One of the giant of the automobile industry
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded on September 1933 when Toyoda Automatic Loom created a new division dedicated to manufacture cars. The head of that division was Kiichiro Toyoda. The first engine type A was produced in 1934 and it was used for the first time in model A1 in 1935. Toyota Motor Co. Was established and an independent company in 1937.
Image above: Matchbox 2015 Red Toyota Tacoma Rescue Lifeguard
In World War II, the company centered itself in producing trucks for the Japanese army. They were manufactured in the simplest way. They started to produce in a commercial way in 1947.
In 1950, they created Toyota Motor Sales Company which lasted till July 1982. And in 1956, they established a trading chain named Toyopet. Next year, Toyota Crown became the first Japanese car exported to United States and also established Toyota Motor Sales Inc. And Toyota do Brazil.
Toyota expanded in the sixties thanks to a new facility of investigation and development. Another brand division was created in Thailand. They also established agreements with Hino Motors and Daihatsu.
They kept on widening their horizon and in 1982 merged Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales giving birth to Toyota Motor Corporation. In this period they started to produce the Lexus.
The European market was taken into account when they created Toyota Motor Europe Marketing & Engineering and at the same time Toyota’s cars became very famous in United Kingdom.
Nowadays, the company has cooperation agreements with Peugeot and Citroën. And even though, they cut off the production the models that are being sold by the bran are: Auris, Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, Hilux, iQ, Land Cruiser, LC200, Prius, RAV4, Urban Cruiser, Verso y Yaris.
Image Above: Majorette Toyota Corolla Altis
Curious tips:
- Toyota is the biggest car manufacturing company from Japan.
- Its logo came out of a contest and it represents the relation of trust between the customers and the brand.
- Even though, Toyota is known worldwide by producing cars they are also in the textile market and manufacture sewing machine
- In 2002, Toyota entered F1 Competition but in 2009 they quitted because they did not win any grand prix.
The cars we can highlight of Toyota are:
Toyota GT 2000:
It is car that was launch to the market in 1967. With this model Toyota showed the world they could made High-End vehicles like European companies did or even better. It had a 6 cylinder engine with 2300cc that gave it 150 CV of power and it is considered by the people the main Japanese collection car.
Image above: Hot Wheels Toyota GT 2000
Toyota Prius:
It was the first hybrid car to be mass commercialized. It appeared in 1997 in the Japanese market and in 2001 in other markets all over the world. It had a huge success in United States and before it nobody thought that selling a car of this type were that profitable.
Toyota Land Cruiser:
It was the first Japanese All-Terrain produced by Toyota and have more than 50 years in the market. It was known as the Japanese Jeep in United States. It has also been a success in sales and nowadays it still has the same features that have become it an authentic All-Terrain.
Lexus LS:
This model showed the world Toyota could make luxury car as any other company did. It came to the market as Lexus (Luxury Exports US) and as you can tell by the name it was made thinking in the American market. They developed it with the help of 1400 engineers, 3000 technicians and 60 designers. The result was amazing. It had a 4.0 V8 engine and it was extremely refined. Nowadays, Lexus is the most sold premium Japanese brand and it is in more than 70 countries
Image above: Toyota GT86 by Welly Diecast