Toyota Corolla Celebrates 50th Anniversary

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Toyota Corolla celebrates 50th Anniversary this year; over 44 million units of the world’s best-selling sedan were retailed during this period

Toyota Corolla, the world’s best-selling car, has been celebrating its 50th anniversary in grand fashion this year. As a commemoration of its achievements, let’s indulge ourselves in to a bit of history lesson. The Japanese auto giant launched the Corolla for the first time way back in 1966 and it marched above its competition quickly and became the most popular model in Japan.

Toyota realised the huge potential behind the sedan and was forced to ramp up annual production from 480,000 units to over a million in the following years. The Corolla was introduced in Europe after Japanese customers had their first taste on it and in 1968 the sedan officially reached North America. Toyota utilised its plants in Malaysia and Australia to commence overseas operations due to global demands and currently it is being rolled out from 16 plants worldwide.

Also Read: Toyota Corolla is World’s Best-Selling Car in H1 2016

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Over the period of five decades, Toyota sold 44 million units of Corolla which spanned 11 generations. It accounts for one-fifth of total vehicle sales in the brand’s nearly 80-year history. The second oldest nameplate from Toyota, after the Land Cruiser, is in fact eight overall in the legacy of automobile history following Chevy Suburban, Chevy Corvette, Ford F-Series, Ford Mustang, Mercedes SL, Porsche 911 and Land Cruiser.

The Corolla sedan’s popularity is never dwindling as Toyota retailed a combined total of 6,34,298 units in the first half of this year which was just 1.2 percent down compared to the same period last year at top. Lying second behind the Corolla was the Golf which recorded 1.8 percent increase in sales. Despite the increase in sales percent, Volkswagen Golf’s figures of 5,00,630 examples suggest it has a long way to go for catching up with the leading Corolla as the difference stood at nearly 1,34,000.

Also Read: 2016 Toyota Corolla Altis Facelift Patent Images Leaked

2015 Toyota Corolla

Among the top three, the biggest sales leap came courtesy of the Ford F-Series full-size pickup truck as it registered 12.6 percent growth in sales compared to similar time period in 2015. The Blue Oval managed to make 4,78,394 deliveries of the F-Series and was at just over 22,000 mark behind the VW Golf.