I have a big soft spot for automotive museums and a fellow Voxer posted about a visit to the Toyota one in Nagoya. It’s interesting to note how many non-Toyota products are there: a Ford Model T, an Alfa Romeo 8C, a beautiful Cord 812, an SS Jaguar, a Rolls-Royce, a Porsche 911, and even a Subaru 360 and a Mitsubishi Galant GTO.
   I have done my share of car museums—Rosso Bianco, the Zeithaus at Autostadt, the National Museum in Mulhouse and our own Southward Museum—but the Toyota one fascinates me because a company has seen fit to look at the bigger picture and include others’ makes.
   No wonder Toyota does so well. It has instilled a sense of history into the company and by having these classics from other manufacturers there, employees begin understanding their own part to play. When you have this appreciation of the past, your own role in the future seems that much clearer. Automotive fashions also become apparent—something increasingly relevant as a consideration in modern car design.
   And, let’s face it: Toyota is part of our modern culture. Historians may well include the Corolla as a representative of late-20th-century history, notably our consumerism. Posted by Jack Yan, 02:50  permalink

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