From automatic looms and humble Japanese sedans to the Supra, Land Cruiser, and one of the biggest car companies on Earth, Toyota has come a long, long way.Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. was established in Japan on August 28, 1937. Almost nine decades on, its name has become almost synonymous with one word: reliability. Toyota has earned a reputation for making cars that just won't die, but the story behind the reputation is just as interesting.The Loom, Not the Car, Started ItToyota can trace its roots back to Sakichi Toyoda, who invented automatic looms in the early 20th century. His son Kiichiro Toyoda became interested in cars and finally persuaded the family firm to begin making engines, and then cars.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe company built its first passenger car prototype, the A1, in 1935, and the Model AA in 1936. The next year, Toyota Motor Co. was officially created.The early decades were not without bumps. In the early 1950s, Toyota had to deal with wartime production, a difficult postwar economy, and serious financial problems. Those struggles helped steer the company toward a different way of making things.This gave birth to the Toyota Production System, a philosophy centered on efficiency, waste elimination, and early problem detection. It became hugely influential, but more importantly for Toyota, it helped establish the obsessive approach to quality control that would become central to its identity.That's where the company's well-known 'bulletproof' reputation really comes into play. Toyota wasn't trying to build the flashiest cars, only cars that would start every morning, survive hundreds of thousands of miles, and keep going long after their owners probably should have replaced them. Trucks like the Land Cruiser and Hilux became legendary for being tough enough to seemingly survive just about anything.Different_Brian / Getty ImagesThe Company That Made Both Corolla and SuprasModels such as the Corolla accelerated Toyota's global expansion. Introduced in 1966, it became a worldwide phenomenon by offering cheap transportation with the reliability that would become Toyota's trademark.AdvertisementAdvertisementThen Toyota began to show a different side of itself.The 2000GT proved the company could build a good-looking sports car, but it was the Celica and then the Supra that gave Toyota real enthusiast cred. The Land Cruiser took the other route, gaining fame for its ability to survive in locations where most vehicles would have a rough time.The fourth-generation A80 Supra would eventually become one of Toyota's biggest cultural icons. Its twin-turbocharged 2JZ-GTE engine, vast potential for tuning, and starring role in The Fast and the Furious helped it to become one of the most recognizable Japanese performance cars ever.Sue Thatcher / Getty ImagesFrom Bulletproof Toyotas to a Global GiantToyota's story, however, was not only about gas-powered legends. The Prius helped bring hybrid technology to the masses, while Lexus gave the company a real foothold in the luxury market.AdvertisementAdvertisementMost recently, Toyota has embraced performance with its GR line, which includes the GR Supra, GR Corolla, and GR Yaris, while still building everything from pickup trucks and family SUVs to rugged Land Cruisers.And that could be Toyota's biggest trick. It managed to become the company your parents trusted for a car to last forever while at the same time becoming the company enthusiasts associate with the Supra, 2000GT and some of Japan's most desirable performance machines.Eighty-nine years after Toyota's official founding, that mix of reliability, engineering and the odd dose of insanity is still what makes the Japanese giant so hard to ignore.2023 Toyota GR Corolla Morizo EditionBring a TrailerThis story was originally published by Men's Journal on Aug 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
