January 25, 2008 – Torrance, CA – Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., announced manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP) today for the all-new 2009 Corolla and Matrix, along with the 2008 FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Special Edition.

The Corolla base MSRP will range from $15,250 to $19,950 while the Matrix will range from $16,190 to $21,850. MSRPs do not include a delivery, processing and handling fee of $660. Both models will begin arriving at dealerships next month.

Following the extremely successful launch of the FJ Cruiser TRD limited edition, Toyota is introducing the FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Edition. The special edition offers a new level of customization to the base FJ Cruiser 4WD models.

2009 COROLLA
Nearly 40 years after the Corolla was introduced to American drivers, an all-new, 10th generation 2009 Corolla will continue to offer the quality and value for which the brand has long been known. The new Corolla with an all-new body that delivers increased interior and luggage room, more power, more economical engines and an all-new chassis and suspension.

The Corolla will come in five grades – Standard, LE, XLE, the sporty S, and the performance-driven XRS. A standard body kit on S and XRS models helps to modify aerodynamics and enhance the Corolla’s sporty look – these include a front spoiler, rocker moldings, upper and lower rear spoilers, and for improved air management under the car, engine undercovers.
The 2009 Corolla is offered with a pair of efficient new engines, each of which can be combined with a five-speed manual transmission. The four-speed automatic transmission is combined with a 1.8-liter engine and the five-speed automatic is combined with a 2.4-liter engine.

The Standard, LE and XLE will be equipped with one of the all-new engines. The 1.8-liter 16-valve, DOHC four-cylinder engine, will produce 132 hp at 6,000 rpm and 128 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,400 rpm. One of the engine’s most important features is its use of Dual Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i) on both the intake and exhaust camshafts that helps it achieve outstanding performance and economy.

For those who desire just a bit more horsepower and torque, there is the 2.4-liter engine which produces 158 hp at 6,000 rpm and 162 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm. This engine is completely redesigned for use in the new Corolla XRS grade. The 2.4-liter engine transmits its power through the five-speed manual transmission, but is available with a five-speed automatic. The automatic transmission can be manually shifted sequentially.

Airbags are installed in the steering wheel, instrument panel, front seats and side-roof. Side curtain airbags that help protect passengers in the front and rear seats in the event of a side impact are standard. Front seats employ active headrests as standard equipment. Toyota’s Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) is standard on all grades of the Corolla. Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) with Traction Control (TRAC) and cut-off switch available is available as an option.

The all-new Corolla is equipped with an array of standard performance and convenience features. Among the many features on the Standard grade are P195/65 R15 tires, a heavy duty rear window defogger, AM/FM/CD audio with four speakers that is also XM® satellite capable, air conditioning with air filter, intermittent windshield wipers, two 12-volt power outlets, daytime running lights, black manual folding power mirrors, power steering, tilt and telescopic steering wheel, 60/40 split folding rear seats, and much more.

In addition to standard features on the Standard grade, the LE grade adds power windows with driver-side one-touch-down, shift-activated power doorlocks and color-keyed manual-folding power mirrors.

As well as the features on the LE grade, the XLE grade adds P205/55 R16 tires with full wheel covers, variable intermittent wipers, remote keyless entry, Optitron gauges, center console with sliding armrests, wood grain trim, and driver and passenger rear-seat pockets.

Besides the Standard grade features, the sporty S grade also features standard P205/55R16 tires with full wheel covers, color-keyed front and rear underbody spoilers, fog lamps, front sport seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel, black headlamp housing, chrome exhaust tip and AM/FM/CD XM® capable audio with six speakers.

In addition to S grade features, the XRS grade adds rear deck spoiler, P215/45 R17 tires with alloy wheels, sport strut tower brace, VSC with TRAC and cut-off switch, XRS scuff plate, leather-trimmed shift lever and knob, cruise control and interior chrome accent.

Additional standard equipment on the XLS grade includes VSC with TRAC and cut-off switch, P205/55 R16 tires with 16-inch alloy wheels, a JBL audio system with AM/FM/six-disc CD changer with MP3/WMA playback capability, XM® satellite and eight speakers in six locations and navigation system with AM/FM CD with MP3/WMA playback capability.

The Corolla Standard grade will carry a base MSRP of $15,250 for models with a manual transmission and $16,050 for models with an automatic. The LE grade with automatic has a base MSRP of $16,650 and the XLE grade with an automatic a base MSRP of $17,550. The S grade will carry a base price of $16,320 for a manual transmission model and $17,150 for models with an automatic. The MSRP for the premium XRS grade will be $18,760 for a manual transmission and $19,950 for models with an automatic.

2009 MATRIX
The Toyota Matrix helped redefine the concept of a crossover vehicle, and has been redesigned for the 2009 model year.

Development of the 2009 Matrix focused on greater exterior coupe-like styling with enhanced interior utility and improved dynamic performance. The result is a sporty shape that has a wider, lower stance than the current model, but contains room for five people to ride in comfort. The Matrix has rounded rear windows and continuous character lines that run from the front grille to the A-pillar.

The Matrix features three distinct grades, Standard, S and XRS. The S and XRS models integrate a front underbody spoiler with a large mesh fog lamp bezel and rear underbody spoiler, while a rear deck spoiler is standard for all XRS models.

The 2009 Matrix offers the choice of two different engines, a five-speed manual transmission, and either four- or five-speed automatic transmission.

Equipped with Dual Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i), the 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine produces 132 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 128 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,400 rpm. Estimated EPA fuel economy ratings are 26/32 city/highway mpg for manual transmission models and 25/31 for the automatic transmission models.

For those who crave horsepower and torque, the Matrix offers a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine which produces 158 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 162 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm. Estimated EPA fuel economy ratings are 21/29 city/highway mpg for the automatic transmission models and 21/28 with the five-speed manual transmission models.
In addition, Matrix once again offers the option of all-wheel drive (AWD) with the S grade. The AWD Matrix S is equipped with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and the Super ECT 4-speed transmission.

The AWD system uses active torque control to distribute the appropriate amount of torque to each wheel. The system is front-wheel-drive-based and distributes torque to the rear wheels through an electromagnetic coupler only when needed.

The Matrix interior is completely redesigned to enhance driving enjoyment, comfort and utility. The instrument panel and center cluster were designed to create the sensation of a cockpit. The optitron gauges in the instrument panel feature bright white lighting and red needles. A new three-spoke steering wheel enhances the rest of the new Matrix interior.

The driver and front passenger are treated to comfortable new sport seats, with standard seat-mounted side airbags. A fold-down seatback table is available for the front passenger’s seat, enhancing interior utility on S and XRS. For rear-seat passengers, a folding seat with a 60/40 split includes a middle-seat headrest for the fifth passenger.

Throughout the interior, designers supplied multiple storage spaces. A folding tonneau cover is standard and helps keep items placed in the cargo area out of sight.
All systems are equipped with a universal mini-jack port that allows users to listen to their portable music collection through the Matrix’s speakers.

Form, fun and functionality are in abundance with an array of standard convenience features across all three grades. Base equipment on the Standard Matrix includes P205/55 R16 tires with full wheel covers, power color-keyed outside rearview mirrors, power steering, tilt and telescopic steering wheel, daytime running lights, heavy duty rear window defogger, intermittent windshield wipers, 12-volt power outlet, four cupholders, front center console box and an engine immobilizer.

The S grade adds standard power door locks and windows with one-touch down driver-side, 115-volt power outlet, cruise control, intermittent rear window wiper, fold-flat front passenger seat, remote keyless entry, AM/FM/CD with MP3 capability and six speakers, front and rear underbody spoilers and fog lamps.

In addition to these features, the XRS grade includes standard P215/45 R18 tires on 18-inch alloy wheels, sport strut tower brace, VSC with TRAC and cut-off switch, and a three-spoke leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio steering wheel controls.

The Standard Matrix with a five-speed manual transmission will carry a base MSRP of $16,190, while the four-speed automatic begins at $17,000. The Matrix S front-wheel drive with a five-speed manual transmission has a MSRP of $18,260, while the five-speed automatic will begin at $19,450. The Matrix S AWD with a four-speed automatic has a base MSRP starting at $20,400. The Matrix XRS with a five-speed manual transmission has a MSRP starting at $20,660, while the five-speed automatic will begin at $21,850.

2008 FJ CRUISER TRAIL TEAMS SPECIAL EDITION
The special FJ Cruiser will feature the first-ever monotone white roof and body with black trim pieces, which set the FJ Trail Teams edition apart from the rest. Additional exterior features include black front and rear bumper end caps and front grille surround, and black exterior mirrors and door handles. Trail Teams badges have been added to the rear door and glove box.

Inside, the FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Edition will include a leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio controls, white color-keyed door trim and instrument panel trim, AM/FM six CD/nine-speaker audio system with MP3 player and 12-volt and 115-volt auxiliary power outlets.

Additional standard features on the FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Edition include trail-tuned Bilstein shock absorbers, BF Goodrich Rugged Trail Tires with custom 16-inch TRD alloy wheels, Cyclone air cleaner, rear differential lock and A-TRAC, TRD exhaust system, rock rails, all-weather floor mats, front bumper-mounted auxiliary lights, and front and rear skid plates.

The FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Special Edition will carry an MSRP of $4,755 over the $23,725 base price of the FJ Cruiser with a six-speed manual transmission with a 4.0-liter V6 engine and $5,110 over the $24,135 base price of the automatic transmission model with a 4.0-liter V6. . MSRPs do not include a delivery, processing and handling fee of $685.

The 3,200 units of the FJ Cruiser Trail Teams Special Edition package will be produced in 2008 model year and will go on sale in late January and early February.

January 23, 2008 – Erlanger, KY – Toyota announced today that it has awarded a local construction contract for its new Highlander vehicle assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi. This brings the total number of local contracts to six.

Harrell Contracting Group, based in Ridgeland, Madison County, has formed its third partnership with Homewood, Illinois-based Graycor Construction Company Inc., for construction of the plant’s utility building. Work for this project will begin in February. Harrell employs 150 people in the state of Mississippi.

“Awarding six construction contracts to Mississippi-based firms demonstrates our confidence and commitment to working with local companies,” said Bill Jilbert, Assistant General Manager at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. “As we prepare for peak construction this summer, we are grateful for the community’s interest in Toyota and ask for their continued support.”

Site preparation will continue into this spring and at peak construction this summer approximately 2,000 workers will be on site. The majority of these workers will be from the local area.
In February 2007, Toyota announced that it had chosen a 1,700-acre site in Blue Springs to build the Toyota Highlander SUV. The new plant represents a $1.3 billion investment by Toyota that is expected to hire around 2,000 team members. Vehicle production is scheduled to start by 2010 with annual capacity of 150,000 units. The plant will be named Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, Inc. (TMMMS).

Contractors, subcontractors and vendors interested in doing business at TMMMS can visit www.ToyotaSupplier.com.

Company County Project/Date Awarded
L&T Construction Desoto Oversee all site preparation work (May 2007)
Harrell Contracting Group Madison Foundation – stamping and paint buildings (Aug. 2007)
West Brothers Construction Lowndes Foundation – assembly and body weld buildings (Oct. 2007)
Harrell Contracting Group Madison Construction – press and weld/paint facilities (Dec. 2007)
Yates Construction Neshoba Construction – assembly and bold weld facilities (Jan. 2008)
Harrell Contracting Group Madison Construction – utility building (Jan. 2008)

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) established operations in North America in 1957 and will operate 15 manufacturing plants in North America by 2010. There are more than 1,700 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealerships in North America which sold more than 2.9 million vehicles in 2007. Toyota directly employs over 42,000 in North America and its investment here is currently valued at more than $19 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design. Toyota’s annual purchasing of parts, materials, goods and services from North American suppliers totals more than $30 billion.

Toyota currently produces 11 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon, Camry, Camry Hybrid, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Solara, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra and the Lexus RX 350. By 2010, Toyota will have the annual capacity to build approximately 2.2 million cars and trucks, 1.45 million engines and 600,000 automatic transmissions. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com.

Tokyo — TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that it has given its Pre-crash Safety System the ability to determine—as a world’s first1—whether a driver’s eyes are properly open. TMC expects this driver-monitoring breakthrough, along with the system’s current ability to determine the direction of the driver’s face, to play an important role in reducing collision-related damage.

The eye-monitoring feature, which is to be offered in vehicle models scheduled for launch in Japan in the near future, uses a driver-monitoring camera and image-processing computer to determine the position of the driver’s upper and lower eyelids. If the Pre-crash Safety System senses that a collision is imminent and also determines that the driver’s eyes are not properly open—or, by using the hitherto face-monitoring feature, determines that the driver is not facing forward—it issues a warning to the driver earlier than it would without such driver-condition information.

TMC believes that the development of driver-condition evaluation technologies is vital to improving overall vehicle safety performance, as driver condition is seen as a key factor in traffic safety, with driver error being the main cause of traffic accidents2. TMC is, thus, committed to continuing development of such technologies and to further enhancing its Pre-crash Safety System and other safety technologies.

As a part of its efforts to realize sustainable mobility, TMC intends to strengthen its traffic safety initiatives in the future through: 1) the development of even safer vehicles and technologies based on TMC’s Integrated Safety Management Concept3, 2) participation in the creation of a safe traffic environment and 3) activities designed to educate people in traffic safety, thereby contributing to the complete elimination of traffic casualties, which can be viewed as the ultimate hope of a society that values mobility.

1. As of December 2007, according to TMC survey.
2. According to a 2005 report by Japan’s Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis.
3. TMC’s safety technology and vehicle development concept, aimed at realizing vehicles that do not cause accidents by combining safety technologies and systems to provide optimal driving support based on actual driving conditions.

The system issues a warning to the driver earlier than usual, if it senses that a collision is imminent and determines that the driver is not facing forward or that the driver’s eyes are not properly open.

Tokyo, Japan- Toyota announced that it has developed a world-class driving simulator for effectively analyzing the driving characteristics of average drivers to aid in the development and verification of traffic accident-reducing active safety technology.

The driving simulator, located at TMC’s Higashifuji Technical Center in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, uses video, an acceleration simulator and other technology that allows vehicle researchers and developers to conduct driving tests that would be too dangerous to perform in the real world or that require specific driving conditions. Providing one of the world’s most-realistic simulated driving environments, it is designed to offer a driving experience that is as real as possible, so that driving characteristics can be accurately gauged.

Key to this virtual reality is the use of an actual vehicle placed on a platform housed inside a 7.1-meter-diameter dome, the ceiling of which serves as a giant 360-degree concave video screen. As the driver operates the vehicle, a tilt device, vibration apparatus and other devices manipulate the dome-which has a world top-class longitudinal range of movement of 35 meters and lateral range of movement of 20 meters-under precision computer control. The result is a faithful simulation of the actual sensation of driving, including a sense of speed, acceleration and riding comfort through turns and other driving maneuvers. Sound effects make the experience even more real.

Based on the Integrated Safety Management Concept, which lays out the direction of the company’s safety technology and vehicle development, TMC plans to put the driving simulator to full use in advancing R&D not only for on-board vehicle safety systems, but also for systems that support safe driving practices and integrate cars with the road infrastructure.

The driving simulator will mainly be used for:
1.Analysis of driving characteristics and development of active safety technology
Conducting an analysis of driving characteristics under such conditions as reduced awareness of one’s surroundings (falling asleep at the wheel and drowsiness), inattentiveness to danger (glancing from side to side and not checking that the road is safe), impaired driving (inebriation, fatigue or illness), as well as developing active safety technology for effectively reducing the number of accidents.

2.Verifying the effectiveness of active safety technology
On the basis of the above, evaluating the effectiveness and sustainability of integrating driver-warning and vehicle-control systems for reducing the number of traffic accidents, so as to verify the effects of active safety technology.

Driving Simulator Specifications
Dome size Height: 4.5m; diameter: 7.1m
Dome mobility: Max. 35m lengthways, 20m sideways
Dome tilt: Max. 25 degrees
Level of Vibration: Max. variation of 50mm up or down
Sensation of speed: Max. 0.5G
Turntable rotation: Max. 330 degrees in either direction

Could golfers be America’s most driven and obsessive athletes? A new survey from Lexus reveals that golfers may be America’s most fanatic and persistent athletes. Whether it means skipping out on family obligations or forgoing their next raise, there’s almost nothing they won’t do to achieve perfection.

*Abstinence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder. Four out of ten golfers (43%) would readily give up sex for a month in order to have the perfect golf swing! (And more than one in five—22%—would give up their hair!)
*The Price of Perfection. Another 21% would be willing to sacrifice their next raise.
*White Lies on the Green. In their never-ending quest for perfection, a majority of golfers have told a white lie about where they were when they were actually playing golf (60%).
*The Ferris Bueller Syndrome. Two out of three golfers have skipped work in order to play golf (66%). More than four out of ten have skipped church or religious services (43%), and a similar percentage have bailed out on a family gathering (41%).
*Heads Up, Ladies: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em. In what may well lead to a record number of women signing up for golf lessons, 43% of women who golf say the sport has improved their relationship with their significant other.
*What Would Dr. Phil Say? Three out of ten golfers say if they had to choose, they’d rather have a perfect golf swing than a perfect marriage (30%).
*The Young and the Restless. More than seven out of ten young golfers ages 18-29 admit they’ve called in sick and gone to the course rather than to work (73%).
*Forget Gas Mileage, How Many Clubs Can I Fit in Here? Nearly one out of every two golfers (49%) says when buying a car they check to see how many bags of clubs can fit into the trunk.
*Swingers of a Different Kind. More than one in five golfers (22%) say their golf skills beat their skills in bed or behind the wheel: they’re better at golf than at sex or driving!

In January of 2007, Lexus became the first automotive partner in USGA’s 112-year history and serves as Official Vehicle of the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open, and U.S. Amateur Open.

Since its introduction in 1989, Lexus has become synonymous with luxury. By offering some of the finest quality luxury vehicles and providing benchmark customer service, Lexus has remained the top-selling luxury nameplate in the United States for seven years in a row. Lexus and its 222 dealers have repeatedly achieved high honors for both the products they sell and the customer service they provide.

Jo Cooper, Vice President of Toyota, announced today that Toyota will be introducing the world’s first open-eye sensor, which will continually scan the upper and lower eyelids and the direction of the head to determine whether a driver’s eyes are open or not.