1.1 Company Profile
Toyota Motor, the world's largest automotive manufacturer (overtaking GM in 2008), designs and manufactures a diverse product line-up that includes subcompacts to luxury and sports vehicles, as well as SUVs, trucks, minivans, and buses. Its vehicles are produced either with combustion or hybrid engines, as with the Prius. Toyota's subsidiaries also manufacture vehicles: Daihatsu Motor produces mini-vehicles, while Hino Motors produces trucks and buses. Additionally, Toyota makes automotive parts for its own use and for sale to others. Popular models include the Camry, Corolla, Land Cruiser, and luxury Lexus line, as well as the Tundra truck. Asia generates almost 40% of sales.
1.1.1 Company Overview & History:
Toyota started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda.[10] Its first vehicles were the A1 passenger car and the G1 in 1935. Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937.
The Toyota Motor Company received its first Japanese Quality Control Award at the start of the 1980s and began participating in a wide variety of motor sports. Due to the 1973 oil crisis, consumers in the lucrative U.S. market began turning to small cars with better fuel economy. American car manufacturers had considered small economy cars to be an "entry level" product, and their small vehicles employed a low level of quality in order to keep the price low.
By the early sixties, the US had begun placing stiff import tariffs on certain vehicles. The Chicken tax of 1964 placed a 25% tax on imported light trucks.[31] In response to the tariff, Toyota, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. began building plants in the U.S. by the early eighties.
In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor Corporation. Two years later, Toyota entered into a joint venture with General