Nearly four years ago, Ford announced that it was contributing the core code of its SYNC AppLink system to an open-source project with the hope that other automakers and infotainment providers would adopt the open platform known as SmartDeviceLink (SDL). In 2015, Ford and Toyota began active discussions on some collaboration and made a formal announcement at the 2016 CES in Las Vegas. This week in Las Vegas, the two automakers announced the formation of the SmartDeviceLink Consortium to manage the open-source program and help move it forward.

Ford Infotainment System

Toyota plans to launch a new infotainment system that integrates SDL in 2018 but the hope is that other automakers will follow. The new consortium also includes Mazda, Subaru, and Suzuki, along with several suppliers.  AppLink and SDL are designed to provide a common software interface so that developers can make their apps available to be controlled directly through the vehicle controls including the audio system, touchscreen and voice button.

Current infotainment system for Toyota

While most automakers support the Apple and Google platforms (CarPlay and Android Auto, respectively) since most drivers now use one of those two mobile platforms, the hope is that the in-car user experience will remain at the hands of the automakers.

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Looking for a place to ring in the New Year? Chicago is definitely a great place to be at as you welcome 2017. New Year’s Eve is on a Saturday this year, making it the perfect time to have a weekend-long celebration. We have rounded up some of the best things to do in the city while you prepare for the new year that’s coming!

Navy Pier

From Chicago’s only lakefront midnight fireworks show to the biggest and best parties in the city in the historic Aon Grand Ballroom and Crystal Gardens as well as dining cruises featuring entertainment and champagne toasts, you want to ring in the New Year at Navy Pier!

Chi-Town Rising

Instead of a Times Square ball drop, a large silver star rises 365 feet into the air, accompanied by a fireworks display along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, synchronized to music. The Chi-Town Rising celebration started last year, and due to its success it has returned to help you celebrate New Year’s in a great way!

Porchlight Theater

Catch the final performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights from Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theater. Stick around after the show for a New Year’s Eve celebration and champagne toast with the cast.

Lincoln Park Zoo

Celebrate New Year’s Eve at the most sparkling setting in town! The Lincoln Park ZooLights is the perfect opportunity to celebrate with family. Complimentary festive hats, horns and party favors will be distributed to visitors while supplies last.

New Year’s Eve Dinner Cruise

Spirit Cruises spends NYE on Lake Michigan complete with a dinner buffet, an open bar, a dance party, a champagne toast, and an-up-close-and-personal view of Navy Pier’s midnight fireworks.

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The next two weekends are all about celebrating the Holidays and spending time with your family. We know it’s important for our customers, just as it is for our employees, so we wanted to let you know that our hours will be slightly different due to the Holidays.

Sales

Saturday, December 24^th: CLOSED

Sunday, December 25^th: CLOSED

Monday, December 26^th: 9am – 5pm

Saturday, December 31^st: 9am – 6pm

Sunday, January 1^st: CLOSED

Monday, January 2^nd: 9am – 5pm

Service

Saturday, December 24^th: CLOSED

Sunday, December 25^th: CLOSED

Monday, December 26^th: CLOSED

Saturday, December 31^st: 7am – 3pm

Sunday, January 1^st: CLOSED

Monday, January 2^nd: CLOSED

Our Continental Toyota family wants to wish yours a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! May 2017 bring great things your way!

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Tags: Chicago area toyota, Continental Toyota, Holiday Hours, La Grange area Toyota
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Every year we like to spread the Holiday spirit and give back to those in need. The Illinois Masonic Children’s Home provide a safe and nurturing environment for children who are unable to care for themselves due to various family or home conditions. For this reason, we have hosted the Illinois Masonic Children’s Home Christmas party at our Continental Toyota dealership for several years. It’s an evening full of fun games and a warm Holiday spirit.

This year we held the event on Tuesday, December 13^th at 4:30pm and both children and adults had a great time! We played a Left-Right Pass game where they had to pass a gift around a circle based on a story that involved the words ‘left,’ ‘right,’ and ‘across.’ We all shared some laughs and at the end there was one lucky winner! And what would Christmas be without delicious cookies and hot cocoa? The children enjoyed some snacks while taking lots of pictures using our very own Snapchat geofilter!

After all the fun came Santa Claus and it was time to hand out the presents. We had previously received a ‘wish list’ from the children and made sure Santa brought the gifts they asked for. You could see their faces light up once they opened the presents and saw they got exactly what they asked for!

It was truly a magical evening where we could feel the Christmas spirit and the gratitude coming from the children because they had the Christmas they dreamed of! We are really glad we got the opportunity to host this event once again and hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did!

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Tags: Chicago, Chicago area toyota, christmas, event, holiday, La Grange area Toyota, winter
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On 2011, John and Herman Weinberger decided it would be a great idea to give back to the community by donating eight used cars to those in need. On Thursday, December 8^th, we had the sixth annual Driven to Care event at Continental Toyota where once again, each store from the Continental Motors Group donated a used car to facilitate transportation for those who need it.

Continental Motors Group has partnered with Loaves and Fishes of Naperville and its CARES program to select the eight individuals in need of a vehicle. Recipients have a job and can pay for insurance, gas and maintenance but they can’t afford to buy a car or get approved for a loan.

Every year, the event keeps getting better and this year’s was no exception. Andrea, a recipient at last year’s event, is a social worker that submitted a request to have her client receive a car this year. The process, as she tells it herself, was very smooth and quick, and it wasn’t long before she found out her client had been chosen as one of the eight recipients for Drive to Care 2016 event. We were honored that Andrea came back to speak about her experience as a recipient and now as a helper for this event.

It was truly an emotional event, and we are very thankful we get the opportunity to give back to the community and hope others can join us in giving back.

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Today, you can essentially do anything with your smartphone. And since you take it everywhere you go, why not take us along with you?

When you download the Continental Toyota app on your smartphone, you can expect the same great service from us, but on the go.

We’re all about convenience!

Access and store all of your services completed on your vehicles at Continental Toyota. Take advantage of our L’oil’ty Rewards program, where you receive a free oil change after every four that you complete. Have difficulty remembering when it’s time to complete routine maintenance? Our new app will send you timely service reminder notifications letting you know when to get your next service completed.

Stay updated on the latest coupons, service scheduling and more. Here are some other great features you can’t miss:

• Receive our current service coupons
• Store rewards points and earn free oil changes
• View our current sales inventory
• Schedule service instantly
• Store important vehicle information
• Access your vehicles’ service records
• Receive instant service reminders
• Contact any department quickly
• Interact with our dealership’s social media
• Learn about our amenities
• And more!

Download our new app here!

Thank you for your loyalty to Continental Toyota, where we have built an automotive service division that our customers consider second-to-none.

We hope that you find our app the most useful for all of your Toyota needs.

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We know our customers enjoy great deals, so why not make Black Friday even more special? We have deals in our Parts, Sales and Service departments that you won’t want to miss.

Stop by our store on Friday, November 25^th to check out our inventory and the great deals we are offering. To make the shopping experience even more enjoyable, we are offering coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin’ Donuts in the morning, and White Castle sliders, soda and Gatorade in the afternoon. How about that for a relaxing and fun shopping day?

 Go Home With More Freebies!

Our Parts department is offering a FREE Toyota cap, beanie hat, OR coffee  mug with a $20.00 purchase over the parts retail counter.^* This is your  chance to show off your Toyota pride and stay warm during the winter days.

Service Special!

To top it off, we are offering a genuine Toyota TrueStart^TM battery for ONLY $99.95.^** It comes with an exceptional 84-month warranty, 24-month free replacement, and 60-month proration. We will install it for free and provide you with a complimentary express battery check. How about that for a great service experience?
But wait, there’s more! We want you to have new tires for the upcoming winter! Buy three tires and get the fourth one for just $1!^*** Yes, just $1. You didn’t think we would let you leave without offering safe, new tires for your car, did you?

So what are you waiting for? We look forward to seeing you on Friday, November 25^th with free doughnuts, sliders and lots of offers!

^*While supplies last. Available only on November 25^th.
^**Toyotas only. Scions excluded. Excludes Prius. Excludes Hybrid battery. Plus tax and shop supplies. Not valid with any other offer. Prior sales excluded. Valid only at Continental Toyota.
^***Restrictions apply. See participating Toyota dealer for details. OEM, OEA and WIN replacement tires only. Tires must be dealer-installed. Three tiers at regular price, fourth tire for one dollar. Fourth tire must be of equal or lesser value. Excludes mounting and balancing, sales tax, shop supplies, tire disposal, & other applicable taxes. Cannot be combined with any other coupon offer or advertised special. Excludes previous purchases. Toyota & Scion vehicles only. Valid in Illinois, Minnesota, and parts of Indiana and Wisconsin. Offer only available at participating Toyota dealers. 11/25/16 – 11/30/16

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The 2017 Toyota C-HR made its debut in March at the Geneva Motor Show. This model is finally coming to the United States and will make its American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, November 18-27. Even though it is not for sale yet, we thought it would be a good opportunity to tell you more about this new vehicle, ahead of its debut at the LA Auto Show.

The New, Smaller Crossover

C-HR stands for “Coupe – High Rider,” which at first might sound confusing given that the car has four doors and rides a little low for a crossover. However, when looking at the photographs you can tell that at a first glance, it resembles a coupe because the back door handles are strategically placed so they are not noticeable to a passerby. The C-HR is smaller than its corporate sibling, the RAV-4, but bigger than the Nissan Juke to provide an alternative to customers looking for a smaller vehicle with all the perks of an SUV.

Killer Looks

The C-HR was initially introduced in 2014 as a concept model, but it was recently redesigned to fit our customer’s needs. The changes were minimal, since the bulging fenders, tapered glasshouse, falling roofline, and rising beltline were originally sketched at Toyota’s California design studio and survived almost entirely intact through two concept iterations. The C-HR’s creases catch shadows and reflect light in just the right way to make you stand out. The slim LED headlights stretch back over the peak of the wheel arches and the rear door handles are hiked to the roof, which gives it the “coupe” look.

Stylish Interior

The C-HR’s interior is as eye-catching as the exterior. The dashboard consists of multiple horizontal design elements, each highly three-dimensional, and the infotainment screen stands proudly atop the dash in a trapezoidal frame. Perhaps the most interesting item is the ribbon-like blue trim, which appears to have been draped from the middle of one door across the dashboard to the other door. Although the information we have so far comes from the model that has been released in Europe, we are expecting very similar features for the C-HR debuting in Los Angeles.

Stay tuned for the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, which runs from November 18^th through the 27^th for more information on the debut of Toyota’s new crossover.

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The Toyota Land Cruiser is one of the oldest and longest running car lines in the world. Originally introduced in 1951 as a larger military style car, it found itself competing with Jeep and similar vehicles. Toyota continued producing the car as an off-road vehicle until the 1980s when it decided to improve the comfort of the interior.

The 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser is a perfect combination of an off-road vehicle with an on-road comfort ready for any adventure!

An Impressive Design

Just because the Land Cruiser was originally designed as a military style car, doesn’t mean this vehicle isn’t luxurious. A stylish front end, LED lighting and chrome side moldings with the Land Cruiser logo help give this SUV an unmistakable presence. Whether you’re off adventuring in new roads or enjoying a night out, you can rest assured that the Land Cruiser will leave a lasting impression among bystanders.

Stylish Interior

This car’s interior is made to match the impressive exterior. With its heated, leather-trimmed steering wheel, you can control the audio system, Multi-Information Display and place calls with the Bluetooth^® wireless technology. Great for any temperature, the leather-trimmed front row seats feature multi-stage heating and ventilation, and the second row seats also include multi-stage heating so your passengers can enjoy the view while keeping warm. Perfect for any occasion, you can use the third row seats for a family road trip, or you can fold the second and third row seats to reveal a spacious 81.7 cubic feet of cargo capacity.

Advanced Technology

Challenging off-road situations often make you wish you could check your immediate surroundings for potential problems. With the Multi-terrain Monitor, you can. Simply press a button to display front, rear and side camera views on the 9-in. navigation screen. To make your adventures even more enjoyable, the Land Cruiser’s Entune™ Premium JBL^® Audio with Integrated Navigation and App Suite gives you a high-end entertainment experience.

Smart Technology to Keep You Safe

The Land Cruiser comes standard with 10 airbags to keep you and your loved ones safe during any adventure. To help prevent any accidents, the Land Cruiser features a Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) so that when it detects a vehicle, it illuminates a warning indicator on the appropriate side view mirror to help you know when it’s safe to change lanes. And when you slowly back out of a driveway or parking spot, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA) provides an audible indicator to warn you of approaching vehicles. As if it couldn’t get any better, the Land Cruiser comes standard with the Star Safety System^™, a suite of six advanced safety features that includes Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Active Traction Control (A-TRAC), Multi-terrain 4-wheel Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA) and Smart Stop Technology^® (SST).

Now that you know more about the Toyota Land Cruiser, feel free to check out our inventory or stop by for a test drive so you can experience the wonders of the ultimate off-road vehicle.

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You may have heard the news that after being established as a separate brand in 2003, the Scion brand has transitioned back to the Toyota brand.

So what exactly does this mean for your favorite Scion models? Don’t worry; they’re not going anywhere!

The Scion iA, iM, and FR-S have officially joined the Toyota family as the 2017 Toyota Yaris iA, Corolla iM and Toyota 86.

Want to learn more about these new models? Read below for more information on each.

Toyota Yaris iA

This vehicle’s 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine makes 106 hp and is paired to either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic. It has been designed for maximum style and optimal performance. The Yaris iA comes standard with unique 16-in. split 5-spoke alloy wheels, LED turn signal indicators on the outside mirrors, and a standard chrome-tipped exhaust that enhances its sporty nature.

On the interior, you’ll find that the Yaris iA comes standard with remote keyless entry with Push Button Start, and includes a Sport Mode button on the center console to enable Sport Mode, a feature that adjusts the engine control unit and shift points to give a sportier feel to your drive. To add to its sporty feel, this vehicle features sport-contoured seats for the driver and front passenger, as well as a unique manual shift mode when equipped with an automatic transmission.

While the Yaris iA has a sporty feel to it, safety was still a priority when manufacturing this car. Its Low-Speed Pre-Collision System scans the road ahead for potential vehicle collisions, and if the system detects a potential frontal collision, an audio/visual alert and braking assistance are automatically activated.

Toyota Corolla iM

A 137-hp 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine powers the new Corolla iM. This hatchback’s exterior includes a spoiler and chrome-tipped exhaust to add to its sporty appearance. It comes with standard 17-in. alloy wheels with a vortex-inspired design, a sportier suspension, and power folding and heated outside mirrors.

On the inside, you’ll find that the Corolla iM is nothing but stylish. The upscale dashboard features flowing lines, premium materials and attractive accent stitching. Piano-black accents surround the 7-in. touch-screen, and the dual zone climate control allows you to stay cool while your passenger chooses the temperature of their preference.

To top it all off, the Corolla iM comes standard with Toyota Safety Sense^™ C (TSS-C) —an active safety package that combines a Pre-Collision System (PCS), Lane Departure Alert (LDA) and Automatic High Beams (AHB) to assist you and keep you safe.

Toyota 86

If you thought it couldn’t get any sportier, you were wrong. This vehicle’s 2.0-liter flat-four cylinder engine makes 205 hp when paired to the six-speed manual transmission. The automatic transmission features a manual shift mode that allows you to select the gear you want via the gear-select lever or steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

The interior includes deeply bolstered front seats with a silver-like accent stitching. Granlux suede-like trim accents cover key touch-points on the door panels, upper-seat bolsters and dashboard. To add an extra bit of style, you will find an embossed “86” logo above the passenger-side glove box.

In true Toyota fashion, safety plays a key role in the manufacturing of the vehicle. Every 86 comes standard with six airbags and Hill Start Assist Control (HAC). This convenient technology helps to keep the vehicle from rolling backward when switching from brake to accelerator on an incline.

So what do you think of these new models? Check out our inventory or stop by our store to experience the how the Scion spirit lives on in our new Toyota vehicles.

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