For those with short memories 50 years may seem a long time. For those of us who were there it feels like yesterday. For Toyota, it is time to celebrate its first half-century in the United States. The Toyopet Crown arrived in 1957 and not surprisingly Detroit hardly noticed this insignificant-looking car from a country whose products were regarded in the same way as China's today. But within ten years Toyota had refined the Toyopet into the Corolla and no one was laughing, including this reporter who tested one for a car magazine and came away saying "hmm… not bad!" Then came Coronas, Celicas, Supras, Tercels and a Camry that would eventually be America's best-seller. Autoblog, by way of CNN Money, offers an editorial comment plus a gallery of Toyotas from the earlier days through to modern times, which an ever-growing group of classic car fans are beginning to appreciate.
When glancing through the images my attention fell on the car shown above, inspiration for Honda's future Civics, reminding me of Toyota's first hint that they'd like to be taken seriously as a maker of cars with sporting characteristics. Remember the SR-5? That was Toyota's label for a sporty version of any of its models with a 5-speed manual gearbox. Few survive in good condition but should you find one, take my advice and buy it. Sadly, the auto aficionados of its era (including me) failed to appreciate the SR-5 as a future collectible. Perhaps my friend Harley Ferguson in Japan can tell us by way of the comments box whether they are easily found and exported from the home country.
I wish I could help, but I really don’t know. I know that, in general, Japanese don’t like used cars and the “shakin” (inspection) system makes older cars expensive to mantain, so a lot of still-usable cars are junked or exported to Russia and SE asia.
October 23, 2007 @ 9:00 pm