Background Of Toyota

It was initiated by a productive inventor, Sakichi Toyoda, who was born on the fourteenth day of February, 1867. Toyoda grew up as the son of a poor carpenter, but is considered the “King of Japanese Inventors.” He is also believed to be the father of the Japanese industrial revolution. With his breakthrough invention of the automatic loom, Toyoda, took the resulting money to create the Toyota Motor Company. A huge contributing factor to the birth of this company was the support of the Japanese government during the war in Manchuria. The first engine was developed in 1934, and the first car and truck were constructed the following year. In the post-war year of 1945, Toyota began fast expansion after the authorization from the United States military to spawn peacetime production. At first, the main focus of the Japanese company were there manufacturing of trucks. The Toyopet, “the first truly popular Toyota car,” was built in 1947. In the proceeding five years the company built only two hundred and fifteen cars of this model. By 1955, they were fabricating 8,400 cars per year, a decade later the company ascended to 600,000 cars per year.

The internationalization of the company began in 1958, when Toyota started marketing cars in the United States. The first two vehicles imported to the U.S. were the Toyopet and Land Cruiser. Even though the Land Cruiser had better margins, the Toyopet set up for the strategy of a car modified specifically for the American market. We are very familiar with these models still today; they are the Avalon and the Camry. Brazil was the first country in which Toyota constructed a production plant outside of its national borders; this took place in the year of 1959. One very important philosophy the company went by was to localize both the production and the design of its vehicles. This philosophy developed long-term relationships with local suppliers and labor considering the adaptation of products to the locality of use, along with production being there as well. This action gave forth to the implementation of R&D and design facilities in North America and Europe.

The first truly Americanized Toyota was the Tiara, also known as the Toyota Corona PT20. This vehicle hit the market in 1964. The car could hold up to 6 people and had about ninety horses under the hood. Amazingly the car was comfortable inside, even while it reached ninety miles per hour. The car offered optional automatic transmission and factory air. These two options were very unusual for such a small car. The sales for this vehicle was at around 6,400 in 1965 and shot to 71,000 by 1968. In the late 1950’s Toyota was a very small company from a global perspective. But by 1963 they were the 93rd largest non-American corporation in the world. Three years later they moved to the 47th position.

Toyota became well established in the United States by 1967. The Corona was competing against the Volkswagen Beetle which was an insult. The Corona was known for its low price and high quality, but rust became a depreciating factor. After the Corona was denounced, Toyota brought the Crown to the U.S. The Crown was offered as a wagon or even as a sedan. It carried a 137 cubic inch in-line six-cylinder engine that boasted a whopping 115 horsepower. The engine was small but had seven main bearings, tuned induction, semi-hemispherical heads, and was built with light weight alloys. This vehicle came with a four-speed manual tranny which was actually rare at the time. One striking feature the Crown offered was the three-point seat belts, and not to mention reclining bucket seats. The Crown was not a huge success but surely outdid most foreign imports. Some other notable features were the handling, smooth ride, and quiet interior.

Soon enough Toyota announced that they would bring the famous but rare 2000GT to the U.S. This unique car was quite similar to that of British sports cars having a huge hood and pretty much no trunk. The 200GT eventually set 16 world speed and endurance records by 1966. This special Japanese vehicle embraced a dual overhead cam six-cylinder engine along with a five-speed manual transmission. This sports car was not top ranked in the acceleration category but most definitely made up for it with it’s cornering. The quarter-mile was decent showing up at 15.9 seconds.

The strong reputation for reliability and durability was in focus of the Toyota Corolla. The Corolla became America’s favorite small car shortly after it was imported in 1969.

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