Regular readers might know that we are pretty puzzled as to why Toyota hasn’t been making a bigger fuss about it’s 50 years in America. As the anniversary draws ever nearer, news on the company’s golden anniversary has gone from a cold drip to a full-blown media trickle.
Video and images are being slowly added to the Toyota 50th website, which comes with a countdown timer to the actual moment that the Big T will have been stateside for a half century. As of this writing, 97 days, 10 hours, 58 minutes, and 52 seconds remain until Toyota’s 50th Anniversary.
Then there’s this page at ToMoCo’s main web address, but only the smallest of text links from Toyota.com hints that there’s a 50th birthday coming up.
Don’t get us wrong. We love Toyotas. We’re just left completely baffled as to why they aren’t playing up their history more. Are you reading this, Toyota marketing department?
Toyota have been trying to deal with the new pressures of being the official number 1 motor company in the world, and they’ve been loathe to make a big thing out of it as – presumably – they don’t want to look like they’re basking in the glory of having defeated US companies, especially considering the potential for a patriotic backlash. Perhaps this has something to do wit that?
No, I don’t think so.
Remember Toyota is over 70 years old back home in Japan and that Toyota’s # 1 status is a global thing.
This 50th anniversary is a US thing.
From my own experiences with Toyota USA over the past 20 years: they do things the way they want to do it, and not the way the public or their admirers think they should do it. I don’t know the reasoning, but they are handling this anniversary in their own unique little way. I can’t even get an answer form them when I ask them – and I work at a dealership, belong to a Toyota club, and have had contacts at Toyota HQ for the past 10 years. They have been running 50th anniversary ads in Auto Week, and Auto News is scheduled to run a Toyota only issue in October. Maybe they are waiting to do something big for the official anniversary date, which will be October 31 2007.
But overall, I have to say that Toyota USA has not been very good at doing PR for themselves (as far as we, the vintage/classic/nostalgic Toyota enthusiasts are concerned). I compare what I see here in the states with what I have seen in Japan. In Japan, there are numerous motor sports events highlighting Toyota, and they have numerous events commemorating various anniversaries or milestones. Of course, Japan is home turf so there would be more happening there. But still, it makes you wonder why Toyota USA doesn’t do more to promote themselves outside of new car sales. But that’s just it, up to now, all that Toyota Motor Sales USA seems concerned with is new car promotion. They have a vintage/historic car collection that languishes in a warehouse. They love to partake in Scion events, but until recently showed little interest in events like Toyotafest. I see events like the Mitsubishi Owners Day and Mazda Seven Stock, and I wonder why toyota doesn’t put on their own show. I hope the tide is changing and that Toyota will recognize their history in the USA and be proud of it.
Them’s my 2 cents worth.
Yup, everything Toyotageek said is true, and said so eloquently and completely that we have nothing more to add except that we wholeheartedly agree. Perhaps when Nissan USA begins celebrating their 50th we’ll see some action from Toyota. However, we promise not to complain so much about Toyota in future posts :). We do love them, after all.
Who doesn’t love classic cars? Seems everybody does and hollywood has jumped on the bandwagon too. You see them in just about every movie and TV show now.