As we head into the Super Bowl every company and their marketing teams are doing their very best to get their products in front of as many eyes as they possibly can and spinning everything they do with some sort of Super Bowl theme.

Even more so than previous years these companies and their marketing people are looking to all of the social media services to be their ace in the hole when it comes to getting their message out to “the people” but just as with previous years there are some companies that are falling all over themselves to show how badly they still don’t understand how social media works.

At the head of the list this year, so far anyway, is Toyota as they try to make their Camry brand of car model a hot trending topic on Twitter. The problem is that they are acting more as a mass spammer instead of a company looking to communicate with current and potential consumers; and as Drew Olanoff over at The Next Web points out they seem to be getting a helping hand from Twitter itself.

In what is probably the worst Twitter promotion I’ve seen on the platform since the company launched in 2006, Toyota has created a slew of accounts and is spamming people about what it is calling the “Camry Effect a Friend’ Giveaway!”. The worst part is that they’re all verified accounts, so while Twitter isn’t involved in the promotion, someone at the company definitely knows about it.

All the Toyota CamryEffects accounts seem to be concentrating replying on any message steaming through Twitter that even reference the Super Bowl or either of the teams. The replies by various of the Toyota CamryEffect verified accounts are not about creating a conversation but instead to steer people to their Win a Camry page.

In typical fashion the irritated Twitter users are reporting the Toyota accounts for spamming but nothing is being done by Twitter to reign this abuse by suspending the offending accounts, which is the company’s typical action when any other company or person is reported for spamming.

Toyota learning the hard way that Twitter isn’t a spamming service for its products is a post from: The Inquisitr

Toyota on Monday began selling a new Prius model in Japan, the smallest Toyota hybrid released to date. Known as the Aqua compact hybrid in Japan the same vehicle will sell as the Prius C in the United States and is currently selling for a cost of 1.69 million Yen ($21,700).

Toyota hopes to sell 12,000 Aquas a month in Japan as they continue to expand their Prius lineup to meet increasing global demand for the company which is expected to reach 20 percent in 2012.

The vehicle is small by any standards measuring just 3.9 meters (12.8 feet) compared to the Prius which measures 4.48 meters in length, however the vehicle still has as much leg room as a Corolla but costs 22 percent less than the standard Prius.

According to the company the new vehicle can achieve 35 kilometers per liter (locally), compared to 30 kilometers per liter for the hybrid version of the Fit.

The company hopes that they can recuperate at least part of the Prius sales they’ve lost in Japan over the last six months after a March 11 earthquake and following tsunami cut out 51 percent of their sales volume. The U.S. market in the meantime has already increased by 49% in November 2011 compared to the same period of 2010.

The automobile manufacturer will also begin rolling out a wagon version of the Prius in May and will introduce a plug-in version which can run approximately 23 kilometers on it’s lithium-ion battery before switching to gasoline, the former will be available in Japan sometime in January 2012 and in the U.S. by March.

Here’s a teaser video for the new Toyota Prius C:

Would you be willing to buy a small Toyota hybrid vehicle if it meant better gas mileage and a cheaper sticker price?

New Prius Is The Smallest Toyota Hybrid On The Road is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new plug-in version of the popular Toyota Prius hybrid can be ordered from this week.

The latest Prius, a half gasoline-half electric hybrid, boasts extraordinarily efficient mileage (check it: 143 miles per gallon in Japan) and a quite reasonable price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000 – and that price tag is reduced to to 2.75 million yen ($35,200) once green vehicle subsidies are taken into account).

Toyota has fairly modest initial sales targets for its new plug-in baby – they want to sell 35,000 to 40,000 a year in Japan, and 60,000 globally. The arrives in its homeland in January. The company has said it will charge $32,000 in the U.S. and 37,000 euros in Europe respectively.

It’s selling the plug-in Prius, which seats five people despite its compact form, as “the premier next-generation ecological car that will follow the hybrid.” It sports a new lithium-ion battery that can be charged up from a simply household outlet, like an electric car. And it can recharge itself while driving like a gasoline-electric hybrid.

Such cars are widely expected to be the focus of the forthcoming Tokyo Motor Show, which will open its doors to the masses this weekend.

The Prius’ chances at market are boosted by the Japanese government backing subsidies for consumers who choose a green car.

While other governments offer similar perk, it’s true that plug-in cars like the Prius are especially suited to Japan – according to studies, Japanese drivers don’t travel more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day on average. How this would fare in the wide, open U.S. remains to be seen.

Plug-in Toyota Prius Now Available for Order is a post from: The Inquisitr

Toyota wasn’t the first automobile manufacturer to introduce a hybrid car, but they were the ones who popularized hybrids with the Toyota Prius. Similarly, Toyota isn’t the only company working on a hydrogen-powered car, but they’re aiming to be the first ones to sell them.

Honda was the first to launch a car with a hydrogen fuel cell, the FCX Clarity, in 2008, but those are only for lease, and only to a limited number of customers. Toyota actually plans to sell, not lease, their hydrogen-powered car to the European market by 2015.

It won’t come cheap, however. Due to the highly advanced technology at work in Toyota’s zero-emission hydrogen car, Toyota is looking at a price tag in the €100,000 range, or $138,000. Like the FCX Clarity, it will only be sold to a limited number of people – then again, it’s not like very many people have €100,000 on a car powered by hydrogen.

“We see pure battery-powered vehicles to be just a solution for small trips in the city, while a plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid is the best solution both for weekday urban commuting and weekend trips,” Toyota Europe Vice President for Product Planning & Marketing Alain Uyttenhoven told Automotive News.

via Car Scoop

Toyota to sell hydrogen-powered car in Europe by 2015 is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re a car dealership owner hit by the tough times of a faltering economy there’s one surefire way to earn some cash, become part of a rival dealers attempts to discredit you by telling potential buyers you’re a Taliban sympathizing terrorist.

That’s the scenario that played out in  Daphne, Alabama when a jury awarded Shawn Esfahani who a naturalized US citizen born in Iran with $7.5 million after a nearby dealership in Pensacola, Florida began spreading lies about terrorist ties.

It wasn’t just the fact that lies were spread but rather the maliciousness of those attacks. According to Reuters one salesman at the Pensacola dealership told a potentional buyer:

“(Esfahani) is funneling money back to his family and other terrorists,” while they went on to add, “I have a brother over there and what you’re doing is helping kill my brother.”

After deliberating for three hours the jury awarded Esfahani with $2.5 million in compensatory damages and an additional $5 million in punitive damages.

For his part Esfahani says the case shouldn’t be about the money but rather setting a precedent for all businesses to ensure radical targeting based off someone’s nationality doesn’t continue.

Do you think the $7.5 million settlement was the right decision made by the jury based on the blatant attacks against the plaintiff’s nationality?

[image via Shutterstock]

Rival Car Dealership Ordered To Pay $7.5 Million For “Taliban Toyota” Comments is a post from: The Inquisitr

Minivehicles – known as Kei-class vehicles – are defined under Japanese regulations as having maximum length of 3.4 meters (11.15 feet), width of 1.48 meters (4.86 feet), height of 2 meters (6.56 feet) and engine displacement of less than 660 cc.

In addition to the tax savings benefits they provide, minicars – which now make up about a third of Japan’s annual vehicle sales – are also popular with individuals who only need a car for short commutes or grocery shopping, as well as with younger drivers who don’t see cars as status symbols as the older generation do.

Toyota’s new Pixis Space – basically a re-badged version of Daihatsu’s boxy Move Conte – starts at 1.12 million yen ($14,700) with mileage of 25.5 km/liter (roughly 60 miles/gallon), the company said in a statement.

Besides the Pixis Space, Toyota is planning two more “Kei” models for the Japanese market, and is targeting annual minicar sales of 60,000 in Japan for all three models in total.

In light of the new Toyota minicar, rivals Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co also plan to beef up their lineup of minivehicles, which Honda CEO Takanobu Ito has said could grow to half of Japan’s market in the near future.

via CSM

Toyota Minicar, The Pixis Space, “Launches” in Japan is a post from: The Inquisitr

Making random things social- like vending machines and grocery shopping- is a marketing trend that is likely to plague us for some time.

Of course, with more than one in three people hitting up the money-printing machine that is Facebook before they brush their teeth each day, a measure of it is to be expected. Sometimes, it makes some sense even if it is of little value and use. Then there are times like this where it’s difficult to even see how it would work and you kind of just think it would have been easier for Toyota to slap a “Like” button decal on the side of a Matrix and call it the 2012 Status Update.

Toyota’s not the first automaker to encourage this sort of bizarre interaction between drivers and their vehicles- we just posted last week about Ford introducing apps to monitor your health. I am not a luddite by any means- indeed, many have accused me of over-reliance on technology- but can someone explain to me how this would even work? How can your car “tweet” you if you’re low on gas? Does that mean all your friends find out you’re irresponsible and forgot to get your oil changed at 3,000 miles?

Toyota described the new Toyota Friend service in a press release, but there’s scant information on how the information- private or public by user choice- is disseminated to drivers:

Toyota Friend will be a private social network that connects Toyota customers with their cars, their dealership, and with Toyota. Toyota Friend will provide a variety of product and service information as well as essential maintenance tips, creating a rich car ownership experience. For example, if an EV or PHV is running low on battery power, Toyota Friend would notify the driver to re-charge in the form of a “tweet”-like alert. In addition, while Toyota Friend will be a private social network, customers can choose to extend their communication to family, friends, and others through public social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The service will also be accessible through smart phones, tablet PCs, and other advanced mobile devices.

So… It’s like an app? Or it emails you? Or it texts you? Other services integrate with smartphones and tablets, but what makes the Toyota Friend network more social? Do you think this would influence a vehicle purchasing decision for you? Or does it sound a bit like Christine?

Toyota to add entirely nonsensical social networking capabilities to cars in 2012 is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you moved to Earth over the past year, you might think Toyota is a company that trades in recalls.

The company has had a rough year, with a spate of recalls across the globe affecting several different Toyota models including the RAV4, Avalon, Camry, Sequoia and Tundra. Previous problems included faulty steering columns and “sticky” accelerators, and today’s recall involves “improperly manufactured” Engine Control Modules (ECMs) that could cause a car’s engine to seize while the car is in operation:

On vehicles equipped with the 1ZZ-FE engine and two-wheel drive, there is a possibility that a crack may develop at certain solder points or on the electronic component used to protect circuits against excessive voltage (varistor), on the ECM’s circuit board. In most cases, if a crack occurs at certain solder points or on certain varistors, the check engine may illuminate, harsh shifting could result, or the engine may not start. In limited instances, if cracking occurs on particular solder points or varistors, the engine could stop while the vehicle is being driven.

The recall affects Toyota Matrix and Toyota Corolla models between 2005-2008. According to the news release, three incidents and one minor injury may be linked to the defect. Of the recall, Toyota chief quality officer for North America Steve St. Angelo says:

“This recall is an example of our commitment to standing by our products and being responsive to our customers. Our goal is to help ensure that Toyota drivers are completely confident in the safety and reliability of their vehicles.”

Another Toyota recall: 1.3m Matrix and Corolla models is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to two separate reports over the weekend, there’s a statistical correlation between Toyota pedals that stick, and the age of the driver of the vehicle.

Theodore H. Frank in the Washington Times notes that “In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, and 89.”

Frank argues, along with Richard Schmidt in the New York Times, that the Toyota case has similarities to similar pedal sticking issues in the 80s with vehicles from Audi and General Motors.

Schmidt notes:

The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake….

In these cases, the problem typically happened when the driver first got into the car and started it. After turning on the ignition, the driver would intend to press lightly on the brake pedal while shifting from park to drive (or reverse), and suddenly the car would leap forward (or backward). Drivers said that continued pressing on the brake would not stop the car; it would keep going until it crashed. Drivers believed that something had gone wrong in the acceleration system, and that the brakes had failed.

But when engineers examined these vehicles post-crash, they found nothing that could account for what the drivers had reported. The trouble occurred in cars small and large, cheap and expensive, with and without cruise control or electronic engine controls, and with carburetors, fuel injection and even diesel engines. The only thing they had in common was an automatic transmission.

We’re don’t seek to suggest that there may not be issue with Toyota vehicles, but if the pedals are sticking, why is there a statistical correlation between age and incident? It’s a question worth asking.

About Those Sticking Toyota Pedals: Apparently It Mostly Happens To Older People is a post from: The Inquisitr

When a regular persons Toyota accelerates at quick speeds or fails to slow down quickly enough, they immediately blame the floor mats or their pedal. When Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak experiences the same type of rapid acceleration, he analyzes the issue and calls it a software glitch.

According to the LA Times, Woz was driving when his Toyota Prius suddenly accelerated to 97 miles per hour in what he called a “very scary” experience. But rather than bitch and moan about the ordeal, he has actually offered to replicate the issue for Toyota.

According to Toyota engineers they will be borrowing and testing the car for a week, while trying to diagnose the problems. Here’s an idea for them though, if one of the pioneers of the computer world and a certifiable genius says they can duplicate the issue, why in the hell would you fail to recognize their help?

I’ll note at this point that no reports have linked the issue at this point to a software glitch, but I’ll definitely take Woz’s word for it.

Steve “Woz” Wozniak “Very Scared” By His Toyota Prius, Calls It A Software Glitch is a post from: The Inquisitr

The new recall is voluntary, and is said by Toyota to correct a situation in which the acceleration pedal could stick without a floor mat.

“Our investigation indicates that there is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position” Toyota said in a statement.

The cars in the 2010 Toyota Recall are

• 2009-2010 RAV4,
• 2009-2010 Corolla,
• 2009-2010 Matrix,
• 2005-2010 Avalon,
• 2007-2010 Camry,
• 2010 Highlander,
• 2007-2010 Tundra,
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

If you have one of these vehicles, you should contact your local Toyota dealer to arrange for the repairs to be undertaken.

New Toyota Recall Affects 2.3 Million Cars is a post from: The Inquisitr

How can you tell when technology has become totally mainstream?

Well when a major marketing campaign centered around something totally different targets the growing  number of people who live online regardless of where they are. The perfect example of this kind of marketing comes to us from Toyota as they launch the 2020 3rd generation Prius in the US.

Rather that paste billboards all over the place and plaster us with all kinds of print advertising Toyota is heading right to the minds – and wallets – of those people who will most likely be their future Prius customers. They’ve done this by planting 18-foot high flower sculptures that are doubling as public comfort zones as well as solar powered wi-fi stations. As well you can also plugin to the portable charging stations that are a part of the ‘green zone’.

You gotta admit it’s a great idea but unfortunately they are only temporary and will soon be moving from their current location in Boston to other temporary homes during the campaign.

hat tip to My Modern Metropolis

Very cool Toyota, too bad the flowers are only temporary is a post from: The Inquisitr

Toyota and Aston Martin have teamed up to create the Aston Martin Cygnet, a baby Aston based on the Toyota iQ small car sold in Europe.

For purists, the car though is an Aston in visuals only. The Cygnet is a standard iQ with an Aston body kit and interior, including the distinctive Aston front, and Aston leather interior.

The Cygnet is scheduled to go on sale in 2010 for $32,000, $85,000 less than a V8 Vantage, but still an awful lot for a small car that’s a Toyota under the hood. Still, I think I might have to start saving

(via CNN)

Good news: they’re making a baby Aston. Bad news: I still can’t afford it is a post from: The Inquisitr

Popping down the street to pick up some groceries may seem like a regular chore, but imagine finding a man trying to hump a Toyota SUV!

A drunk man was caught having sex with an SUV that was parked on a main road. The man, who has not been named, was seen with his pants down and getting it on with the front end of the Toyota 4X4. After a short time finding that the Toyota wasn’t responding to his advances, police arrived on the scene, and of course being the 21st century, the whole thing was caught on video and posted to the internet.

(post in part via CeeBee on FriendFeed)

Drunk man caught trying to have sex with a Toyota is a post from: The Inquisitr