Toyota Nation and Others Recoginized By Toyota USA

Sportivo Concepts
09-29-2004, 12:00 PM
09/28/2004 Torrance, CA



Toyota is peeling back the metal on its cars and trucks to divulge the inner workings and engineering advances on its vehicles to auto enthusiasts via a new website, PlanetKaizen (http://www.toyota.com/planetkaizen).

PlanetKaizen is an entirely new interactive direction for Toyota to share its rich heritage and product innovations to enthusiasts who pore over car magazines, spend hours surfing the Internet for automotive information each week and serve as "car gurus" to their friends and relatives.

"Toyota.com is the top automotive website for consumers looking for basic information on our cars and company, but PlanetKaizen is designed for those people who want to dig deeper and see what's really happening inside Toyota," said Deborah Meyer, corporate marketing communications manager. “PlanetKaizen is a source for vast amounts of technical information that was previously provided only to journalists and dealership personnel - not directly to the public."

The name PlanetKaizen was inspired by Toyota's dedication to continuous improvement, or kaizen. While Toyota is seen as having high-quality vehicles, sometimes the advanced engineering and obsessive passion that goes into improving every design and manufacturing process of Toyota's cars isn't conveyed through traditional sources.

Through PlanetKaizen, enthusiasts can access numerous areas of information to expand their knowledge. They'll be able to delve into technical topics, get the latest news and talk with Toyota personnel or one another.

The site, which is designed as though the consumer is in the driver's seat, is divided into three categories, Explore, Encounter and Enjoy:

* Explore
- Technology and performance - the inner working of Toyota's vehicles
- Process and manufacturing - how Toyota applies kaizen in everything it does
- Green and environment - steps Toyota's taking to have less environmental impact
- Safety - descriptions and virtual demonstrations of safety features
- Who knew? - factoids about Toyota, i.e. the Lotus Elise uses the Celica engine
- Questions from Out There - interaction with Toyota

* Encounter
- Become a resident or member
- Test your Nuts and Bolts quiz - become part of a resident panel with special website access
- Exclusive sneak peaks/vehicle unveilings
- Media center - press clips, video and URLs

* Enjoy
- Eye Kandy - screen savers and wallpaper
- We know your kind - Latest automotive news, press releases and an extensive list of automotive-related websites.

The first phase of PlanetKaizen will launch September 28 and will be promoted through Internet banner advertisements and via ads in auto enthusiast publications. New information and content will be added regularly to the site to continue to encourage visitors to return frequently.

"Through PlanetKaizen we're offering visitors a chance to see a new dimension of Toyota," said Meyer. "That's what our new brand message is all about."

Sportivo Concepts
09-29-2004, 12:06 PM
As reported here (http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t51328.html) Toyota has acknowledge Toyota Nation as the goto place for all Toyotas. With the launch of their new enthusiast site PlanetKaizen Toyota has recoginized Toyota Nation as one of the premier places for Toyota owners.

Some of the other sites are vvti.net, matrixowners.com, toyotaownersclub, camryman.org.

Fresco Bob
09-29-2004, 12:15 PM
congrats for TN:chug:

ASG14
09-29-2004, 12:57 PM
The website is awsome from what I have seen of it so far!

Silver Streak
09-29-2004, 01:15 PM
Originally posted by Sportivo Concepts
As reported here (http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t51328.html) Toyota has acknowledge Toyota Nation as the goto place for all Toyotas. With the launch of their new enthusiast site PlanetKaizen Toyota has recoginized Toyota Nation as one of the premier places for Toyota owners.

I don't see this anywhere...where does Toyota acknowledge TN as the goto place?

Sportivo Concepts
09-29-2004, 01:52 PM
Go to Encounter (power button) > Media Center > Launch This

then scroll down to where it says "All Things Toyota Enthusiast" thats a link back to TN... the one that says "-Own A Camry?" links to Camryman.org

Ratko
09-29-2004, 02:17 PM
:thumbup: nice find!

Phi
09-29-2004, 03:59 PM
Sweet ass find! There's some crazy info in there. I've just randomly clicked around and stumbled on their R&D site :cool:
http://www.tytlabs.co.jp/eindex.html

Furthermore, it's great to see Toyota recognizing online car clubs and enthusiasts and the contributions they make :cool:

Thanks for sharing SC!:thumbup:

andyman61
09-29-2004, 04:42 PM
glad to see that toyota cares about its owners! i hope they keep this trend up. great find! :thumbup:

jhbhatia
09-29-2004, 06:26 PM
GOOD FIND, great news for TN members, its nice to see recognision. 2 :thumbup: :thumbup: for the owners+members of tn!

CamNub
09-29-2004, 10:03 PM
I hope they look at TN and read it. We are like a mini survey for them. I mean, we'll give our opinions for free and they don't have to pay.