Q 01/05

The company was founded on 28 August 1937 by which member of the founding family?

A) Kiichiro

B) Sakichi

C) Eiji

D) Akio

Answer · why

A) Kiichiro

The car business was spun off from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, founded by his father Sakichi.

Q 02/05

Why did the family firm's car business drop the 'Toyoda' spelling in favour of 'Toyota'?

A) A rival firm already used the Toyoda spelling

B) The new spelling takes eight brush strokes, a lucky number

C) The new spelling was easier for Americans

D) The founder's wife preferred the sound

Answer · why

B) The new spelling takes eight brush strokes, a lucky number

Eight is considered lucky in Japan, and the new name also separated the company from the family.

Q 03/05

To which British firm did Sakichi Toyoda sell his automatic loom patent in 1929?

A) Rolls-Royce

B) Vickers

C) Platt Brothers

D) Courtaulds

Answer · why

C) Platt Brothers

Sakichi, the 'King of Japanese Inventors', built looms that stopped themselves when a thread broke, the origin of the jidoka principle.

Q 04/05

What was Toyota's first passenger car, completed in April 1936?

A) The Crown

B) The Corona

C) The Publica

D) The Model AA

Answer · why

D) The Model AA

The company later reached 300 million vehicles built by September 2023.

Q 05/05

Toyota's home city in Aichi Prefecture renamed itself after the firm in 1959. What was it called before?

A) Koromo

B) Nagoya

C) Okazaki

D) Kariya

Answer · why

A) Koromo

Koromo renamed itself on 1 January 1959 and twinned with Detroit a year later; the Lexus division is headquartered in nearby Nagoya.