Page 196 - Toyota Under Fire

RESPONSE AND THE ROAD TO RECOVER Y

family member. Toyota Motor Sales was eventually reabsorbed
into Toyota Motor Corporation, but not until 1982. When Toy-
ota entered the U.S. market, like many expanding multinational
firms, its first act was to establish a sales presence: Toyota Motor
Sales USA, Inc., was founded in Torrance, California, in 1957.
At that time, the company was simply importing vehicles made
in Japan and selling them through dealers. Since the dual struc-
ture still existed in Japan at the time, Toyota Motor Sales USA
was created by Toyota Motor Sales (Japan).
As the company started growing rapidly in North America in
the wake of the 1970s oil crises, it needed more than just a sales
presence here. In 1977, the Toyota Technical Center, Inc. (TTC),
was started in Ann Arbor, Michigan, mainly to perform tests that
were unique to the U.S. market and to test supplier parts as Toy-
ota brought on American suppliers. But in keeping with the orig-
inal model of sales being separated from other operations, TTC
was founded as a separate corporation, owned by Toyota Motor
Corporation of Japan. Toyota’s first real foray into manufactur-
ing in North America was NUMMI, the joint venture with GM,
and this was again a separate company. As Toyota built its own
plants and expanded in the North American market, a manu-
facturing subsidiary was created, Toyota Motor Manufacturing,
North America (TMMNA). To tie these various corporations to-
gether, Toyota created a holding company based in New York
City called Toyota Motor of America, Inc. (TMA). TMA also has
a branch office in Washington, D.C., to work with regulators and
on legislative issues.
From the 1980s, Toyota had a vision to become a global com-
pany, with its center in Japan and strong regional branches that
were capable of designing, building, and selling cars. Over time,
TTC began to take on actual design responsibility for cars that

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