TOYOTAS

...And that's a reasonable fascimile of my first Toyota, the model was called CORONA. More of a family sedan than the Corolla's were back in the 70s. Had a Corolla after that, it was probably not much larger than the Echo I drive now. Corolla's have got quite a bit larger than they used to be.

And now I see in the news that Toyota has overtaken GM as the world's largest selling auto manufacturer. 8.9 million vehicles (that's vee-hicles) as opposed to 8.3 million. And you sure see Toyotas all over the place now; back when I got my first one (replacing a '64 Volkswagen Beetle) Toyotas and other Japanese cars were quite rare. I remember a guy at my workplace (Norwalk Company -r.i.p.) bought the first Honda Civic CVCC that I ever saw, it looked like a car that had been put in a car crusher!

At one time in the early 80s, we had to buy a Renault because there was a quota put on Japanese cars and you couldn't find any to buy. You had to put $500 down and the dealers would put you on a list and call you when cars came in; if you didn't want any of the few they had got, bottom of the list you went!! And yet the "Big 3" never learnt the lesson that bigger isn't better, and now we have to spend our hard-earned money to keep them in business...what a world!

Thanks big 3, I love spending money for cars I don't even like...