Toyota is one of the world’s most popular brands of both cars and trucks and one of the companies that helped Japan rebuild after World War II and create a fantastic, growing economy. The Toyota company was founded in1933 by Kiichiro Toyoda in his father’s loom factory-Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. This happened after he had a visit to the United States and toured US car manufacturing plants. His goal was to build fuel efficient automobiles and in 1937 he separated his company and crated Toyota Motor Company, LTD.

Toyota gained popularity in Japan with the first truck the company made, a one ton model that used an overhead valve six cylinder engine, very much like the Chevrolet engine of the time with interchangeability with Chevy parts. Many Toyota trucks were made for the Japanese military and those captured after the war and used by the Allies were serviced using Chevrolet parts. After World War II Toyota was primarily a truck manufacturer until 1947. Then they started to make the Toyopet, a small car with a 27 horsepower engine that could go at a top speed of 55 miles per our. 215 of these small and cheap to operate cars were made. However, by 1955 Toyota was making 8,500 cards per year and by 1965 over half a million cars per year.

Toyota also began to produce the Land Cruiser. Styled after the British Land Rover and the American Jeep, they used a six cylinder engine making them more powerful than the Jeep and these gained popularity. In 1958 Toyota started to sell vehicles in the US, including the Toyopet and the Land Cruiser. They had poor sales with the Toyopet and designed the Toyota Corona for the US market. It had more horsepower than competing small cars but got very good gas mileage. As car sales picked up Toyota opened a plant to make cars in Brazil which began a philosophy of localizing production as well as design. Today they have a large network of production and design facilities in the United States and in Europe.

When Toyota first began to sell cars and trucks in the United States the term “made in Japan” was synonymous with cheap, both in price and quality. Toyota changed all that by concentrating on quality. As their cards grew in popularity several models were approaching luxury class. Then they created the Lexus, which means quality and luxury today. When Toyota created the Lexus Lincoln and Cadillac had both suffered problems in the luxury car market, and Lee Iacoca had downplayed Chrysler’s luxury image. The time was right for a new luxury car to his the market. Lexus came in with high standards of luxury and quality and immediately took off. Priced lower than Mercedes, it was considered a comparable car.

Toyota also moved ahead of the pack by instituting a 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, a much better warranty than any competitors had, and Toyota replaced the meaning of “made in Japan” from cheap to better quality for less. Today Toyota is the third largest carmaker in the world when figured by both net sales and unit sales.  The Toyota Celica has been a popular sports car since 1970. The Camry a popular near luxury car since 1983. The Land Cruiser is still popular and has been around since 1950. The Toyota Corolla still popular since 1966. Toyota tends to keep names longer than most other car companies, but has dropped the Toyota Corona from its line. Toyota also has several lines of very popular and very reliable pickups and SUV’s.

Although General Motors’ full-size sport utility vehicles has failed to top their segment at the J.D. Power and Associates quality study, the workers at Janesville are glad to know that they built the heavy duty trucks in GM’s lineup of large SUVs.

The GM’s Janesville plant has 2,800 hourly and salaried employees topping the Arlington, Texas, and Silao, Mexico plants according to Power’s annual quality study that measures problems per vehicle of new owners.

All the aforementioned plants build the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe and GMC Yukon XL and Yukon. Consequently, these vehicles competed in the study’s “large multi-activity vehicle” segment. The Toyota Sequoia got the 1st place in the segment; the GMC products got the 3rd; and the Tahoe got the 5th spot in the six-vehicle segment.

SUVs made in Janesville had 73 problems for every 100 vehicles; those built in Silao had 79; and the ones made in Arlington had 92. He added that only the defects and malfunctions were recorded in the plant level; meaning workers had no control over problems on design.

About General Motors Corporation

Also known as GM or GMC, General Motors Corporation is the 2nd (after Toyota) largest car company based on sales revenue. Maker of quality cars and their parts, GMC has around 284,000 employees all over the world.

It was founded, Michigan and has global headquarters located at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, USA. In Zurich, Switzerland is their European headquarters. This American car maker produces its trucks and cars in 33 countries.

GMC cars and GMC trucks are sold under  Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall brands.

GM Parts like GMC header and accessories are known in the market under GM Performance Parts, GM Goodwrench and ACDelco brands through GM Service and Parts Operations that supplies GM dealerships and distributors all over the world. The United States is GM’s largest national market. This is followed by China, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany.