he energy crisis of the 1970s was a major turning point in the
American auto industry. Before the crisis, large and heavy vehicles
with powerful but inefficient engines were common. But in the
years after, consumers started demanding high-quality and fuel-
efficient small cars. Domestic automakers, in the midst of
their malaise era, struggled to build these cars profitably, but
foreign automakers like Toyota were well positioned. This, along
with growing anti-Japanese sentiment, prompted the U.S.
Congress to consider import restrictions to protect the domestic
auto industry.
The 1960s also saw the slight opening of the Japanese auto market
to foreign companies. In an effort to strengthen Japan's auto
industry ahead of the market opening, Toyota purchased stakes in
other Japanese automakers. That included a stake in Hino Motors,
a manufacturer of large commercial trucks, buses and diesel
engines, along with a 16.8 percent stake in Daihatsu, a
manufacturer of kei cars, the smallest highway-legal passenger
vehicles sold in Japan.[50] That began what became a long-standing
partnership between Toyota and the two companies.
1980s
[edit]
By the 1980s, the Toyota Corolla was
one of the most popular cars in the world and became the world's
all-time best-selling automobile.
After the successes of the 1970s, and the threats of import
restrictions, Toyota started making additional investments in the
North American market in the 1980s. In 1981, Japan agreed
to voluntary export restraints, which limited the number of vehicles
the nation would send to the United States each year, leading
Toyota to establish assembly plants in North America. The U.S.
government also closed the loophole that allowed Toyota to pay
lower taxes by building truck beds in America.
Also in 1981, Eiji Toyoda stepped down as president and assumed
the title of chairman. He was succeeded as president by Shoichiro
Toyoda, the son of the company's founder.[15] Within months,
Shoichiro started to merge Toyota's sales and production
organizations, and in 1982 the combined companies became the
Toyota Motor Corporation. The two groups were described as "oil
and water" and it took years of leadership from Shoichiro to
successfully combine them into one organization.[51]
In Japan, Toyota offered mid-level luxury cars that were a class
below the Crown and Century and offered hardtop coupes and
sedans. The Supra, Mark II, Cresta and Chaser offered several trim
packages with different engine displacements to provide buyers
with annual road tax advantages. At the same time, sports cars
like Celica, Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno sold very well.
Efforts to open a Toyota assembly plant in the United States
started in 1980, with the company proposing a joint-venture with
the Ford Motor Company. Those talks broke down in July
1981.[52] Eventually in 1984, the company struck a deal
with General Motors (GM) to establish a joint-venture vehicle
manufacturing plant called NUMMI (New United Motor
Manufacturing, Inc.) in Fremont, California.[53] GM saw the joint
venture as a way to get access to a quality small car and an
opportunity to learn about The Toyota Way and the Toyota
Production System. For Toyota, the factory gave the company its
first manufacturing base in North America allowing it to avoid any
future tariffs on imported vehicles and saw GM as a partner who
could show them how to navigate the American labor environment.
The plant would be led by Tatsuro Toyoda, the younger brother of
company president Shoichiro Toyoda.[54] The first Toyota
assembled in America, a white Corolla, rolled off the line at NUMMI
on October 7, 1986.[55]
Toyota received its first Japanese Quality Control Award at the
start of the 1980s and began participating in a wide variety
of motorsports. Conservative Toyota held on to rear-wheel-
drive designs for longer than most; while a clear first in overall
production they were only third in production of front-wheel-drive
cars in 1983, behind Nissan and Honda. In part due to this,
Nissan's Sunny managed to squeeze by the Corolla in numbers built
that year.[56]
The Lexus LS 400 went on sale in May 1989
and was seen as being largely responsible for the successful launch
of Lexus.
Before the decade was out, Toyota introduced Lexus, a new division
that was formed to market and service luxury vehicles in
international markets. Prior to the debut of Lexus, Toyota's two
existing flagship models, the Crown and Century, both catered
exclusively for the Japanese market and had little global appeal
that could compete with international luxury brands such
as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar. The company had been
developing the brand and vehicles in secret since August 1983, at a
cost of over US$1 billion.[57][58] The LS 400 flagship full-size sedan
debuted in 1989 to strong sales, and was largely responsible for
the successful launch of the Lexus marque.
1990s
[edit]
The Toyota Supra (JZA80) is one of the
most recognized Japanese sports
cars. Toyota Prius, first generation
(NHW10 1997–2000) the first mass produced hybrid car
In the 1990s, Toyota began to branch out from producing mostly
compact cars by adding many larger and more luxurious vehicles to
its lineup, including a full-sized pickup, the T100 (and later
the Tundra), several lines of SUVs, a sport version of the Camry,
known as the Camry Solara. They would also launch newer
iterations of their sports cars, namely the MR2, Celica, and
