Shoichiro Toyoda Passes at 97. Turned Toyota Into a Best-Selling Brand. Love me Some Toyotas!

February 15, 2023February 26, 2023

Shoichiro Toyoda Passes at 97. Turned Toyota Into a Best-Selling Brand. Love me Some Toyotas!

Shoichiro Toyoda, the son of Toyota’s founder who joined the company in 1952, became Chairman, ushered Toyota into the modern era, and remained as honorary Chairman for life, passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 97. The man’s impact on the automotive industry is beyond my writing talents but you can read more here in the Washington Post or here in Jalopnik. Toyotas have wandered in and out of my life over the last 40 years so I thought I’d post a few loosely linked to, of course, their CarMax 従兄弟さん (cousins – clever, eh?) It is a CarMax unicorn blog after all.

Before we go to the CarMax inventory I thought I’d include the Toyota “Toyopet Crown” above, the first Japanese car imported to the United States back in 1958 – before I was born! It flopped miserably and after Shoichiro Toyodan drove one around the US to get first hand impressions he went back to Japan and gently raised hell. If you want the whole story, read the Toyota UK magazine piece here.

Ironic that 65 years later the Crown is being reintroduced to the US market, albeit in a wildly different elevated-sedan-not-quite-crossover 2023 model. Those aren’t on CarMax lots just yet, so will go with three that are, and those are also three that I have owned back in the day – two as CPO’s before I ever heard of CarMax and one as a brand new car back in 1996.

Had I not been the one to locate this car on the web I would not be able to identify it as a Toyota Avalon – a 2020 model. The Avalon came to the US in 1995 and has been berated by car magazines ever since as a Japanese Buick. My two yen is that writers are plagiarists (I know I am) and will parrot critiques to be clever or consistent. Having owned and rented Avalons I’d say it’s unfair. I take that back – it does float like a Buick, as does probably a dozen other family cars this size and it’s no better or worse. But every review has to have the “Buick” comparison. Anyway, I chose this one because it’s fairly loaded and I dig the wheels. I have always dug BBS style black spoked rims with silver lips. Someday I will put those on a V-12 Mercedes.

The Avalon is loaded with adaptive cruise, Apple CarPlay, JBL audio, heated and cooling seats and on and on. About as comfortable of a ride as you’re going to find at this price point.

Unfortunately, Toyota just won’t give us a decent motor in the Avalon. The 3.5 liter V-6 ony has 301 horsepower and takes all of six seconds to hit sixty. I can’t live with that. But if you can, this car is now here in College Station, Texas. It was once $44,000 and three years later is $10,000 less. Skip MaxCare.

Stock No. 23680936 VIN: 4T1DZ1FB6LU039867

And here we have the only surviving photo of my 1996 Avalon I bought in 1998 as a CPO. Loved that car and my pre-teen boys did too as we drove up and down the East Coast on vacation. If only it had a bigger motor. Sold it to buy a brand new Acura MDX, and regretted that.

And FWIW, below is the Toyota Avalon I rented in August 2022 to play a music gig in Stafford, Virginia before driving to North Carolina to do some work. Never made it. Came out of our hotel in the morning to find the window smashed and my guitars stolen. We NEVER leave the guitars in the car! Had to ditch the car in Richmond but in my short time with it I started to wonder if I could own another?

Gotta move on. Below we have a 2022 Toyota Camry TRD (Toyota Racing Division). It looks badass and has a wing and is the TRD trim…and yet it’s really just a gussied up Camry. The suspension is tweaked for better handling and the exhaust for better sound, and yet the motor is the motor – same 3.5 liter six cylinder with the same horsepower. The Camry shares the Avalon’s platform so other than the suspension this car is the same.

Clearly Toyota has the engineering and racing pedigree to give us more. I so loved it fifteen or so years ago when Toyota went into NASCAR, thinking that’s gotta be disruptive for the good old boys on the ovals. Especially when they teamed up with Joe Gibbs Racing, Mr. Gibbs being a hero around these parts from his NFL days. I have wondered how they run a V-8 for NASCAR without offering it on the street.

Hell, let’s pull on that Toyota racing thread a little more and watch the Rod Millen Celica set the record for his class at Pike’s Peak back in the day. Why is this relevant?

Because I got to ride around a track in a race car with Rod at the wheel scaring the living hell out of me in a prototype some time back. It was a short oval and I was stunned at the grip, the lateral G-forces, and how we didn’t end up in the wall. I love to drive fast and think I’m above average at it. This was at a whole ‘nuther level. Got me a Rod Millen autographed Hot Wheels Celica out of the deal. In fact, got two and tried to sell the second one on eBay to declutter my office, with no luck.

Back to the Toyota Camry. I got sidetracked. The Camry is equipped almost identical to the Avalon above and the interior is modified a bit. The Avalon has enormous rear seat room while the Camry is simply adequate to very good.

No point in showing the obligatory motor photo – it really is identical to the Avalon. Motor Trend tells me the 2022 Toyota Camry TRD sold new for perhaps $34,000, and this one is slightly used at $38k – wondering if MT showed MSRP and cars were marked up tremendously during the pandemic/supply chain mess? CarMax prices are coming down so don’t think they’re gouging. Either way the car is here in Sanford, Florida.

StockNo. 23362535 VIN: 4T1KZ1AK2NU061169

What’s this doing here? Well, its the lone photo I have of my 1990 Toyota Camry I bought in 1994 when my Merkur XR4ti melted down. This Camry was my first CPO and my introduction to extended warranty work. Toyota rebuilt the 2.0 liter four banger when the car had 80,000 miles and was inexplicably burning oil. Romantic sidebar. I met and asked my wife-to-be out on a date when I was the owner of a cool Merkur. It collapsed before we went out, and I had to car shop in time for our first date. I actually asked her “if I get something dull like a Camry will you still go out with me?”, not knowing how not into cars she was. She said of course, I bought the four cylinder five-speed Camry and we are still together 29 years later. And she still thinks her Buick Encore was a good car. The Camry was my introduction also into the stress free life of knowing my car was going to start every day and make it to work with no drama. Regrettably I had to sell that Camry not long after the rebuild when I was assigned overseas again.

Last on our nostalgic Toyota tribute in honor of Mr. Toyoda is this 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off Road model. Wouldn’t think of a RAV4 as an off road model, and yet Motor Trend gave it reasonably good reviews here for actually going off road comfortably. Loved their description “Comfortably is the key word there, because as we all know nothing off-roads better than a rental car.” No locking differentials or two speed transfer and yet they thought it didn’t need that – pretty good AWD system anyway. The Off Road trim elevates the car a good 1.5″ and doubles the towing capacity if you need that.

The RAV4 is just as loaded inside as the Avalon and the Camry; heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, CarPlay, JBL sound, cross traffic alert – why is it the European cars I look at cost twice as much and so often don’t have this equipment?

The 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off Road packs a 203 horsepower 2.5 liter four cylinder that’s just good enough for this little SUV. The car sold for maybe $42,000 three years ago and carries a little more discount than the Camry. It’s “Coming Soon” here in Roswell, New Mexico.

Alright, who off roads in a cute-ute? Well, I did. Owned a first gen first year RAV4 in 1996 in Israel. Drove pretty much the entire country on paved roads and even ventured into the wilderness from time to time. Car was $15,000 new.

The photo below was my RAV4 successfully getting air out of a ravine four-wheeling with friends from the Embassy. Was a hoot. What you will not see is the time I tried to drive the “Burma Road” from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the rain and buried the RAV4 in the mud a mere 100 yards or so off the paved highway. Tried everything I could to dig it out with no luck. Hailed a tow truck that extracted the vehicle – then wanted to charge me $600 for doing so. I said no way – it’s an Embassy vehicle and he would need to deal with my local national motor pool guy to collect. There was no local national motor pool guy but the Embassy expediter helped me out the next day haggling the fee down to $200. Probably cost me another $50 to clean the mud out of the interior after the hours I spent getting in and out of the car trying to rock it free. Sigh.

I’m not a total buffoon when it comes to off roading, though. There was a time in the 80’s when I successfully drove Pakistan’s Swat Valley in a Toyota Landcruiser – a RHD FJ60, I believe, with a diesel six and a four speed manual transmission. Indestructible. It would be embarrassed by it’s RAV4 grandson.

There was also a time there when I may or may not have bought a couple of hundred Toyota HiLux pickup trucks for some local boys who may or may not have been fighting what we affectionately called “The Soviets”. (This is NOT the West Virginia National Guard.) Challenging logistics – Pakistan is RHD and Afghanistan is (was?) LHD.

One of the innovations Mr. Shoichiro Toyoda gave us in the 1980’s was NUMMI Motors (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), the joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. Toyota got a manufacturing beach head in the US and GM learned how to make cheap, small cars of decent quality. NUMMI produced Toyota Corollas and its rebadged twin, the 1985 Chevrolet Nova. NUMMI reopened the Fremont, California GM plant for this effort in 1984.

The Chevrolet Nova didn’t last, although it was not a bad car by any means. My best friend bought one new. By 1988 the Nova was no more. At the time I lamented that GM learned how to build cheap economy cars, and Toyota came away positioned to sell us….the Lexus below. Lexus was the second Japanese manufacturer to spin off a luxury brand (Honda/Acura being the first) and the V-8 powered LS400 debuted in 1989. I’m thinking Toyota got the better end of the deal from NUMMI.

I’m almost done. It was my pleasure to assist a young lady in my office way back in 1985 pick out her first car – a used Toyota Tercel. Bronze and adorable. The Tercel was cute too. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

And finally, my best friend jettisoned his 1985 Chevrolet Nova for a really spiffy second generation 1991 Toyota MR2 that he loaned me once or twice. It was an honest to God grown up’s sports car and so much fun. Mid-engined and manual transmission. I once wanted a Fiero and feel a bit sheepish admitting that now.

This could go on and on. By the time I’m done Mr. Toyoda’s son, who recently stepped down as Chairman, will pass on! Impressive legacy left by Shoichiro Toyoda with the Toyota dynasty, and I’ll leave you with two unlikely Toyota products below that we could not have imagined when those first economy cars came off the ships way back when – a gigantic pickup truck and a luxury semi-exotic. Then again, maybe the HiLux and the first gen Supra were paving the way all along?

November 28, 2022November 27, 2022

Quick Hit – 1 of 600 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition

What we have here is a “rare” 2022 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition – rare in that only 600 were made, and all were allocated to North America. A bit of a unicorn. The CF stands for Carbon Fiber, and yes, much of the upgrade over a regular Supra A91 is really lots and lots of carbon fiber stuff – front splitter, rear spoiler, rocker panels, and side and rear canards. (Learned what “canards” were just for this car!) And black matte 19″ wheels with silver “Supra” calipers.

Toyota will tell you in their press release that all that carbon ain’t just window dressing, and that the splitter and duckbill spoiler and other carbon doodads actually increase downforce. Haven’t been able to find any reviews that support that, but Toyota wouldn’t make that up, would they?

The CF Edition also gets you a red and black Alcantara leather interior with “unique stitching details”, according to Toyota. And more carbon fiber trim. It’s as handsome of an interior as you’d find in any BMW Z car! This one has adaptive cruise control, Apple CarPlay, heated seats, and the upgraded JBL audio system.

The Carbon Fiber edition may or may not make the car go faster, and yet the 2022 Supra AF-91 is really, really fast. Like 3.8 seconds to 60 mph and a governed top end of 160. The Supra is powered by a 382 horsepower, 3.0 liter turbocharged inline six cylinder motor coupled with an eight-speed automatic, and is rear wheel drive. Yes, it’s (not so) secretly a BMW Z4 and was even built in Germany. With lots of carbon fiber.

The 2022 Toyota Supra A91-CF Edition was the most expensive Supra available at perhaps $68-70,000 MSRP last year, and significantly more than the four banger. Then again, there were only 600 made and that gives you some bragging rights. (The only other Supra I covered was this 1 of 1,500 2020 Supra Launch Editions, and that one was only $52,000.) At this time there are about a dozen A91-CF’s for sale on cars.com at about the same price point as this one. This one-owner, California coupe is selling for $65,998 here in Oxnard, California. It’s still under manufacturer warranty, and while I wouldn’t recommend MaxCare for too many Toyotas, keep in mind this is a BMW underneath and repairs will not be cheap in a few years. Enjoy.

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

Quick Hit – Four NOS SUV’s for Snow? (And Inventory Coming – Maybe More Unicorns?)

New old stock (NOS), or old stock for short, refers to aged stock of merchandise that was never sold to a customer and still new in original packaging. Such merchandise may not be manufactured anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only current source of a particular item.[1] There is no consensus on how old a product must be to be NOS, and some people reserve an NOS label only for products that are actually discontinued. – Wiki

Not to be confused with nitrous oxide engine offerings, also known as NOS in the automotive hot rodding world, the handful of SUV’s below are what I could find of older vehicles with almost no miles on them – or damned near new in unicorn terms. They’re not terribly special otherwise, but I was sitting in my home office watching the snow fall and the plows at the ready, and thought why not?

Interestingly, I started writing this on January 19th when CarMax inventory was maybe 50,000 cars. On January 21st we are up to 65,319 vehicles! Pre-Covid CarMax held maybe 50,000 cars in inventory year round, and beefed up to 70,000 around the end of their financial year (spring). I’m already seeing some fascinating cars, unfortunately most are higher than my unicorn cap of $35,000. Think I’m going to have to up that. There was a time when CarMax offered lots of cars in the $5,000-8,000 range, and rarely one over $100,000. (Here’s the link to the first one I ever saw in 2017 – a Mercedes AMG GT S). Now the cheapest cars (3) are $9,000 and there are 36 cars on their lots that are over $100,000. The market has gone mad. Anyway, let’s get to the SUV’s. It’s still 19 degrees in Leesburg. Maybe when it warms up I’ll find us a real unicorn?

This 2014 GMC Terrain Denali is eight years old, and has only a couple of hundred miles on it. Adequately, but not opulently equipped, no third row, and a decent 301 hp six cylinder driving the front wheels, it’s mostly interesting as a bit of a time capsule. GMC sold about 100,000 units of these first generation Terrains yearly.

Find this single owner, accident free 2014 GMC Terrain Denali here in Las Vegas.

Stock # 21719671 VIN # 2GKFLUE36E6346763

April 6, 2021April 5, 2021

1 of 300 – 2020 Subaru BRZ TS ( and it’s 1 of 1,418 Twin Toyota 86 TRD SE!)

On one hand I don’t get the underpowered but surgically superior handling small cars. They’re just not fast. The Miata. The Toyota 86. The Subaru BRZ. All low powered four cylinders.

But a backroads spin in my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider, with only 110hp, reminds me of all that is right and salutary about a nimble sports car on a windy road. My apologies to these little sports coupes. So what we have here in the “Coming Soon” section on the CarMax website is a 2020 Subaru BRZ TS – of which only 300 were imported into the US. All in white. A true unicorn. And it’s not even on sale yet!

The 2020 Subaru BRZ TS is more than visual changes – it’s all about handling and braking. According to Motor1 – “The meaner version of the coupe uses Sachs dampers and coil springs with a tuned setup from STI. There is also a flexible V-brace in the engine bay. For sharper steering response, there are draw stiffeners on the chassis and sub-frame. Up front, Brembo four-piston brake calipers clamp onto the rotors, and there are two-piston stoppers at the back.”

The Subaru motor remains a 2.0 liter, 205 hp boxer four cylinder and all BRZ TS’s are 6 speed manual transmissions. The combo will only get you a 6.3 second 0-60 mph run, pitiful by today’s standards, but again it’s about the handling. The car sold new just last year for about $33,000, so truly amazing it’s selling at this premium, but then again it is just one of 300 in the USA! Skip the MaxCare – this car is under dealer warranty and no reason to expect reliability issues. Find it here in Fort Worth, Texas.

March 31, 2021March 30, 2021

Quick Hit – 2013 Toyota X-Runner. What’s an X-Runner?!

This is an X-Runner. Honestly, I’d never heard of them until reader Brandon Baker pointed this out to me today. The Toyota X-Runner was a “performance” small sport truck manufactured from 2007 to 2013 – makes this model the last of the line. A unicorn. Looks like lots of cladding and skirts and flares, but it has a tuned suspension, a solid 4.0 liter six-cylinder engine, and a six-speed manual transmission.

The motor only produces 236 hp and moves the 3,800 lb pickup to a seven second 0-60 mph run. But seriously, CarMax….what’s with the filthy engine bay? Maybe that sells trucks.

The X-Runner is pretty basic inside – Bluetooth, rear view camera, a CD player, and cloth seats. What’s surprising is this was a $28,000 truck new in 2013, and eight years later it’s offered by CarMax for only $2,000 less! Says to me there is a following for these pickups – even high mileage ones. It’s a Toyota, so I wouldn’t pay for MaxCare on this one. And it’s a Toyota manufactured in Texas, for what that’s worth. Find this three owner sport pickup here in Sanford, Texas.

March 20, 2021March 20, 2021

Five (Sorta) of 1,500 – Five of the First 1,500 Launch Edition 2020 Toyota Supras

CarMax has a knack for poaching limited edition, low production, and ultra low mileage cars, and it looks like the accumulation of scarfed up first run Supras is no accident. CarMax currently has five of them – two for sale and three on hold or being transferred. Five of the 10 Supras CarMax has overall are Launch Editions. The first 1,500 Toyota Supras offered when the iconic model was reintroduced in 2020 were tagged as “Launch Editions”. The cars got a carbon fiber panel with the numeric designation on the dash, but other than some unique visual changes insie and out the car is the same as all of the other Supras. The first Launch Edition off the line, obviously #1 of 1,500, auctioned for $1.2 million as a charity donation. Toyota sold less than 6,000 2020 Supras of all kinds, so not a lotta them out there anyway.

The Toyota Supra Launch Editions in red and white exteriors have red interiors you can’t get in other Supras (thank God!) and the black models come with black interiors. All five of the Launch Edition models CarMax snagged have the optional adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, parking sensors, and rear-collision warning – an additional $1,195 over the $56,180 purchase price per Car and Driver – bringing the original sales price of these models to $57,373. The five CarMax models are selling from $52-54k, not much off of the original price. They also have less than 1,000 miles on the Serramonte, California, to just under 8,000 miles in Richmond, Virginia. Damned near new. No need for MaxCare!

Collectibles? Maybe. Maybe not. The Toyota-BMW partnership, and the availability of a higher horsepower BMW Z4 M40i for about the same price (used, from CarMax) dilutes, to me, the specialness of the new Supra. But if you liked the original classic and want a second chance at being one of the first to buy a 2020 Supra – and want a plaque on the dash that says so, perhaps you’ll appreciate these. FWIW – in 3 1/2 years this is the first Toyota unicorn I’ve blogged about!

The Toyota Supra, of course, is powered by the BMW 3.0 liter inline six good for 335 hp – 20hp more than the last generation Supra, mated to an eight-speed transmission, that pushes the 3,300 lb sports car to a 3.9 second 0-60 mph run. That’s about the same as a base Porsche 911 costing twice as much.

The cars. If you have better eyes than me, or can zoom in better, you might have a better take on the limited edition numbers. I also have the prices because all of them were saved to my profile when available. On any given day availability changes – the Harrisonburg, Virginia car became showed up again as available while I was writing this (it’s been on and off the market for awhile). Here’s what I got: