There are many reasons to love Australia. Beautiful beaches, fantastic surfing, miles of unspoiled countryside and balmy winters all do much to stoke our appreciation of the country. We can now add the bare-bones Toyota Land Cruiser GX to that list. Toyotasays that it created this particular vehicle for those customers who “tend to abuse, not just drive” their vehicles. That certainly sounds like our kind of people.

The Land Cruiser GX features vinyl floor mats, vertically-hinged rear barn doors, 17-inch steel wheels and, best of all, a snorkel. Yes, this Land Cruiser comes from the factory with not only the ability to ford deep water, but the intent, as well.

In addition to the aquatic equipment, the Land Cruiser GX is packed with an auxiliary fuel tank for traversing the open wastes, plenty of under-body protection and an honest-to-goodness metal key. A 4.5-liter twin-turbo V8 diesel engine sits at the heart of this beast of burden coupled to a six-speed automatic transmission with full-time four-wheel drive courtesy of a Torsen differential. We’re in love. Follow the jump for the full press release.

The first-ever Prius Plug-in Hybrid, which combines the firm’s Hybrid Synergy Drive with a small lithium-ion battery to extend the electric-only driving range, starts at $32,000 not including a $760 processing and handling (DPH) fee that raises the price to $32,760, while the better equipped Advance trim model will have an MSRP of $39,525 or $40,285 with DPH.

The Japanese company said it expects both Prius Plug-in trim levels to qualify for a federal tax credit of approximately $2,500.

The plug-in model features a new Lithium-ion battery that offers an extended electric-only driving range of up to 15 miles at a maximum speed of 62 mile-per-hour. The battery can be fully charged in 2.5-3 hours using a standard 120V outlet or 1.5 hours using 240V.

According to Toyota estimates, the new Prius Plug-in Hybrid will deliver approximately 87 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) and 49 MPG when operating in hybrid mode.

The Prius Plug-in Hybrid will begin reaching showrooms in spring of 2012.

More than three years after Toyota and Subaru announced plans to co-develop a rear-wheel drive coupe, and almost two years after Toyota first showed a concept of the FT-86, the Japanese company is still displaying prototypes of its long-awaited sports car.

At this week’s Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany, Toyota brought along the most recent interpretation of the FT-86 II Concept that we first saw in Geneva this past March with a small twist: instead of a black finish, the study features a bronze/orange hue along with colored brake calipers, and that’s about it.

The March 11 earthquake that shook Japan to its core had many collateral damages, one of which was vehicle manufacturing. For example, more than 650 of Toyota’s suppliers suffered great damages and halted production, forcing the Japanese automaker to reconsider its strategy.

Two weeks later, its management had reached the conclusion that it should focus its worldwide resources mainly on one model line. “We were rapidly burning through cash, so in order to survive this we prioritized the cars our customers wanted most” explained head of production Atsushi Niimi.

So which vehicles were the chosen ones? Could it be the cars that helped it the most to become the world’s number one car manufacturer since 2008? Nope: Corolla and Camry would have to take a back seat to hybrids, and especially the Prius. Therefore, Toyota started off by ensuring that it could find parts for the Prius and the Lexus hybrids.

“The last several years have been a triple shock for Toyota” said Masatoshi Nishimoto of Tokyo-based consulting company HIS Inc. “It’s now at a major turning point.”

The first came in 1990. Up until that point, six of the world’s 10 biggest companies were Japanese, with Toyota in ninth place. When the real estate bubble burst, things changed dramatically: Toyota is the sole Japanese company in BusinessWeek’s top 50 ranking, down to 35th place.

Then there was the 2009-2010 floor-mat and sticky pedal recall saga. The way it was handled resulted in a $16.4 million dollar fine by the NHTSA and millions of recalls – which meant more millions lost, and perhaps more importantly, the loss of Toyota’s reputation as the manufacturer of the world’s most reliable cars.

This year’s earthquake, along with the strengthening of the yen against the US dollar, made things even more difficult as of all Japanese car manufacturers, Toyota is the one that builds the most cars domestically.

Toyota will certainly lose the number one spot on world sales to General Motors this year andLexus, after a decade, falls behind rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Now, Akio Toyoda is betting his company’s future on hybrid technology and especially the Prius. The three new models of the world’s best-selling hybrid take center spot have to succeed if the company is to make a quick recovery.

In Japan, the 2012 Camry is offered at launch exclusively as a hybrid model with power coming from a newly developed 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle, four-cylinder engine delivering 160HP and an electric motor with 143HP, for a combined maximum output of 205 horsepower.

Toyota says that the JDM Camry Hybrid delivers a fuel efficiency of 26.5 km/lt [62.3mpg US or 3.8lt/100km] under the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) 10-15 test cycle and 23.4 km/lt [55mpg US or 4.3lt/100km] under the JC08 test cycle.

When it comes to the exterior styling, the JDM Camry comes closer to the Ukrainian model but sports a different front grille and bumper designs, tweaked especially for the hybrid to improve aerodynamics and consequently, its fuel efficiency.

New active safety features for the JDM Camry include a Hill-start Assist Control (HAC) function that prevents the vehicle from rolling backward when starting up on a hill, a Steering-assisted Vehicle Stability Control (S-VSC) system, electric power steering and braking.

In addition, the HDD navigation system has been updated and provides audio and visual warnings to the driver if the car goes the wrong way through a tollgate, on a highway or service area access road.

Pricing in Japan starts from 3,040,000 yen [US$39,300] for the base model and tops out at 3,800,000 yen [US$49,100] for the G-Package combined with a leather interior.