Word: toyota
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...biggest Japanese automaker, Toyota Motor Co. (fiscal 1959 sales: $159 million), whose Toyopet was once the tinny target of G.I. gibes ("If you strip off the door lining, you can read the beer-can labels"), streamlined Toyopet to resemble in performance and size a compact U.S. car (14⅓ ft. long v. Rambler's 14½ ft.). The four-door, six-passenger Toyopet has a 65-h.p. motor, does more than 30 miles on a gallon of gas, sells for $2,239 at port of entry...
Last week, adding its 100th U.S. dealer, Toyota announced that U.S. sales will hit 350 this month. Toyota will start bringing in station wagons this month (price: $2,500), is building an $18 million plant near Nagoya to meet the demand...
Even Japan is hustling to get into the race. Though the industry produced only 42,597 passenger cars last year, automakers plan big things. Toyota Motor Co., which makes a sturdy Toyopet sedan (30 miles per gal.) for $2,222, has shipped 800 cars so far this year, including 150 to Hawaii. Japan's other major producer, Nissan Motor Co., with a smaller Datsun sedan (40 miles per gal.) for $1,762, has sent out another 800 to Hawaii and the West Coast. The reception was so enthusiastic that the two companies see a U.S. market of 500 cars...
JAPANESE CARS will soon make bid for share of U.S. market. Japan's Toyota automobile company in September will send over models of its four-door, 55-h.p. "Toyopet Crown de Luxe," which gets up to 69 m.p.h. from four-cylinder engine. Car sells for about $2,400 in Japan...