Oh What A Feeling!

For 54 years, Toyota quietly got on with the job of building the cars that Australia – and the Middle East – needed, if not always wanted

- Byron Mathioudakis

WITH Holden’s manufacturing closure taking the lion’s share of publicity in 2017, it is easy to overlook the importance of that other, final, manufacturer also pulling up stumps in this country – unless you’re one of the many thousands affected by the demise of the Australian car-building industry, of course.

Yet our history with Toyota is utterly profound, the fledgling firm from Aichi not only having chosen us first for exports, but also as the site for its first non-Japanese factory. Australia’s exalted place in Toyota’s history cannot be overstated.

The year was 1963 and production of the Tiara – an ageing 1.5-litre Toyota compact car priced beneath the cheapest Holden – commenced alongside various struggling Triumph, Rambler and Mercedes-Benz models at the Australian Motor Industries (AMI) plant in Port Melbourne. Despite Australia’s post-War misgivings and Japan’s reputation at the time for shoddy products, the plucky Tiara struck a chord.

Encouraged by such success, Toyota fast-tracked the local assembly of the succeeding Corona just weeks after its home market debut in late 1964. With Pininfarina-enhanced lines, sales of the ‘shovel-nosed’ RT40 soared.

“(Corona) adds real strength to the Japanese invasion,” Wheels remarked in February 1965. Also in that issue, a Corona finished equal first in a four-way against the Morris 1100 (our reigning Car of the Year), Ford Cortina and Isuzu Bellet.