In case you have seen this car company locations map, you know that the Toyota headquarter is in Toyota City, just a little bit east of the big city Nagoya. A bit north of Toyota City is the Toyota Automobile Museum, which boasts an humongous amount of rare and historically important vehicles.
The museum was opened in 1989 as a celebration of Toyota’s 50th anniversary. The purpose of the museum was not to show only Toyota’s car history, but the complete automobile history which started around 100 years before the museum’s opening. It means there are a lot of old cars from the USA, Germany and France displayed. But one of the key themes is the history of the Japanese automobile so you can find almost any rare and significant model of the past 100 years of Japanese automobiles in this museum as well.
The majority of the vehicles in the museum are in a working condition such that in case there is a special event, they can be used. In addition to the 140 vehicles in the museum there is also a vehicle storage with an additional 70 vehicles. A few times per year a tour is given to see this additional vehicles.
Close to the museum is the Aichi Expo Park which hosted the World Expo in 2005. In case the weather is good, it is certainly worth visiting also. From the parking of the museum, you can get onto the un-manned Linimo magnetic levitation train, ride one or two stations and get out at in front of the park. A yearly automotive show called Toyota Automobile Museum Classic Car Festival is held in the exhibition park as well.
Another Toyota Museum can be found in Toyota City, at the headquarter of the company. The name is Toyota Kaikan Museum and is more focused on the modern Toyota’s. And finally another museum worth visiting if you are interested in the history of Toyota is the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya which explains how Toyota started as a company and how they turned into what they are today.
The directions for the Toyota Automobile museum can found here:
How to get to Toyota Automobile Museum
The location on Google Maps is here:
Toyota Automobile Museum
