Way back when (and by when we mean 2001), it was the dawn of a fresh millennium, our new president Dubya had yet to make a mess of the country, and the nation was still riding high on the dotcom boom. So say your corporate overlords at ebubble.com had given you enough stock options to make you a paper gazillionaire, but you still had to wait till they vested to cash in. What reasonably priced Japanese car would hold you over until payday, or would ensure itself future classic status in case the economy turned south? You were probably too busy to find out, thanks to overtime at the office because you spent the day playing foosball in the lounge. Luckily, Forbes came to the rescue, listing their greatest Japanese cars of all time, circa 2001.
1917 Mitsubishi Model A
1951-80 Toyota Landcruiser
1958-66 Datsun 1200 Pickup
1967 Toyota 2000GT
1968-74 Toyota Corolla/Tercel
1968-73 Datsun 510
1969-73 Datsun 240Z
1974 Honda Civic
1976-79 Honda Accord
1977 Subaru Brat
1978 Mazda RX-7
1979 Toyota Celica Supra
1984 Toyota MR2
1986 Acura Legend
1989 Mazda Miata/MX-5
1990 Lexus LS400
1990 Mitsubishi 3000GT
1990 Acura NSX
1992 Infiniti J30
A few glaring omissions, uh, glare, though. What about great milestone cars like the Mazda Cosmo Sport, or the Nissan Skyline of any vintage? Still, for a list came before the whole nostalgic craze, it’s not bad, which means it’s way better than the Chicago Tribune‘s recent compilation. Click over to Forbes to see the slideshow.
But therein lies the secret to Toyota’s success. It quickly got to the root of the problem and corrected it. Surviving only on the sales of the Land Cruiser and the introduction of the Crown wagon, they eked by until 1965 and the debut of the Corona, which had been designed specifically for American tastes and driving habits. Although the 1960 Crown was officially a Toyota already, it was still marketed as the Toyopet. The Toyota Corona was the dawn of a new era for the company, and the name was its new flag. Good thing, too, since few would probably take the Toyopet Tundra or Toyopet Supra seriously. Following that, the Corolla appeared in 1968 and the rest is history. Soon, Toyota surpassed the best selling import brand, VW, and the Corolla eventually became the top selling car in the world.
Unless you’ve spent the last two years being probed in an alien mothership, you know of the triumphant return of 
By the time you read this, the Tokyo Motor Show will be in full swing, with concepts revealed by the minute. Unfortunately, our Cressida can’t drive on water (yet?) so we’ll have to admire the festivities from afar.
In actuality, Toyoda already invented the world’s first non-stop shuttle change automatic loom, the Type G (pictured), in 1924. Toyoda already had 50 other inventions under his belt and several of them were combined to form the automation and safety features of the Type G.
