Anyone know when Toyota began making cars in U.S?

[elleng]

[itsrobert]

1. Assembled in US?

?

[Cirque du So-What]

2. The first Toyotas made in the US

were from the NUMMI plant (Fremont, CA) in 1984.

[KeepItReal]

3. Winner!

:-)

[elleng]

4. Good question from itsrobert , above.

MADE or assembled? I'm curious, and wondering, about Toyo long term.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Cars were actually manufactured at NUMMI

It's a big-ass facility that was a GM plant from 1962-1982. It reopened in 1984 as a joint venture between GM & Toyota. It gave Toyota its first US base of operations and gave GM the opportunity to observe Japanese production systems (Kaizen, lean manufacturing, etc.).

[gristy]

6. Wikipedia has the answer - it has answers to just about everything

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#Toyota_North_America

Toyota has a large presence in the United States with five major assembly plants in Huntsville, Alabama; Georgetown, Kentucky; Princeton, Indiana; San Antonio, Texas; Buffalo, West Virginia. A new plant slated to be built in Blue Springs, Mississippi has been put on hold owing to the financial crisis that erupted in late 2008. Toyota had a joint-venture operation with General Motors at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), in Fremont, California, which began in 1984 and ended in 2009.<52> It still has a joint-venture with Subaru at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA), in Lafayette, Indiana, which started in 2006. Production on a new manufacturing plant in Tupelo, Mississippi was scheduled for completion in 2010 but is currently on indefinite hold. North America is a major automobile market for Toyota. In these assembly plants, the Camry and the Tundra are manufactured, among others.

[elleng]

7. Thanks.

My 'real' question: Are Toyo's problems caused by moving much of its work from Japan? To U.S?

Thoughts?

[leveymg]

8. If that were the case, think we would have noticed it years ago. Sure were a lot a Toyotas sold

since 1985 until recently, including the one we put a quarter-million incident free miles on. That and the mid-70s Dodge Aspen with a slant-six were the best cars we ever owned.

[TexasProgresive]

9. I know there is a mania to abbreviate but TOYO is not TOYOTA

TOYO tires and TOYO inks- are not Toyota.

[DainBramaged]

10. The abbreviation for Toyota is crap.