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.