he weaving machinery manufacturer Toyoda Loom Works company was founded by Sakichi Toyoda. His son Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952) began automobile production in 1936. The first car, the AA model was named Toyoda, not Toyota.

The company organized a competition to get the best logo possible for the car. More than 20 000 suggestions were mailed in. The winner featured Toyota written with katakana letters which made it esthetiaclly more pleasing and could be written with eight strokes - a lucky number in Japan. Easier pronounciation was another added benefit.Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in August,1937. Toyoda Model AA got a new name: Kokusan Toyota Goh or "a Toyota built domestically".

Nowadays Toyota owns two other Japanes car factories: Daihatsu and Hino. Moreover, Toyota has a number of assembly plants around the world and in USA it has cooperation with GM in addition to its own production.

ecause Toyota has made its reputation as a manufacturer of everyday passenger cars it introduced in 1988 a subsidiary marque Lexus which is used to market certain luxury models. The name supposedly has connotations with the word "luxury".Toyota didn't have any international insignia until 1989. The design competition yielded a symbol made up by three ellipses which together form the letter "T".