Top Ten: Building on a Reputation - The Most Significant Vehicles of Toyota's First 50 Years in the United States

摘要

Although the first passenger car Toyota sold from 1958 to 1960 in the United States - the Toyopet - was not a success, the lessons gathered from the experience were invaluable. "Toyota learned it would have to design vehicles appropriate for the U.S. market," says Susan Sanborn, curator of the Toyota USA Museum. "Simply exporting vehicles that sold well in Japan would not be enough." Sanborn oversees a collection of vehicles that attests to what Toyota has learned during its first half-century in the United States. There is a Toyopet, of course, as well as examples of the FJ40 Land Cruiser. And there is a 1966 Corona, the car that helped triple Toyota's U.S. sales. "By 1967, Toyota had become the third-best-selling import brand in the United States," notes Sanborn. "The success of the Corona paved the way for the Corolla in 1968."