The company we now know as Toyota was first created in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda, the son of the owner of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Its first car, the Toyota AA, proved very successful and a motoring legend was born. Today the company stands second only to the mighty General Motors in the volume production of automobiles and Toyota vehicles are ubiquitous where ever you go in the world today.

The company has developed a well-deserved reputation for engineering excellence and for building cars and trucks that are reliable and a pleasure to drive. The Toyota Corolla, in its many forms, established Toyota as a world player over the years of its production and now the company is seen as one of the leading exponents of Hybrid technology with the Toyota Prius being a very practical implementation of this environmentally responsible power train.

Like most multi-national manufacturing organisations theses days, Toyota has production plants all over the world yet retains its original head quarters based in Toyota and Nagoya in Japan.

Toyota backs its motoring heritage by sponsorship in many forms of Motorsport. In the 1990's it was heavily involved with the successful exploits of Carlos Saints in the World Rally Championships and has also been very supportive of teams in the Indy Racing League, NASCAR Sprint Cup and National Series in the US. Most famous of all though is its involvement in the Toyota Formula 1 Racing team over the last 6-years with top drivers like Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli