Word: toyota
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This Americanization of Toyota aims to remove the last shreds of resistance that some consumers--particularly in the blue-collar Midwest--still have for foreign nameplates. A recent Toyota study found that 30% of the Americans surveyed said they would not buy a Japanese vehicle. Certainly, for this part of rural, small-town America, the high-paying manufacturing jobs that Toyota is creating will go a long way toward overcoming historic prejudices...
...Toyota's new direction reflects political necessity following decades of U.S.-Japanese trade clashes and a yin-yanging yen. Going to America not only defeats barriers like the current 25% duty on imported pickup trucks but also lowers manufacturing and distribution costs. Toyota's nonunion U.S. workers shave some 10% from its wage bill vis-a-vis Japan, and a like amount from shipping costs. The savings can knock about $2,000 off the sticker price of a Camry that would cost $20,000 if imported from Japan...
...measure, Toyota is well on its way to becoming a Yankee Doodle lookalike. Japan's largest industrial corporation (1995 sales: $101 billion) already has more than 19,000 U.S. employees and holds a 6.9% share of the U.S. car and truck market. That puts it in fourth, ahead of Honda (4.8%) though still well behind Chrysler (16.6%). But it's coming on. With the expansion along I-64, Toyota plans to boost U.S. output by a third, from 900,000 passenger vehicles in 1995 to 1.2 million in 1998. When it does, 75% of the cars the company sells...
...starters, Toyota is adding a new line of minivans to its $3.4 billion plant in Georgetown, where Camrys and Avalons are now produced, and tripling the output of its St. Louis-based Bodine Aluminum subsidiary, which makes engine components. Next will come a new $400 million engine plant in Buffalo, West Virginia, and the T100 pickup plant in Princeton. Toyota is expanding other facilities, like its Corolla factory in Cambridge, Ontario. There's a $310 million technical center abuilding in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Toyota recently opened the world's largest proving ground, a 12,000-acre property outside Phoenix, Arizona...
...swift U.S. buildup by Toyota and rivals like Honda has revitalized whole communities. A University of Kentucky study credits Toyota's Georgetown presence with creating 22,000 jobs in the state (the plant itself employs 6,500) and adding $1.5 billion to the state's economy during its eight years in operation. Soaring property-tax rolls have enabled Georgetown to build new police and fire stations and community-care facilities. In Princeton property values are taking...