Page 49 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

outside the company. Confront the biggest, most experienced car-
makers in the world on their home turf? That perception was given
even more credibility when Toyota’s first attempt at selling a car in
the United States was the disastrous Toyopet Crown, which was first
imported to California. The car seemed to work fine by Japanese
standards of the time, but it barely had the power to get up Califor-
nia hills. It was hastily recalled, and the few hundred that had been
sold were shipped back to Japan until they could be upgraded.
But Toyota returned to the U.S. market with better vehicles, ones
more suited to American roads. By 1970, Toyota was the number
two import plate in the United States, behind VW. Toyota got a
further boost when the 1973 oil embargo created gas shortages
and Americans began scrambling to buy small, fuel-efficient cars.
A small position in the U.S. market was never going to be
enough, however. Senior executives at Toyota realized that if the
company did not become a significant player in the United States,
it would never have the size and scale necessary to permanently
fend off the big American companies in any other market. But
scaling in the United States would require producing cars in the
United States—the company couldn’t achieve its goal of being a
top contender in the American market if it had to ship all the ve-
hicles it sold across the Pacific. Producing cars outside of Japan was
an uncertain prospect. Toyota’s success was built on its unique cul-
ture and approach. No one knew if the Toyota Way and TPS could
work outside Japan with workers from other countries who had
not spent their whole careers immersed in the culture.
Toyota decided that the least risky path for testing TPS with
American workers was a joint venture with an American manu-
facturer. Toyota knew that it had to lead the way in introducing
TPS, but a joint venture partner could provide needed exper-
tise in working with American suppliers and with the general

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