Heyward Allen Toyota

No matter what part of the country you live in, temperatures are probably a bit colder than you might like. Whether that's 65 degrees in Arizona or negative numbers in the Midwest, it's the time of year for extra layers. You know what else gets cold? Your car. To remedy this, Toyota decided to get a bunch of crochet pros together and have them knit a cozy... for a Prius.

We really can't add anything else here... grab some cocoa, put on the holiday sweater your grandmother bought for you and  view the clip.

We can't speak to the veracity of this information, but the internet rumormill is reporting that the upcoming Toyota FT86 has a rather interesting new logo in the works. Let's break it down:

Directly in the center of the supposed logo, you'll notice a stylized 86 that conveys a sense of motion. This, as you may already be aware, hearkens back to the classic rear-drive Toyota AE86, otherwise known as the Corolla Sport here in America. If this logo is for real, that means Toyota will likely move forward with the 86 designation made famous by its '80s-era sports coupes. Next up are the twin opposed pistons on either side of the numerical center. This calls to mind the 2.0-liter boxer engine that Toyota reportedly plans to use in its low-cost coupe, provided by partner Subaru, of which Toyota owns a large chunk.

We're expecting pricing in the low-to-mid $20s if and when the 86 goes on sale later in 2011, and we'll be curious to see if we find the new logo anywhere on the production car.

Toyota is set to whip the sheets off of the newest addition to the Prius line at the next Detroit Auto Show. Designed to be a larger, more family-friendly hybrid, the Prius MPV is supposed to serve up as much as 50 percent more space without sacrificing the vehicle's now legendary fuel economy. In order to build a little buzz about the new battery-operated people hauler, Toyota has enlisted the help of skateboarding guru Ben Burnquist. Burnquist has a long history with the sustainability movement - making use of environmentally-friendly materials in everything from his boards to his ramps and home.

The video gives us a quick glimpse at the interior of the bigger Prius from the rear hatch as Burnquist suits up for a stint on his board, but otherwise, Toyota has done a smart job of keeping the vehicle tucked away and wrapped up in a black sheet. That means that we'll have to wait until early January to see the full monty like the rest of the world.

Never heard of the Toyota Vitz? It's one of the auto giant's biggest sellers in the Japanese Domestic Market, accounting for over 1.4 million units since its introductory model in 1999. But the compact hatchback isn't exclusive to Japan: in export markets, it's known to us as the Yaris, and Toyota's sold more than 3.5 million of them around the world. And now it has introduced the third generation.



Abandoning the styling of its predecessor, the new Vitz/Yaris is considerably sharper in the design department. It's also more fuel efficient and less polluting to the environment. And while overall dimensions remain compact, the interior has grown in capacity for added comfort and utility, utilizing a new type of glass to filter out 99 percent of UV radiation.



The Vitz is offered domestically with a range of engines and trim levels - from 1.0- to 1.5-liter engines, with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, with CVTs, manu-matics and stick shifts, a start-stop system and even upscale Jewela and RS trims - though the North American Yaris will constrict the choices some.

The Toyota Prius has been the top-selling vehicle in its home market of Japan since its redesign in 2009 for the 2010 model year, due partly to a series of incentives created by the Japanese government to promote fuel efficient vehicles - more specifically, hybrids. Those incentives ended in September, leading many to wonder if Toyota's hybrid hatchback could maintain its stranglehold atop the sales board.

Apparently, the answer is yes. According to data provided by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association, Toyota managed to sell 21,400 Prius hybrids in November, more than enough to earn the fuel-sipper the top sales spot over the second-place Honda Fit (16,677 units).

It seems that the end of hybrid vehicle subsidies did take something of a toll on Prius sales, however. Though still on top, sales of Toyota's hybrid hatchback were down by just over 20 percent when compared to the same period one year ago, when the Japanese government's incentives were in full effect. Still, Toyota's green jellybean has enjoyed 18 months at the top and still has quite a few carlengths on the Fit, and that's nothing to be sneezed at.

If, like us, you've been racking your brain to figure out how Toyota is possibly going to be able to offer the FT-86 anywhere near its price target, Road & Track may have part of the answer for you. The magazine is reporting that the next-generation Lexus IS will ride on a stretched version of the low-dollar coupe's platform, allowing Toyota to spread the development costs between the two models. With the production version of the FT-86 due in dealerships in 2012, the IS is expected to bow shortly thereafter in 2013.

Of course, this also helps explain some of the IS Coupe rumors we've been hearing recently, too.

An added nugget of goodness in this news is that the next-generation IS may be a sharper car in every way thanks to its shared bloodline with the sporty FT-86. Toyota head honcho Akio Toyoda has already made it clear that he would like to see his company's products return to their sporty roots, and as a result, the new IS should be quite a bit more athletic than its predecessor. Don't expect to see the Subaru-sourced flat four in the nose of the Lexus, though. Chances are the four-door will still get its power from derivatives of the four- and six-cylinder options currently available.