Toyota

Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd., a loom manufacturing company, founded what later be the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937. The family-owned company was looking to expand its business and saw automobiles as the means to do so.

The first Toyota vehicle to be sold to the U.S. market was the 1957 Toyota Crown. During the oil crisis in the '70s, Toyota, along with other Japanese automakers like rivals Honda and Nissan, offered fuel-efficient vehicles like the Toyota Corolla to the now gas strapped American public. Its most well-known car, the mid-sized Camry, started out as a compact in 1982.

Toyota began to expand into other automobile segments in the '90s. Well-known Toyotas include the 4Runner SUV; Celica and Supra sports cars; and the Tundra pickup. In 1984, Toyota and American automaker General Motors entered a joint venture and created the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), an automotive plant, in Fremont, California. The plant, to Toyota, was its foothold into the American auto industry. Later, it would set up plants in other states like Alabama, Kentucky, and Texas.

In 1989, Toyota launched its Lexus division, arguable the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. In 1997, the Camry became the number one best-selling car in the U.S., a title it continues to hold. Though not the first hybrid sold in the U.S. market (that honor goes to the now discontinued Honda Insight), the hybrid Toyota Prius debuted worldwide in 2000 where it continues to be synonymous with the word even now.

In 2007, the all-new Toyota Tundra went on sale in the U.S. Later that year, Toyota surpassed General Motors as the number one automaker in terms of quarterly sales.