TORRANCE, CA, -- Toyota is not Rodeo Drive. It’s not Gucci, Hermes, Godiva or Rolls-Royce. It’s a brand that commands respect and customer loyalty because people have found that the darned things work --- over and over again.
Which is why it was such a shock when a recent issue of the American magazine, Consumer Reports, wrote that it could no longer recommend several Toyota models for reliability.
It wasn’t the first time that Toyota had trouble in America. The spirits of success were not pleased when company officials chose Halloween night in 1957 to open the doors on the first showroom in North America.
The ghosts and goblins were out that night as a small band of Toyota executives waited for customers to come trick or treating and leave with one of their new Toyopet Crowns. The cars were as unfortunate as their name implied.
Popular as a Post War taxi in Tokyo these underpowered and undersized vehicles earned no respect. The Hollywood, California based dealership was only able to palm off a couple of hundred before the home office decided to stop selling the cars and rethink their American strategy.
They kept selling Land Cruisers while they worked on developing a car that could establish a beachhead in America.
In 1965, after spending seven years “studying the needs of American drivers,” the Corona was making its way across the Pacific. The gradual process of weaning Westerners off their addiction to the Motor City’s bloated land yachts had begun.
The early years were a bit rocky. It was a tough sell convincing people that a Corona was as cool as a GTO or Dodge Charger but when OPEC turned off the spigot in the 70s and lines formed at gas stations from LA to DC --- the idea of small, fuel efficient cars sounded pretty good.
Once people sampled Toyotas they discovered that these fuel sippers were also reliable. Something Detroit’s behemoths were not. Although American cars were notoriously bad some looked great -- the Corvette Sting Ray, the Shelby Cobra, the Mustang, the Barracuda convertible and more. Some were just over the top and cool because they had a certain grandiose swagger or charm but none would ever be accused of being reliable.
Even so, it took Toyota many years to topple Detroit’s Goliaths and be poised to take the crown as the number one car company in the world. A feat they actually achieved for one quarter this summer.
Since the misstep with the Toyopet the company has had an unending string of successes.
The Toyota Corolla was introduced to Americans in 1968 and has gone on to become the world's all-time best-selling passenger car. By late 1975, Toyota became the best-selling import brand in the U.S., and later became the first international automaker to surpass annual sales of one million vehicles in 1986. Also in 1986, Toyota produced its first car built on American soil -- the Corolla FX15 -- at the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. plant in Fremont, Calif., a joint venture with General Motors. Today, Toyota operates ten plants in eight U.S. States. An eleventh plant is under construction in the Mississippi town right next door to Elvis Presley’s birthplace.
In 1989, Toyota established Lexus, its luxury line of vehicles, with the debut of the Lexus LS 400 and ES 250. The brand took off and is now the best-selling luxury line in America.
Toyota reached another milestone in 1997, when the Toyota Camry became the best-selling passenger car in the U.S., a title it has held for nine of the past ten years. A year later, Toyota launched its first full-sized American pickup, the Tundra.
Toyota marked the start of the new millennium with the launch of the Prius sedan, the world's first mass-produced hybrid gas-electric vehicle. Three years later, Toyota's new, breakthrough hybrid technology, the "Hybrid Synergy Drive," was introduced for use in the all-new 2004 Prius, now the best-selling hybrid in the nation.
In 2003, Toyota launched Scion, its third line of vehicles, featuring three modestly-priced, feature-rich vehicles under an innovative, youth-oriented marketing program. Bolstered by three strong brands, Toyota's U.S. annual sales topped two million vehicles for the first time in 2004.
Toyota continued expanding its hybrid lineup in 2005 with the introduction of the world's first luxury hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h, and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Toyota added a hybrid option to its popular Camry sedan in 2006, and began building it in the U.S. at its Kentucky plant. That year, the company also opened its tenth U.S. plant in San Antonio, Texas, to build full-size pickups along with its first truck plant in Princeton, Ind.
Also in 2006, Toyota launched the FJ Cruiser with a design that harkens back to the early years of the rugged Land Cruiser, the only vehicle Toyota has sold continuously throughout its entire 50-year history in the U.S. In the same year, Toyota reported sales of more than 2.5 million vehicles for the first time. Lexus was the leading luxury brand in the U.S. for the seventh year in a row in 2006, and posted best-ever sales for the tenth consecutive year.
During this year, its fiftieth anniversary in America, Toyota celebrated by introducing its largest pick-up truck, the 2007 Toyota Tundra, the second-generation of its iconic Scion xB urban utility vehicle, and the world's first V8 hybrid, the Lexus 600h L.
Toyota’s roots in America predate its first dealership. Kiichiro Toyoda and his son Sakichi once came to America and marveled at how “Americans had embraced motorization.” Kiichiro urged his son to use 100,000-pounds the father had earned from selling his automatic loom patent to a British textile company to research the automobile. This resulted in the launch of the Toyota car company in 1937. They say the name was changed from Toyoda because the “number of brush strokes to write it in Japanese was eight, a lucky number suggesting growth.” Seventy years later this superstition appears to have been true as the student is poised to surpass the homegrown car companies.
If history is able to teach us anything -- the lessons to be learned by Toyota's experience in America seem pretty clear. Quality and a better idea can prevail if leaders are willing to confront the goblins of bad decisions, change course and build products people want.
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