cawimmer430
Piston Pioneer
I finally managed to find the Toyota Museum of Germany. Finding the address on the Internet is a royal pain in the ass (the official website doesn't display it out for some weird reason), especially since this is not an official museum. It's located in the small town of Pocking, which consists of a couple of houses in the middle of nowhere. The city is near Passau and was over 170 km away from Munich. I wasted a lot of gas driving here on two Autobahns (one was over 50 km long without speed limits - 210 km/h all the way, baby!) to bring you these pictures. Show some appreciation for my sacrifice!!! 
The owner and manager of the museum is Peter Pichert, a former Toyota dealership owner in Passau. He was one of the first to sell Toyota's in Germany when they entered the market in 1971. The man was wise enough to plan for the future and a few years ago bought or got these cars donated back to him from former customers for this museum. Naturally, many of them needed some restoring, especially in regards to rust and worn interior materials.
Most of the cars in this museum, especially the models from the 1970s, were failures from a sales point of view in the German market. Seeing any of these on the road in their respective years would be a rare sight. They didn't sell well and not many exist in private hands today.
But when I lived in the Philippines, I grew up with many of these late 1970s and early 1980s Toyota's and appreciated their styling, which I always found to be American-inspired, yet still distinctively Japanese.
By coincidence, I met an older gentleman (in his 70s perhaps) and his wife in the museum. This man runs his own Toyota dealership and I got into a short conversation with him asking him why these cars didn't do so well etc. He said it was mainly due to Toyota entering the market with both economy and semi-luxury cars - which confused buyers as to the identity of the brand. Also, Japanese cars weren't as well reputed back then in Europe as they are today. I also asked him what sort of person bought a Toyota Crown in Germany in those days - a question he really couldn't answer since his dealership only sold three (3!!!) in all those years the Crown was offered in the German market. These days, the Crown would be the equivalent of a Honda Legend, , Kia Opirus and Hyundai Grandeur - which also do very poorly in Germany (Europe). I confessed to him that I am not the biggest Toyota fan, especially since their styling has gone from interesting/stylish (as you can see from the cars here) to downright painstakingly boring. He agreed with me and also expressed irritation that Toyota doesn't offer anything in Europe that would target young driving/car enthusiasts.
All cars, with the exception of the 2000GT, were unlocked, allowing visitors to sit inside them. For about three hours I was alone in the museum and sat in a variety of old Toyota's. As with most cars of that era, they're small and cramped. Even the large Crown's and Cressida's were surprisingly tight. I'm 6'4" by the way.
Oh yeah, and the lighting conditions weren't to good either. Plus, most of the cars were parked so tightly together that I was forced to use my 10-24mm extreme wide angle lens to get most of the cars on the photos. The disadvantage of this lens is a lack of depth and high ISO values show up more easily than with my Nikon lenses. I also took most of the photos with my compact tripod, but in some situations I had to shoot without it. I realize now that I should have used flash photography in many pictures in order to balance out the sunlight (and I forgot to clean my lens to - shows the dried water droplets from the rainy Dodge Viper day...) and just get some halfway decent photos up. I dislike using flash with car photography though...
It's safe to say this visit gave me a newfound appreciation for Toyota and their heritage. It's a shame that their current international lineup is so hideously ugly and bland and above all: unappealing (to enthusiasts).
The Toyota Museum on the outside. It's a converted warehouse next to a Wirtshaus (Tavern).
Quick overall view of the inside of the museum.
The Toyota 2000GT
There will be a lot of Celica's in my photos. It's sad to see how this car started out with a very distinctive and sexy styling and went from that to the p_ssy styling (it can't be said any nicer) of the last two generations. My favorite Celica bodystyle can be found in the last photo. I also appreciate the Liftback versions of this generation. The words "Toyota" and "sexy" can still be used here in this case. Not today anymore though...
A Toyota Crown Estate and a Land Cruiser with the gasoline inline-6. The Land Cruiser sold decently but with the diesel option. If the Crown sedan sold poorly, I don't want to know how the estate fared. It looks nice though.
Toyota Starlet 1.2 - check out the basic interior, and yet those vinyl-cloth seats have that distinctive 1970s-1980s charm. Screw leather seats!
This was the first Toyota Corolla ever sold in Germany in 1971. Pichert managed to get it back and restore it for display in his museum.
An "Americanized" Celica. The last photo shows a Hiace pickup behind it.
A selection of Celica's. The red one is a 2.0i model while the white one is a 2.8i Celica Supra.
Celica and 2000GT
MR-2
Another lovely Celica. I dig the ones from the 1970s and early 1980s. After that the design just went downhill IMO...
A Land Cruiser used by the local fire department.
A Land Cruiser Diesel jeep. The blue one has a 350cid V8.
The Space Van, eh, Hiace! I think it even had a turbo engine...
In this room are a bunch of Toyota's (and a VW Beetle [not photographed]) that require restoration. There wasn't much description regarding the fate of the cars here. The silver Corona Coupe in the center of the room is quite sexy and has a 95-hp 6-cylinder engine - which was a lot in Germany for a mainstream car in those days. Also visible, an 80s Celica, a Tercel 4WD, an early '64-'70 Corona with "pimp carpets", a 1970s Celica next to a late 1970s green Corona sedan - the latter are sexy. There's also a Jawa in the room - that's all that was said about it.
The '64 Corona. Check out the carpets. Production ended in 1970, but they were apparently sold in Germany from '71 onwards.
The Jawa.
END OF PART 1
The owner and manager of the museum is Peter Pichert, a former Toyota dealership owner in Passau. He was one of the first to sell Toyota's in Germany when they entered the market in 1971. The man was wise enough to plan for the future and a few years ago bought or got these cars donated back to him from former customers for this museum. Naturally, many of them needed some restoring, especially in regards to rust and worn interior materials.
Most of the cars in this museum, especially the models from the 1970s, were failures from a sales point of view in the German market. Seeing any of these on the road in their respective years would be a rare sight. They didn't sell well and not many exist in private hands today.
But when I lived in the Philippines, I grew up with many of these late 1970s and early 1980s Toyota's and appreciated their styling, which I always found to be American-inspired, yet still distinctively Japanese.
By coincidence, I met an older gentleman (in his 70s perhaps) and his wife in the museum. This man runs his own Toyota dealership and I got into a short conversation with him asking him why these cars didn't do so well etc. He said it was mainly due to Toyota entering the market with both economy and semi-luxury cars - which confused buyers as to the identity of the brand. Also, Japanese cars weren't as well reputed back then in Europe as they are today. I also asked him what sort of person bought a Toyota Crown in Germany in those days - a question he really couldn't answer since his dealership only sold three (3!!!) in all those years the Crown was offered in the German market. These days, the Crown would be the equivalent of a Honda Legend, , Kia Opirus and Hyundai Grandeur - which also do very poorly in Germany (Europe). I confessed to him that I am not the biggest Toyota fan, especially since their styling has gone from interesting/stylish (as you can see from the cars here) to downright painstakingly boring. He agreed with me and also expressed irritation that Toyota doesn't offer anything in Europe that would target young driving/car enthusiasts.
All cars, with the exception of the 2000GT, were unlocked, allowing visitors to sit inside them. For about three hours I was alone in the museum and sat in a variety of old Toyota's. As with most cars of that era, they're small and cramped. Even the large Crown's and Cressida's were surprisingly tight. I'm 6'4" by the way.
Oh yeah, and the lighting conditions weren't to good either. Plus, most of the cars were parked so tightly together that I was forced to use my 10-24mm extreme wide angle lens to get most of the cars on the photos. The disadvantage of this lens is a lack of depth and high ISO values show up more easily than with my Nikon lenses. I also took most of the photos with my compact tripod, but in some situations I had to shoot without it. I realize now that I should have used flash photography in many pictures in order to balance out the sunlight (and I forgot to clean my lens to - shows the dried water droplets from the rainy Dodge Viper day...) and just get some halfway decent photos up. I dislike using flash with car photography though...
It's safe to say this visit gave me a newfound appreciation for Toyota and their heritage. It's a shame that their current international lineup is so hideously ugly and bland and above all: unappealing (to enthusiasts).
The Toyota Museum on the outside. It's a converted warehouse next to a Wirtshaus (Tavern).
Quick overall view of the inside of the museum.
The Toyota 2000GT
There will be a lot of Celica's in my photos. It's sad to see how this car started out with a very distinctive and sexy styling and went from that to the p_ssy styling (it can't be said any nicer) of the last two generations. My favorite Celica bodystyle can be found in the last photo. I also appreciate the Liftback versions of this generation. The words "Toyota" and "sexy" can still be used here in this case. Not today anymore though...
A Toyota Crown Estate and a Land Cruiser with the gasoline inline-6. The Land Cruiser sold decently but with the diesel option. If the Crown sedan sold poorly, I don't want to know how the estate fared. It looks nice though.
Toyota Starlet 1.2 - check out the basic interior, and yet those vinyl-cloth seats have that distinctive 1970s-1980s charm. Screw leather seats!
This was the first Toyota Corolla ever sold in Germany in 1971. Pichert managed to get it back and restore it for display in his museum.
An "Americanized" Celica. The last photo shows a Hiace pickup behind it.
A selection of Celica's. The red one is a 2.0i model while the white one is a 2.8i Celica Supra.
Celica and 2000GT
MR-2
Another lovely Celica. I dig the ones from the 1970s and early 1980s. After that the design just went downhill IMO...
A Land Cruiser used by the local fire department.
A Land Cruiser Diesel jeep. The blue one has a 350cid V8.
The Space Van, eh, Hiace! I think it even had a turbo engine...
In this room are a bunch of Toyota's (and a VW Beetle [not photographed]) that require restoration. There wasn't much description regarding the fate of the cars here. The silver Corona Coupe in the center of the room is quite sexy and has a 95-hp 6-cylinder engine - which was a lot in Germany for a mainstream car in those days. Also visible, an 80s Celica, a Tercel 4WD, an early '64-'70 Corona with "pimp carpets", a 1970s Celica next to a late 1970s green Corona sedan - the latter are sexy. There's also a Jawa in the room - that's all that was said about it.
The '64 Corona. Check out the carpets. Production ended in 1970, but they were apparently sold in Germany from '71 onwards.
The Jawa.
END OF PART 1
