By Martin Swig

They typically resolve to make better cars, more money, and achieve greater market share by pleasing their customers more than their competitors. And, like us, they usually fall short.

One company stands out as delivering on their resolutions: Toyota. Consider their accomplishments:
1. Best selling car in America (Toyota Camry)
2. Largest market share in Japan
3. Leading Asian car company in Europe
4. Leader in most consumer ratings
5. More profitable than GM, Ford & Daimler Chrysler combined
6. Just now passing Ford Motor as the number two world volume car company. (GM still number one)
7. Formidable competitor in motor racing, including Formula One, Indy Car Series, World Rallying, off-road racing, and soon, NASCAR
8. Leader in producing hybrid cars (Toyota Prius)
9. Producer of the world’s highest quality cars, as measured by absence of defects
10. Leader in sales-per-dealer in USA (Results: profitability, customer satisfaction, stable employment)Not even GM in its heyday equaled this record. In most of these areas, Honda and Nissan are Toyota’s strongest challengers. If you get the idea that I’m a big admirer of the Japanese motor industry, you’re right. And on top of it all, they’re manufacturing the highest quality cars in North America in their U.S. plants!December’s Car & Driver magazine chose Toyota’s Lexus LS430 as the best in a field that included Jaguar, Audi, BMW and Mercedes (in that order!).I have no financial interest in Toyota and don’t own one, but recently borrowed two Toyotas to evaluate. They provoked these thoughts: Every year it’s harder to write reviews of new cars because they are all uniformly so very good. Quality used to mean fine materials and exceptional finish. Starting about 35 years ago, the Japanese motor manufacturers expanded the definition to include an absence of problems with the new car.If you’re old enough, you’ll remember that new cars once carried a 90-day, 4,000-mile warranty. The new owner always had a "laundry list" of items to be repaired. Back to the dealership to begin a race against the 90-day clock.About that time, an American statistician named Edwards Deming was proposing a new idea: that by designing both the car and the production process with an eye to eliminating later problems, a manufacturer could save the high cost of warranty repairs. The American companies didn’t want to hear Professor Deming then, but Japanese companies, and especially Toyota, took his ideas to heart.Years later, the European and American car manufacturers belatedly decided that Deming’s ideas had validity.
During the intervening years, Japanese cars, starting at the low end of the market, carved out a substantial market share. By the mid-80s, they decided to attack the luxury class – Acura (Honda), Infiniti (Nissan), Lexus (Toyota) were born.Mercedes-Benz, for one, wasn’t impressed. They never dreamed that within one year, Lexus would sell more cars in the US than they did. So much for "old world quality." Around 1990, Mercedes-Benz spent more time rectifying mistakes before their cars left the factory than Toyota spent to build the entire Lexus, according to one independent study.The Europeans learned very quickly from this early Lexus success. They redesigned their cars, reconfigured their factories, and insisted on better quality from component suppliers. On balance, neither the Europeans nor the Americans have matched Japanese quality, but they’re much, much closer than they were.American consumers embraced the Lexus, bought them by the thousands, and rated them "best in industry."The two cars under review this month represent the top and more-or-less the bottom (price-wise) of Toyota production. The Lexus LS430, a 4.3 liter V8, four door, has every accessory you can imagine; a navigation system, which includes a TV screen to show you the road when you’re reversing, a beeper parking warning that tells you when you’re close to another car, and on and on. The base car is already "loaded." Then there’s a super accessory package including the just-mentioned items. That package costs $11,000.The other Toyota you should know about, like the Lexus, isn’t even called Toyota, but Scion. It only costs about $15,000, including all "normal" accessories, such as air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering, ABS brakes, stereo, power windows, etc. And it’s built to the same quality level as the Lexus.The appearance is deliberately controversial, in an attempt to appeal to younger buyers. But I can see it attracting people of every age group due to its spaciousness, versatility, and obvious comfort and high-quality finish.The SF Toyota dealership has been extraordinarily successful with the Scion, proving once again that San Franciscans are always willing to try something new.It’s no surprise that the Lexus LS430 is a superb drive – quick, quiet, secure. At $68,000 for this most-thoroughly "loaded" Lexus, you expect it to be good. But at $15,000, the Scion is amazing. It’s also quiet, quick, and stable. Even at 90 mph on the open road, it feels good. And being a Toyota, you can be sure it will have a long and trouble-free life.

Open Road Race
From 1919 to 1941, there was an auto race run from Nob Hill to the Santa Monica Pier. Many old San Francisco names were involved, such as Earle C. Anthony (he had the Packard dealership that built the Maybeck building on Van Ness, now occupied by British Motors), Charles Howard (of Buick and Seabiscuit fame) and Don Lee (who built the Cadillac showplace at 1000 Van Ness Avenue, and founded KFRC).
Any readers who can supply photos, clippings or recollections to aid in the history of the race, now being written, please contact the writer at 415-479-9950. Thanks.