SEMA Show-time in Las Vegas for Toyota is all about giving iQ the kind of look-at-me dazzle that’s perfect for the world’s most famous adult playground. The specialist auto show is hosting an array of full-blooded customised versions that take the style-setting urban car into a new world of pumped bodywork and pimped interiors. Three iQ have been created for the show’s Tuner Challenge, with a fourth custom special displaying a radical chop-top look. They are joined at SEMA by further American-market models that have been given ultimate makeovers, plus some of Toyota’s latest State-side racing machinery.

In designing the new Yaris, Toyota has produced a look that is bolder, sharper and more dynamic, while remaining true to the principle of “compact outside, spacious inside” that has characterised the car since the original model broke cover in 1999. In the words of chief designer Dezi Nagaya the exterior has a “keen” appearance, witnessed particularly in the all-new front end with its slim, horizontal headlights and prominent, deep lower air intake that anchors the car’s wide stance, broadcasting a low centre of gravity.

Toyota’s “indestructible” Hilux has a new look and new hi-tech features for 2012. The redoubtable pick-up has been given a comprehensive re-style from the A-pillar forwards, with a new bonnet, radiator grille, headlamps and bumper, plus new wheel designs and new side bars and steps for the top-of-the-range Hilux Invincible. The interior has been given a new look, too, with new upper dashboard design and horizontal instrument cluster that emphasise the breadth and roominess of the cabin. The revised lay-out incorporates the new Toyota Touch multimedia unit with a full colour 6.1-inch touchscreen. The Touch package, fitted as standard to the HL3 and Invincible models also includes Bluetooth and a USB port for connecting digital music players.

Back in December, Toyota released the Yaris (Vitz) in Japan. Now it's time for the Australian market to receive the model, making the 1st appearance this week in Melbourne at 2011 AIMS (Australian International Motor Show). The new Toyota Yaris comes with TRD-like sports kit, a restyled bumper with large openings, side skirts, new alloys and rear bumper. The new Toyota Yaris is expected to arrive at dealers showrooms during the final quarter of 2011.