NOS's blog

Unitrans Motors made a clean sweep at Toyota South Africa’s annual Dealer of the Year Awards held in Durban recently, with two of the group’s outlets taking top honours – East Rand Toyota scooped the Toyota Dealer of theYear, and Limpopo Truck Centre’s Hannes Pretorius walked off with the inaugural Hino Dealer of the Year Award.

This is the second time in just five years that East Rand Toyota has walked away with the top dealer award. The dealership opened its doors in April 2004 and since then has consistently achieved top ratings in Customer Satisfaction studies and was also one of the first dealerships in the network to achieve environmental ECO III status.  read more »

As we were hoping it would happen, The Toyota Auris S2000 (under the direction of Johnny Gemmell and co-driver, Peter Marsh) won first-prize at the Total Tour Natal Rally this past weekend. We at the Auris Blog are ecstatic about this news as you can imagine.

Here's a detailed account of what went down:

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Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh got their 2009 rally championship challenge off to a flying start by winning the Total Tour Natal Rally in style, taking their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris to a clear 2 minute win over the chasing pack in the opening event of the 2009 Sasol SA Rally Championship.  read more »

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The Toyota Auris S2000 in first place in the first rally event of the season? Could this be a sign of things to come?

Below are the provisional results of the Total Tour Natal Rally which took place over the last two days. We'll make the official announcements tomorrow here on the Blog along with detailed happenings of the event.  read more »

1. Johnny Gemmell S2000 Toyota Auris 1:50:23
2. Charl Wilken N4 Subaru Impreza + 129
3. Hergen Fekken S2000 Volkswagen Polo + 140
4. Jannie Habig S2000 Volkswagen Polo + 212
5. Hein Laegan N4 Subaru Impreza + 243
6. Fernando Rueda S2000 Toyota Run X + 306
7. Theuns Joubert S2000 Volkswagen Polo + 406

With February vehicle sales down 35.6% when compared to the same month last year, it’s evident that the vehicle market is feeling the effect of the credit crunch and the global economic turmoil.

Toyota achieved a market share of 22.9% in February with 7 453 sales. The company exported 6 802 vehicles for 45.5% share of export sales. In the combined domestic and export market Toyota accounted for 30% of sales.

“Although our banking and credit systems have proven to be more resilient than those in the developed economies of the world we are clearly not immune to the impact of the meltdown in those economies,” says Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota South Africa. “There is understandably a high level of caution being exercised by potential buyer.”  read more »

The 2009 Sasol SA Rally Championship kicks off this weekend with the Total Tour Natal Rally in KZN. The Castrol Toyota Rally Team is revving to go and is aiming for Driver’s, Co-Driver’s and Manufacturer’s Championship. You can look forward to a pair of new Toyota Auris S2000 vehicles driven by Mark Cronje and co-driver Robert Paisley as well as Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh.

Those who have been following the season and the Auris Blog closely will remember that the S2000 Auris made a remarkable debut deep into the 2008 season, setting a string of fastest stage times.

Some of the other members of the S2000 team include:  read more »

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If having fun, getting dirty and being outdoors is your idea of a good time then the Toyota MTN Cycle park situated in the heart of Fourways in Sandton is just the place for you.

We recently attended the open day for the cycle park and despite the rain and rather muddy conditions I was surprised at the amount of a fun someone like myself, who is not particularly into cycling could have.

Much careful, strategic thought went into the design of the cycle park to ensure the ultimate experience for the riders and while to the untrained eye the park may appear to be a few mounds of dirt, to the cycling enthusiast, this is Mecca.  read more »