I had hoped to find an appropriate Japanese myth, proverb or quotation to begin this column about the growth and success of Toyota and Lexus in the U.S. last year. But while thinking about it, I began opening the afternoon’s deluge of emails when one from the Toyota pressroom caught my attention. The subject heading of it does a far better job of setting-up the success than any myth, proverb or quotation. Simple, straight, strong … the headline was:


Toyota’s North American Vehicle Production
Surpasses 1.55 Million Units in 2005

The release from Toyota’s manufacturing unit, went on to list nine investments, over $1 billion in total, made in new or upgraded manufacturing facilities in America in 2005. And that was in addition to $1.4 billion investments that are going on-line this year. And that’s on top of an earlier release announcing a new all time sales record of 2,260,296 vehicles from Toyota, Lexus and Scion. A 10.1 percent increase over 2004.


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