Category Archives: TWIN

Parents Magazine Announces their Picks for Best Family Cars of 2012

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Of course when I see anything about cars come up now, my ears/eyes perk up. Partly because of my partnership/relationship with Toyota and partly because I know within the next year or so we’ll be doing some car shopping of our own. And even though our next vehicle will mainly be Andy’s daily driver {AKA racking up the high miles}, it also needs to be family friends. Beacuse, well, have you seen the state of my belly lately!?

So, when I saw the link for Parents Magazines “Best Family Cars of 2012” I had to click through to see what they thought.

They broke it down into 5 categories: High Mileage, Budget Friendly, Crossovers, Sedans and Large Vehicles.

Here’s what Parents Magazine top picks were {with comments from the peanut gallery, because obviously.}…

High Gas Mileage: Toyota Prius V, Honda Civic Hybrid and Chevy Cruz EVO.

Obviously, I was totally stoked to see the Prius V come up. And it was even mentioned first out of the three!

Budget Friendly: Chevy Sonic, Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra

To be honest, I don’t know much about any of these vehicles but considering they all start right around $15k and all get 26 mpg city (or better!) these will be worth checking out when it does come time for us to get a new commuter car, because with a kid and a baby and 12 acres -and -and -and, we will most definitely be on a budget.

Crossovers: Mazda5, Kia Sorento and Honda CRV

First of all, I think they totally missed out by not including the Venza in their crossover category! Blasphemy. Then again, I’m completely obsessed with that vehicle. But seriously! I’ve driven a Sorento, maybe not the 2012 model, but still. It just felt so…cheap. I’m sort of shocked that the Sorento made the cut over the Venza. Especially because the Venza has the best gas mileage out of all the winners (26 mpg city, in case you were wondering). Maybe price was a deciding factor? It does start out at about $3,000 more than each of the winner. Random funny little side note, I used to work with a guy that had a Mazda5, he called it his teeny-van. {get it!? Smaller than a mini-van…he was super witty like that}

Sedan: Volkswagon Passat, Toyota Camry and Kia Optima

Woot for another Toyota! But after looking at all 3 winners, I’m shocked that sedans don’t get better gas mileage in general. They were all around 21 or 22 mpg city. Me = oblivious. We’re clearly not a “car” family. Toyota at least offers the Hybrid Camry option.

Large: Dodge Durango, Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey

I haven’t ridden in or driven the redesigned Durango, but I will say this, mama like. And out of the three, that’d be my top choice simply because it’s not a mini van. I loved seeing that the Sienna made the list though. Out of the three it had the best gas milage and, I mean…it’s the Swagger Wagon remember? {seriously, if you have never watched that video? Go do it right MEOW. I will wait.}

So there you have it…the best family cars according to Parents Magazine. I really wish there was some sort of breakdown/grid as to scoring across the board, you know? Why did the ones that were chosen, actually get chosen? I’d also like there to be callouts on the same topcis on each page. They mention features on all of them which is nice, but then on some they include “raves from an owner”. And and hate-HATE having to click through to see every.single.winner. I wish there was some sort of “quick reference guide” to the winners in each category.

Now I want to know…do you think the panel at Parents Magazine missed the boat on any of these categories? Do you think these are the best family friendly vehicles by category?

You can find out more about my own personal views on the Camry, Prius V and Venza here.

**All images captured from the Parents Magazine online article.**

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

Clicking for Good

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Have you heard about Toyota’s 100 cars for good?

Basically, Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program is this: “a Facebook-enabled philanthropy initiative whereby Toyota will give away 100 cars in 100 days to 100 eligible nonprofit charitable organizations.Each day for 100 days, online voters will choose which of five nonprofits will take home a new set of wheels. The organization who receives the most votes at the end of the day takes home a brand new Toyota.”

You guys? This is a seriously awesome program.

The voting started back in May {I know, I’m a little behind the times here, but better late than never, right?}. Every single day a nonprofit is winning a FREE brand.new.car. And while all 500 finalists can’t win a new car, According to Toyota,  “To help participating nonprofits with their 100 Cars for Good campaigns – and to help them develop lasting digital marketing and social media skills that are critical to today’s nonprofits – Toyota has provided each finalist with a toolkit that includes a digital video camera, training materials  and free online advertising credits. The company is providing social media training support online to the finalists as well.”

I love that Toyota is empowering these groups to help themselves grow.

21 days in, people are loving on animal rescue and youth-based programs. Winners have been from all over then country…Oregon {woot!}, California and Idaho all the way to Florida, Washington DC and New York.

Please, take a minute {actually less than a minute!} to watch this short video Toyota put out about the 100 Cars for Good program. {And I DARE you not to relate to at least one thing you’ve wasted clicks on! Like the facebook sink hole…am I right!?}

How many times are you on Facebook every day? Voting just takes a second…and it really does make a difference.

To vote and learn more: https://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood/

Now…go!…click for good!

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

Something for Earth Day

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It’s no surprise that we like love to spend time outside…it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, we all just love to be outside. And, part of enjoying the outdoors is helping keep it enjoyable right?

We recycle. We compost. We leave our campsites/picnic areas cleaner than they were when we arrived. We don’t litter. In fact, I know we’ve given some random strangers some pretty good chuckles in grocery store parking lots when Rylee notices trash on the ground and very loudly says “MOMMY! Somebody littered! They should not do that! They should use the trash!”

But, I’ve never been one to “do anything” for Earth Day.

When I was at Toyota Headquarters back in Feb/March, they talked a lot about their philanthropic efforts…they really “walk the walk” as a company when it comes to their environmental efforts. And it really inspired me.

I mean, they freaking recycle their billboards and make really cool tote bags, for goodness sakes!

I knew I had to do something to follow their lead.

When I realized that Earth Day was coming up, I reached out trying to find some local volunteer things we could do as a family. Granted, I didn’t look too hard, but it seemed like everything was either on Saturday when we’d be out of town, or at least two hours away.

I figured since this was my/our first official Earth Day “excursion” we’d keep it simple and start small. We all have to start somewhere and something is better than nothing, right? So, when we got home from the coast, we lathered on the sunscreen and headed outside with a trash bag.

While waiting for Andy to finish up mowing the front field yard, we took some time to stop and smell the roses lawn daisies. We even made Ry a daisy chain.

After he was done, we took our trash bag and headed out to the road where we picked up litter up and down the road.

To be honest, living on a dead end country road I was really surprised at how much stuff we found…especially considering we did a pretty small stretch. A few little car parts, a beer can, candy wrappers and other random trash. Seriously disappointing.

Even though we didn’t do anything earth shattering or ground breaking, I’m glad we were able to get out and do something. It’s never too early to start teaching little ones about taking care of where we live and I’m thinking next year, we’ll make it a goal to do our ENTIRE road!

Crap, know what I just realized? Earth Day next year, I’ll be toting around a NINE MONTH OLD!

That just blew my mind a little bit.

Did you get out and do anything for Earth Day?

****

For more info on some of the environmental programs Toyota is involved in, you can check out Together Green.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

 

Toyota’s Prius, Camry and Venza, OH MY!

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When my mind isn’t preoccupied with water-woes, wondering when our electricity will come back and and oh I don’t know,  my busy almost 4 year old, my mind wanders to the same thing every time.

Cars.

Seriously, ever since I’ve started my partnership with Toyota and especially since I flew down to Toyota Headquarters and test drove some cars at the beginning of this month, I can’t stop thinking about them.

I may have a problem.

It may require an intervention…Or a new car.

When I was in Torrance, CA at ToyotaUSA headquarters I drove the Prius V, the newly redesigned Camry SE and, my favorite, the Venza. I also spent quite a bit of time checking out the Hybrid Highlander and the Sequoia.

I know I touched on the driving in my last post about my trip, I really wanted to tell you more about them…

Toyota Prius C

The PriusV {as in, the letter V, not five, like I thought} is one of the new members of the Prius family. The “V” literally stands for versatility. And I can see where they got that name. Out of all of the members of the Prius family, this one is definitely the most versatile & family friendly. It’s the biggest of the bunch, but still gets good gas mileage (40-44 mpg). There’s plenty of room for big car seats in the back seat and a decent amount of cargo space.

All that being said? I don’t think it’d be the winner for our family. For one, apparently I’m a total lead foot and based on the drive I took it on? I was only getting gas milage in the mid-30s. It’d take some definite adjustment in my driving to get used to driving the Prius…or any Hybrid for that matter. Have you ever driven one? It totally weirded me out how it switched from electric to gas and back again. The other main thing is that our dog wouldn’t be able to really fit in the back very comfortably on any extended family outings.

On a side note, the Prius C and the Prius Plug have both been launched this month! The Prius Plug is Toyota’s answer to the electric car…and it’s a pretty nice answer, if you ask me! I totally would have taken this for a spin if there was one when I was driving the cars. The Prius C is a cute compact version of the Prius starting UNDER $20,000 and getting up to over 5o mpg!

See how cute it is? The car, people…not the crazy bloggers…look past the crazy bloggers!

Toyota Prius C

Anyway, moving on…

The Camry SE was pretty sweet. The SE is their sport model so it was all sorts of fancy. Way fancier than we would have in a car, but way fun to drive. It had the option of on the steering wheel shifting for those smart and coordinated enough to do that {ie: NOT me}. I love that over 90% of Camrys {Camrees? Camries? Cam-rys?} are built from raw material to finished product right in the US! The new Camry also has Toyota’s new entune system that syncs your smartphone to the car so you can listen to your Pandora and lots of other fancy stuff like a gas station & restaurant locator. And everyone knows a Camry pretty much runs FOREVER! Obviously, it wouldn’t be very 65-lb Husky-Wolf friendly, but we do have 2 other vehicles that we could take if we needed to load up the entire family. All in all, a great car that will definitely be on our list to look at further when the time comes to buy a new car.

But my favorite, FAVORITE car out of all of them was the Venza! I remember when the Vena first came out, Andy mentioned liking the body style. To be honest, I was shocked that he said that. So, knowing that Andy liked it based on looks alone it was on my list to drive. I freaking LOVED it! Everything about it. It drove nice. It had great power. It wasn’t a “car”.

Toyota Venza Steering Wheel

It had fantastic cargo space, enough for the dog! And the room in the back seat? Seriously amazed me. No joke…I adjusted the front driver’s seat to my preferences (I have long legs) then got in back…there was MORE room in the back than I needed in the front. Serious bonus points when it comes to accommodating bulky car seats and eventually kids with long legs like their parents!

Toyota Venza Back Seat

Hard to tell, but SO! MUCH! SPACE!

I can’t wait to get Andy out to our local Toyota Dealership to take it out for a spin. I know he’d love it as much as I do.

The only draw back I found for our family is the price. Out of all the vehicles we’d likely be considering for our new car, it’s the most expensive. But considering we keep our vehicles for long periods of time, it’d probably be worth it. Now to just get that money tree growing on the back of the property…

If I had to to it all over again, I would have driven more of the cars because seriously? SO MUCH FUN!

There’s actually a Ride & Drive event this weekend in the Portland, OR area! If you’re free on Sunday you should go check it out and see for yourself. Rumor has it the new Prius Plug will be there!

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

My #ToyotaWomen Whirlwind Continued…

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Wow…where to begin?

Seriously…I have no idea. I’ve thought over and over and over again how to put into words my time with Clever Girls and some of the other ToyotaWomen at ToyotaUSA in Cali last week and to be honest, I’m struggling a bit.

Struggling not because it was a bad trip or it lacked information. Actually, the complete opposite is true. I could seriously go on and on about what I learned. But, what I’m struggling with is how can I share all of this with you without sounding too…paid/contrived/promotion-y. You know?

So bare with me, because I have so much I want to share and it is truly out of excitement for what this company is about and what they are doing and this is the first time that I have ever experienced something like this…especially as a blogger.

****

My Wednesday morning started out like any other morning. My alarm went off at 5:20 AM and I got up, showered and got ready for work. I left for work at my normal time and did my normal work thing until just after 11 AM when I shut down my computer and headed out of the office to begin my journey down to LA…or so I thought.

I grabbed lunch and headed to my dad’s house where I parked my car and he took me to the airport. I walked in to NO ONE in line for security. Sa-weet! It was too good to be true. Turns out? My flight was cancelled! So I hopped in the back of a very long line to get rebooked. For the next day.

My trip was already going to be fast & furious. Now? Just cut that down by about 24 hours. I called Edita at Clever Girls who had booked all the travel letting her know what was up and wondering if I should even bother still coming if I wouldn’t even get into LA until 9:15 AM the next morning. She assured me that I should, so that was my plan. I headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon with Andy & Ry.

My alarm went off the next morning at 3 AM. Yes, THREE in the morning. So I could shower and look halfway presentable for a full day at Toyota HQ. My flight landed at LAX at 8:45 AM, a half hour early! My driver was there waiting for me. No hat, but he was holding a sign that said my name. He took me to the hotel where I checked in, dropped my bag and headed back out. This time on to ToyotaHQ. When I got there they were just finishing up a session. And from this point on the day seriously flew by!

I took notes like I was in college again. Everyone I met that either worked directly for, or with, Toyota had such a passion for what they were doing and you could tell they truly enjoyed their jobs. Toyota is a company that is seriously committed to safety, the environment, education and really giving back.

On the giving back front, not only do they provide monetary sponsorship/grants/donations to a number of organizations, they also have a number of their own programs they have pioneered like Toyota Tapestry, a program that provides grants to K-12 science teachers, Toyota International Teacher Program, a 2 week exchange program for teachers, and the newest, 100 Cars for Good. {watch the video}

From a personal and professional standpoint, I really loved learning about their product launch cycle. And coming from a company that has taken a product from concept to launch in 30 days, I seriously couldn’t fathom having a 5-6 year timeline to work off of. {Seriously, this was one of the highlights of my entire trip, but I won’t bore you with all the details}

There was a stack of vehicles at our disposal to take out for a spin! I tried out the PriusV, the all-new Camry SE and the Venza. I also spent quite a bit of time checking out the Highlander Hybrid as well as the Sequoia. My very favorite was the Venza, hands down! So much space…but still car-ish and still decent gas milage (at least comparable to the Buick we’re driving right now). Seriously a fantastic mix of everything we would need in another car. {More on the car driving later!}

We toured the Toyota Auto Museum…that was pretty cool. Andy would have been in serious Cruiser heaven! And another highlight? I got to sit in a race car.

We wrapped up the “learning” part of the day with a quick recap and photo opp of the group.

#ToyotaWomen TWIN Camp
The evening ended with an amazing dinner that I wrote about here.

Seriously…all in all an amazing experience that I will not soon forget. If there is anything you want to know more about from my trip just let me know!

And, a huge, HUGE shout out to the Clever Girls behind the event. I’ve put together events kind of like this before and I know how much work goes into it. They did a fantastic job!

Other cool facts about Toyota that I didn’t know before:

-They’ve had Toyota USA HQ for over 50 years.
-Since they started keeping track in 1991, ToyotaUSA has contributed more than a half a BILLION dollars to philanthropic causes.
-From raw material to finished product, over 90% of the Camry is produced right in the USA!!!
-Toyota has been “doing green” since 1969 when they formed their first environmental committee!
-Toyota has pioneered a collaborative research effort for testing safety standards in not only their vehicles, but the entire car industry.
-Toyota’s new EnTune system that syncs your smartphone to your car giving you instant access to apps like Pandora and Bing as well as others.
-Toyota has created over 360,000 jobs in the US.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.