Kelley Blue Book has announced the winners of their 2012 Best Resale Value Awards with Toyota being the best resale value brand and their luxury counterpart, Lexus, topping best resale value luxury brand.

Coming out on top of the list of this year’s top 10 best resale value vehicles however is (In order from first to last): Audi‘s Q7, Chevy‘s Camaro, Honda‘s CR-V, Hyundai‘s Tucson, Infiniti‘s FX, Jeep‘s Wrangler, Lexus’s RX, Nissan‘s Frontier, Toyota’s FJ Cruiser and their Tacoma.

Resale value is always important to those spenders hoping to get the best bang for their buck for their vehicle down the road. But oftentimes these are just estimates and market changes should be taken into consideration as that can impact resale value of vehicles.

[Source: Kelley Blue Book]

Toyota recently announced an updated version of its Tacoma pickup for 2012 and has now revealed pricing, with the top-selling truck starting at $16,875.

The 2012 Tacoma will emphasize driving comfort, usability, and convenience. Exterior enhancements include a facelift with new hood, headlamps and fog lights. Two new shades of paint, Spruce Mica and Nautical Blue Metallic, are new for 2012 as well. Tacoma’s interior gets an update too, providing a new steering wheel, new gauge cluster, a new center instrument panel, as well as several interior trim updates. TRD Sport and Off-Road models get to have extra water-resistant fabric seats while Access or Double Cab models benefit from heavy duty all-weather flooring.

But really, the nice surprise from the new Tacoma is that it will be one of the first Toyota vehicles to have the new Entune multimedia/infotainment system. Entune is designed as a collection of popular apps and data services including Bing, Pandora, movietickets.com, live traffic and weather, sports and stocks. Smartphone tethering is also available. Entune subscriptions will be free for the first three years.

Powertrains available for the 2012 Tacoma are the base 2.7 liter I4 and the premium 4.0 liter V6, pushing 159 hp/ 180 lb-ft and 236 hp/ 266 lb-ft respectively. Both engines will have Toyota’s variable valve timing VVT-i for better efficiency and stronger torque. Finally, selections for transmission are either six-speed manual or a five-speed automatic.

The 2012 Tacoma maintains its regular cab, access cab, and four-door double cab in 4×2 and 4×4 configurations. Pricing will start from $16,875 and reach $27,835.

GALLERY: 2012 Toyota Tacoma

America’s best-selling compact pickup truck just got better with Toyota refreshing the 2012 Tacoma inside and outside. For the updated Tacoma, Toyota has equipped the 2012 model with a new hood, grille, headlights and front bumper among other minor details, while the interior has been revamped with a new center-instrument panel design, revised gauge cluster and a new steering wheel. That’s not all either, with a redesigned center stack (including the Entune system on some models), new air conditioner and heater controls plus power point locations.

The Entune system, first introduced on the Prius V, is similar to Ford’s SYNC, allowing voice, touch screen and steering wheel mounted controls of the audio and infotainment systems. It gives access to XM stocks, sports and weather, plus it provides the latest info on gas prices. In addition, there are apps like OpenTable (to book a restaurant), Movietickets.com (to buy movie tickets) and iheartradio, to listen to streaming radio stations from across the country.

For 2012, the Tacoma will have two options for engine choices, a 2.7L DOHC four-cylinder with 159-hp and 180 lb-ft of torque, while the heftier 4.0L DOHC V6 pumps out 236-hp and 266 lb-ft of torque. VVT-i is present in both engines while the V6 can be paired up with either a six-speed manual transmission or a five-speed automatic, and the four-cylinder gets a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic option.

As always, plenty of cab choices and options will be available to the Tacoma. Owners will get to choose from a Regular Cab, Access Cab and the four-door Double Cab while drivetrain options will be 2WD or 4WD. T|X packages are also available in 2012 for the hardcore pickup fan, and can be had in conjunction with the TRD Off-Road Package. The T|X packages adds a concept-truck look to the Tacoma V6 Access Cab version or the V6 Double Cab PreRunner and 4×4 models. The aesthetic changes are paired up with a set of 16-inch TRD black alloy bead-lock wheels with 265/70/16 BFGoodrich Rugged Trail tires.

In addition, performance can be increased with a TRD exhaust system as part of the T|X package. TRD will also be offering a supercharger kit for the 4.0L V6 power plant, helping bring performance to 304-hp and 334 lb-ft of torque. Additional options include the SR5 Package which adds plenty of styling and comfort features. The TRD Sport Package comes with 17-inch wheels and tires, fog lamps, hood scoop and other minor styling accessories. Lastly, a dealer-installed TRD Big Brake system is offered with 13 by 1.25-inch semi-floating vented rotors and four-piston calipers.

Pricing for the 2012 Tacoma has yet to be announced.

GALLERY: 2012 Toyota Tacoma

Believe it or not, they still build the Toyota Tacoma. And like other formerly-compact compact trucks, it’s been neglected for some time now: 2005 was the last major redesign.

But according to Ward’s Automotive, Marty McFly can lust after a new Toyota truck as soon as this year. Toyota division chief Bob Carter told Ward’s Auto that details of the new Tacoma will come “later this year.” Expect the new Tacoma to sway even further from Toyota’s line of small pickups, if the rest of the moribund compact pickup segment is any indication.

[Source: Twitter]

Toyota is taking product development authority away from Japanese bosses and putting it in the hands of North American executives as part of a larger change aimed at fixing quality control issues that hurt the automaker’s reputation last year.

Until now, vehicles produced and designed and developed in North America had to be approved by chief engineers in Japan. Vehicles unique to the North American market such as the Venza, Sienna, Avalon, Tacoma and Tundra will no longer require painstaking and frustrating sign-offs from Japan at each step of the development processes.

“We are going to implement the process from design to preparation for production to development, cost planning, and identifying and selecting suppliers,” said Inaba, CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. “All these processes are going to be 100 percent done here, without going back to Japan for approval.”

The changes come too late to affect the development of the redesigned 2012 Toyota Camry due this fall, however upcoming models based in North America, such as the next Tundra pickup, will see the result of the new structure.

[Source: Automotive News]

Toyota has confirmed that, for the first time, it will close one of its U.S. plants. The facility is the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Freemont, California.

“After the decision by General Motors to withdraw from the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota conducted a thorough review of its alternatives in light of current and anticipated market conditions,” said Toyota executive vice president Atsushi Niimi in a statement. “Based on this review, we have determined that over the mid- to long-term, it just would not be economically viable to continue the production contract with NUMMI. This is most unfortunate, and we deeply regret having to take this action.”

“We remain strongly committed to maintaining a substantial production presence in the U.S.A. and North America. To that end, we will consider moving additional Corolla production back to North America over time.”

Opened as a joint project with General Motors in 1984, Toyota’s decision to shutter the factory became necessary when GM exited the deal through its recent bankruptcy proceedings.

At the NUMMI facility Toyota assembled the Corolla and Tacoma pickup truck. Now Toyota will have to rely on its Cambridge, Ontario plant for all of its North American supply of Corollas. Inventory of the compact car is particularly low due to the Corolla being the most popular car sold under the cash-for-clunkers program.

The NUMMI facility employed 4,700 workers, which were Toyota’s only unionized workforce.

The move by Toyota comes as Japan’s number one automaker is reportedly looking for ways to cut production by 10 percent. According to Japan’s Nikkei business paper, the automaker is looking to reduce output from 10 million vehicles to 9 million vehicles. Along with the NUMMI closure, Toyota is also expected to shut down a production line in Japan next spring, as well as one in the U.K.

[Source: Automotive News via Autoblog and Autoweek]