TOYOTA ESTABLISHES SERVICE STATION IN UKRAINE

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION announced today that it recently opened its first authorized service station in Ukraine. Located near the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, the new facility is Toyota's sixth authorized station in the region of the former Soviet Union, where the company has been steadily building up its service network since 1990.

Toyota-Avtoservice Kiev Service Station was set up by Toyota, Sumitomo Corporation, and Avtoservice, an auto service company formerly under the Ukrainian Ministry of Automobile Transport. Toyota and Sumitomo will provide the necessary technical guidance, facilities and machinery, while Avtoservice will handle daily operations, including general vehicle maintenance and repairs, as well as sales of genuine Toyota parts.

Although exports of Toyota vehicles to the former U.S.S.R. began in 1960, the cumulative number of vehicles exported had reached only 213 by the end of 1988. Recently however, there has been a surge in demand from the region, with Toyota exports jumping to 7,000 units in 1991 alone. In order to provide after-sales service for these vehicles, the company has opened service stations near the cities of Moscow, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok in Russia; Samarkand and Tashkent in Khazakistan; and now, Kiev in Ukraine. Toyota plans to set up four more authorized stations in the region to bring the total of 10 by the end of this year.