Like the rest of the company, the Toyota USA Museum is moving from Torrance, California to Texas. And as with any move it is getting rid of a bunch of stuff before it’s forced to cart it halfway across the country. The museum has put 276 items up for auction, and now is your chance to own a part of the collection.
As you can see, there are a lot of old books and magazines, posters, and odd decor. Thankfully, a lot of it does not seem to be Toyota-specific, including a few Nissan items. This is encouraging, because it means most of the Toyota-centric pieces will stay together as a complete collection.
Most of the Toyota items for sale seem to relate to the defunct Scion brand. There are also curious items such as a Toyota golf bag, pool table, or a clay model of what appears to be an early Sequoia prototype. If you want any of items, many of which are unique to Toyota and not available for sale anywhere else, take a look at the auction site.
Why would they leave California?……Oh, that’s right, now I remember! moonbeam.
Don’t laugh… Honda has a huge manufacturing and engineering base in Ohio.
We shall see if Honda stays in California, if a similar offer were made to them I could see them entertaining the idea. Toyota’s new campus will be state of the art, and include a test track and now the museum complex.
Will there be a museum? I heard otherwise. Word was the collection will be located in Texas, but no museum per se. 🙁
Thanks for sharing the auction! A few interesting items on the site.
Back in 2014 I traveled from Canada to California. During my stay I went to the Museum and found myself the only visitor for the entire 2 hours I was there…surreal to say the least. Anyways, I got talking to this caretaker/maintenance worker about the museum vehicles. He pointed to a few that they were getting rid of to make space. When I asked what their fate will be, the reply was (mimicking crusher teeth with hands) to be crushed. Let us all prey that doesn’t happen when they move…
I used to know an engineer who worked for Chrysler at the time, who told me that museum cars are considered too old to be road-worthy without complete restoration. Thus, instead of risking a component failure that could cause a crash, they would rather destroy the car and avoid any potential liability.
Wait what?! https://www.auctionking.com/auction-lot/glory-days-when-horsepower-and-passion-ruled-detroit-84557
Some of these items are donated to the museum