TORRANCE, Calif. — Generating customer testimonials through online channels has become a more integral part of automotive marketing lately, and Toyota Motor Sales, USA is looking to tap into that through a new mini-site.

"Stories from the Road" allows owners to post stories about driving their Toyota product, and it appears to be a hit thus far.

Officials said last week that more than 400 owners had shared their experiences via Stories from the Road.

To share stories, owners can simply visit www.toyota.com and then click the "For Owners" tab, followed by the "Owners Homepage" tab.

While there, they can click on the "Toyota Community" tab to add their stories to either the truck, hybrid or cars/van/SUV section of Stories from the Road.

Toyota listed a few examples of stories seen so far on the mini-site: 

—"I was hoping to see if others had mileage like I have, and am delighted to see someone with 285,000 on their 2003 Prius! I took mine in this morning for its 200,000 checkup, and am aiming for 400,000 at least …"

—"I purchased my 1998 Tacoma PreRunner V-6 automatic with all the options available at the time. I now have 119K miles on the truck and it still looks and rides like the day I got it …"

—"Bought this Camry new in 1995. It currently has 300,250 miles and going strong. Four cylinders and handles the mountains with ease. Front-wheel drive makes snow driving a pleasure. What a great car …"