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My car is a 1972 Toyota Corolla with an exterior paint that?s pretending to be Ferrari Red. It has two black stripes on the hood, creating slightly more drag, but making it look “go faster.” Two big yellow fog lights sit on top of the chrome bumper.
We get fog twice a year where I live, if we?re lucky. A good thing since my fog lights never really worked, but they?re staying.
They look cool.
The interior is black. Red and black: a great color combination.
I didn?t know it at the time, but the Toyota Corolla, although through many incarnations, would become the world?s bestselling car, surpassing the VW Beetle and Ford Model T. Surprising since the company started out by manufacturing looms. Sakichi Toyoda is regarded as the father of the Japanese industrial revolution, much like Henry Ford is in the United States. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, spearheaded their new venture of producing automobiles. Back then, as it is now, the marketing people were hard at work.
They even held a contest for a new name and received some 27,000 entries. Many of the suggestions were interesting, but they finally settled on Toyota instead of Toyoda. Although, the first Toyotas that came to America were branded “Toyopet.”
Thank goodness they didn?t keep that name.
“Hey, baby! Wanna ride in my Toyopet"”
“Get lost, creep!”
My Toyota has a real trunk – pre-hatch back craze. Out of sight,...