an attorney to represent you in your complaint, it’s likely that the first thing your attorney will do is send a certified letter to your local dealership asking them to resolve your issue. Since certified letters are considered legal correspondence in a court of law, they will immediately get your dealer’s undivided attention. Your dealer WILL respond to your certified letter, and they WILL view it as a prelude to legal action. It’s surprising just how much impact a certified letter can have actually, which is probably why so many attorneys start their process with one.

Therefore, before you give up on your problem, fire up the word processor and send out a certified letter to the dealership, the regional office, and Toyota’s national correspondence address.

*NOTE: If you’re contemplating hiring an attorney, don’t send out a certified letter. Things you say in the letter can undermine your case in the future. Think of the certified letter as a parting shot – a last ditch effort before you give up.

NATIONAL TOYOTA CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE: 800-331-4331

TOYOTA REGIONAL OFFICE PHONE NUMBERS:

Boston Office ME, NH, VT, MA, RI 508-339-5701
New York NY, NJ, CT 973-575-7600
Central Atlantic PA, VA, WV, MD, DE 410-760-1500
Southeast Region NC, SC, AL, GA, FL 954-429-2000
Cincinnati Region MI, OH, KY, TN 513-745-7500
Chicago Region MN, WI, IL, IN 630-907-0150
Kansas City Region ND, SD, NE, KS, IA, M0 816-891-1000
Gulf States Region OK, TX, MS, LA, AR 713-580-3300
Portland Region AK, WA, OR, ID, MT 503-493-4900
Denver Region WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV 303-799-6776
San Francisco Region Northern CA 925-830-8300
LA Region Southern CA 949-727-2700

OR SEND THEM A LETTER:
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
19001 South Western Ave.
Dept. WC11
Torrance, CA 90501

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Road Trip Day Two: Nashville to Memphis -- The Road Less Traveled

Road Trip Day Two — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:05:45 +0000

The drive from Nashville usually only takes about four hours, but we intentionally didn't take the most direct route. In addition, we had plenty to do before we left town, which made the trip take longer -- but it was...

Video Find: Volvo Mean Green Truck Attempts Speed Record

Video Find — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:05:00 +0000

We reported last month on Volvo Truck's announcement attempt to set a world speed record with its Mean Green hybrid diesel truck. Well, the attempt was made, and records were set. Mean Green ran the flying kilometer at...

Road Trip: Airbound to Smyrna, Tennesse To Pick Up Our Truck... Eventually

Road Trip — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:05:44 +0000

So, we haven't moved in 30 minutes. Our flight has been taxied back to the terminal and our plane is currently being looked at by the maintenance crew. People are on their phones rebooking their flights and my row...

News Briefs: Toyota Profits Top GM, Ford+GM Production Changes

News Briefs — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:25 +0000

According to reports, Toyota is set to announce its fiscal year results soon and it is expected to be a $10 billion net income. While Toyota posts a big increase, Ford, sales growth, and GM, new models, are making changes to their plant production. All of this news is good for the economy.

Toyota's Profits will top GM soon in an earnings report. Ford and GM will change up their production this summer for different reasons.

Toyota’s Profit
The expected earnings report amounts to a 12 sales growth versus last year. This number is proof that Toyota has regained its market share after some challenging times including recalls and natural disasters. The $10 billion in net income would put Toyota ahead of General Motors, the disputed #1 automaker in the world.

Ford Cuts Downtime
In response to a high demand for its products, Ford plans on cutting back its annual downtime from two weeks to one. This will result in about 40,000 more vehicles being built. This is good news for everyone since more production means more jobs and more people spending.

GM Temporarily Closes Plants
As we have been reporting, GM is working on the next-generation Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. This preparation now includes rolling closures at several plants that will add more than 20 weeks of total idle time. This has caused some dealers to increase inventory.

The redesign of GM’s full size trucks is long over due since they are the oldest design of Ford, Chrysler and Toyota.

The plan is for the new trucks to arrive in dealerships in spring 2013 as 2014 models.

GM Launching New Sierra/Silverado in 2013

Ford, Ram, and Now GM Bringing 8 Speeds to 2013/2014 Trucks – Will Toyota Follow?

Toyota’s Profit Plunges with Supply Shortages

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CNG Shootout: GM vs Ram

CNG Shootout — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:05:00 +0000

Regarding its upcoming bi-fuel CNG and gasoline HD pickup, GM said at the National Work Truck Show in Indianapolis it is "the only manufacturer to offer a single-source option for its gaseous fuel vehicles." The next...

Tim Esterdahl: Higher Fuel Efficiency = Higher Taxes

Tim Esterdahl — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:00:06 +0000

All the talk of creating more fuel efficient vehicles and more alternative fuels being used could have a negative impact on the government’s fuel tax which could mean taxpayers would have to make up the difference.

More fuel efficient vehicles will mean people spending less in gas which also means less Government tax revenue. Seems we will always pay for gas in the end.

A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office has found that there will be a $57 billion shortfall through 2025. This shortfall is directly related to rising fuel efficiency standards since the cars buying less gas means less gas taxes collected.

The taxes collected from gasoline go toward new road construction and road repairs. Considering the state of the roads in the U.S. and bridges for that matter too, it is not a great idea to spend less money on fixing them.

The current gas tax rate is 18.4 cents which has been in place since 1993. The choices are to increase this number or cut spending on road repairs.

According to a story in the Detroit News, “The report says that the higher efficiency standards — including the 2012-2016 rules — will cut the Highway Trust Fund by 13 percent over 11 years through 2025. By 2040, the new rules will reduce the nation’s gas tax revenue by 21 percent annually. The reason the full impact isn’t felt immediately is because the entire 2025 fleet won’t turn over until 2040, the report said.”

Also compounding the issue is new alternative fuels and engines like electric. As we have previously reported, lawmakers are looking at adding a new tax to new electric vehicles to make up for a shortfall in gasoline taxes.

The question then is with already high gas prices what will politicians do. Seems like any attempt to increase taxes on anything especially fuel, is a toxic issue. What do you think? Should we raise fuel prices or maybe build more toll roads? In the end, something has to budge.

Find new Tundra info in our official 2012 Tundra buyer's guide.

Our Cars: Part 2 - Mini Countryman S All4 Rolls Into Washington

Our Cars — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:05:00 +0000

Over the last 600 miles , I've gotten to know the Countryman pretty well. So far, it's handling the long-distance trek with ease. The combination of the turbocharged 1.6-liter four and the six-speed automatic are dealing...

Tim Esterdahl: Automakers Say CNG is the Future â

Tim Esterdahl — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:00:36 +0000

Automakers are making it obvious that they see Compressed Natural Gas as the best complement to gasoline in their new Bi-Fuel trucks. Governments are jumping on board too and mandating their fleets be switched. Wait a minute, what about AutoGas propane ?

Fueling up with gasoline is getting more and more expensive. The future they say is electric and compressed natural gas engines. What about Autogas propane ?

According to a well-worded editorial written by Stuart Weidie is the CEO of Blossman Gas, president of Asheville, NC-based Alliance AutoGas and the founder of Autogas for America that appeared in the News Observer, we shouldn’t ignore other options just yet.

Weidie says that Governments creating transition targets that would force entire fleets to have CNG Bi-Fuel powered vehicles only is short-sighted. He points out that it would be much better to have a balance of different alternative fuels like Autogas.

He makes a good points including pointing out that Autogas is our country’s “most widely used alternative fuel.” He says:

Autogas powers 17 million vehicles worldwide. It is the third most common transportation fuel after gasoline and diesel, far outpacing natural gas. Both autogas and natural gas are clean, abundant and American-made. But unlike natural gas, autogas is affordable to implement.
One hundred propane autogas fueling stations could be installed in North Carolina, one in every single county, for the cost of just three CNG stations. Converting a vehicle to autogas costs a third as much as converting a vehicle to natural gas. In addition, autogas vehicles fill up as quickly as conventional gasoline vehicles, while natural gas vehicles take 30 minutes or more to fuel.

Well then, why aren’t the new bi-fuel trucks running to Autogas. He says the response is that “Propane follows oil prices and can be too expensive. It is true that propane historically follows oil prices, but propane trades at anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of the price of crude oil.”

What is AutoGas Propane
Many may remember propane being around in the 1970s and being used by farmers with a few “do-it-yourself” conversions. The propane used then isn’t nearly the same as used now. Today’s propane engines will get upwards of 90% of the gas mileage compared with gasoline and will have cleaner performance for the engines and less-frequent oil changes.

Autogas Propane is the common name for liquefied petroleum gas LPG when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles as well as in stationary applications such as generators according to a Wikipedia entry. It is a mixture of propane and butane.

Autogas is widely used as a “green” fuel as it decreases exhaust emissions. In particular, it reduces CO2 emissions by around 35% compared to petrol. One litre of petrol produces 2.3 kg of CO2 when burnt, whereas the equivalent amount of autogas produces only 1.5 kg of CO2 when burnt.[1] It has an octane rating MON/RON that is between 90 and 110 and an energy content higher heating value—HHV that is between 25.5 megajoules per litre for pure propane and 28.7 megajoules per litre for pure butane depending upon the actual fuel composition.

Autogas is the third most popular automotive fuel in the world, with approximately 16 million of 600 million passenger cars powered using the fuel, representing less than 3% of the total market share. Approximately half of all autogas-fueled passenger vehicles are in the five largest markets in ascending order : Turkey, South Korea, Poland, Italy, and Australia.

Converting Your Tundra
Can you convert your Toyota Tundra? Currently, the Alliance AutoGas website doesn’t list the truck as being a candidate, however, it does list many older Ford F-150 and GMC’s. One has to wonder then, how difficult it would be to convert? A phone call to David Finder of Alliance Autogas and it seems they are really only focusing on fleet vehicles at the moment. While he does get several phone calls from individuals, the cost of converting is such that it needs to be done on a greater scale. He also said that once he gets enough phone calls about a certain vehicle, he will reach out to his member agencies to see if they have enough demand of those vehicles to do a conversion.

Internationally, we are hearing from several individuals who have converted their trucks to run on Autogas. We are exploring these stories and will have more in the future.

Where Propane Currently Stands
As with many of the alternative fuels on the market, Autogas is not the “end all” solution to everyone’s needs. It seems Autogas prices can fluctuate from place to place and there simply isn’t an individual conversion kit. It is likely then that individuals will have to wait to see which fuel comes out on top from fleet vehicles.

In the end, there are critics and proponents on everything including Autogas. What do you think? Is Autogas something you would consider?

Find new Tundra info in our official 2012 Tundra buyer's guide.

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Truck Trend Blog: Photos from EVS 26 Electric Vehicle Show

Truck Trend Blog — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:05:39 +0000

EVS 26 isn't the typical kind of show we attend. When you think of Truck Trend, you probably more typically think of SEMA, the Chicago Auto Show, and even the Mid-America Trucking Show.

Tim Esterdahl: Police Cruiser Stops Doughnut Truck

Tim Esterdahl — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:00:06 +0000

Happy Monday! Couldn’t resist putting this photo up of a Police Cruiser pulling over a Krispy Kreme doughnut truck. The police probably had good cause to pull over the truck, but come on that’s funny.

What kind of caption can you think of for this photo? Tell us below.

Yep, the proverbial joke about cops and donuts is renewed once again. And we hope you found it as humorous as we did.

We found this photo on Jalopnik.com that said “The local ABC news site wcti12.com posted this picture from a reader’s now-deleted tweet.”

Post your best photo caption below.

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