TOYOTA CORONA'S CONCEPT OF "COMPACT CAR" SET WORLD TREND

TOKYO―Two of the major engineering goals behind the completely redesigned Toyota Corona Series introduced on August 31st were the inclusion of numerous safety features and substantial improvement in exhaust gas emission performance. These goals were parallel to the company's aim of maintaining, and even improving, the superb mechanical capability of the line.

On August 28th, 3-days prior to the start of nation-wide marketing of the new Corona, Toyota Motor Company Chairman Shoichi Saito, President Eiji Toyoda, executive vice-presidents Shoichiro Toyoda and Masao Yamamoto; Toyota Motor Sales Company executive vice-presidents Seisi Kato and Sadazo Yamamoto, and approximately 80 other Toyota executives attended an inaugural ceremony to mark the first new Corona vehicle off the updated Corona assembly line at the company's Tsutsumi Plant.

In an opening address at the inaugural ceremony, President Toyoda said:

"The Toyota Corona Series, which was first marketed in 1957, achieved a record cumulative production of 2,000,000 units in 1970, a "first" in Japan for a single line and, by mid-1973, had topped 3,830,000 units. Since first appearing in 1957, our Corona Series has been widely accepted by motorists the world over and has established itself as a "family car" in the international automobile market. This is wholly due to the combined efforts of Toyota's sales people, both domestic and overseas, and to the support of all Toyota staff members.

"Today we are going to see the first of the new Corona Series coming off the assembly line. The new Corona continues to carry on its long-standing reputation as "a humanity-oriented vehicle of high reliability and stability." But it has a new outstanding feature―function-oriented design―resulting from our pioneering efforts to further improve its safety and exhaust gas emission performance. Because of this I believe the new Corona Series will open up a "new era" for motor vehicles.

"We have discarded the old assembly lines at the Motomachi Plant and the new Corona Series will be manufactured on the updated assembly lines at Tsutsumi. This means that in terms of manufacturing, the new series has been placed in a more advantageous position, as one of our strategic products.

"Finally, I would like to capitalize on this opportunity to ask for your continued cooperation in constructing a bright future for the new Corona.

Since making its debut in 1957, the Toyota Corona has been remodeled three times―in 1960, 1964 and 1970―and has set various new records, including 33 consecutive months as a best-seller and a new high of 2,000,000 units in cumulative sales in 1970. As Japan's representative small car, it has greatly contributed to the progress of motorization in Japan.

In completely redesigning the Corona Series for the first time in its 16-year history, Toyota has thoroughly reconsidered its concept of the fundamental functions required of an automobile. As a result, the new Corona Series embodies Toyota's advanced "Preventive Safety-Care" concept aiming at greater driver and passenger security through prevention of accidents and mechanical troubles and improvement of anti-pollution features.

Toyota Motor Sales Company has set initial domestic sales goals for the new Toyota Corona Series at 18,000 units per month for passenger cars and 6,000 units per month for commercial vehicles, for total sales in Japan of 24,000 units per month.