The company is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with offices in several locations including Georgetown, Kentucky, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

[1] But the promising initial showing, along with the strong reputation of the Crown in Japan gave Toyota a false sense of confidence and the company started to pursue exports to the United States.

[1][5] Sales started on July 10, 1958, and by the end of the year, the company sold 287 Toyopet Crown sedans and one Toyota Land Cruiser.

As a result, sales of imported European cars plunged and the Crown was a flop with buyers finding it underpowered (due to the known high-speed performance issues) and overpriced.

[6] However, the Land Cruiser gained a following, allowing the company to make a profit in 1961,[6] but there was not yet a major market for sport-utility vehicles in the United States.

[7] The company's first major success in the United States came in 1965 with the Toyota Corona compact car, which was redesigned specifically for the American market with a more powerful engine, factory-installed air conditioning and an automatic transmission.

[8] This success led Toyota to establish a more permanent presence in North America, opening a headquarters building in Torrance, California, south of Los Angeles in February 1967.

[10] Toyota also began designing automobiles and conducting research and development in the United States in the 1970s to better understand and reflect the tastes of American consumers.

In 1981, Japan agreed to voluntary export restraints, which limited the number of vehicles the nation would send to the United States each year, leading Toyota to establish assembly plants in North America.

[11] Despite those challenges, Toyota also expanded its headquarters in Torrance, California into a larger campus of buildings in 1982, as the company marked 25 years in America.

For Toyota, the factory gave the company its first manufacturing base in North America allowing it to avoid any future tariffs on imported vehicles and saw GM as a partner who could show them how to navigate the American labor environment.

Prior to the debut, Toyota's two existing flagship models, the Crown and Century, both catered exclusively for the Japanese market and had little global appeal that could compete with international luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar.

[15][16] The LS 400 flagship full-size sedan debuted in 1989 to strong sales, and was largely responsible for the successful launch of the Lexus marque.