Toyota’s first car model has only one left in the world, it is on display in a museum but is covered in rust. Why?

Toyota is no longer a strange name in the world of automobiles. The Japanese brand is famous worldwide for its basic but durable cars that “stand the test of time”.

Few people know that Toyota started producing cars in the late 1930s of the last century. Toyota’s first model was the Toyota AA.

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1936 Toyota AA. Photo: Daily Car News

This Toyota AA was produced from 1936 to 1942. It looked similar to the DeSoto Airflow of the same era, with an inline-six engine modeled after the Chevrolet model, and a chassis and electrical system copied from the Ford.

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The prototype Toyta AA on display at the Louwman Museum, Netherlands. Photo: Toyota UK

However, after the end of World War II in 1945, the 1,400 models produced suddenly…disappeared. The hypothesis is that during the war, Japan was so short of raw materials that they had to dismantle cars to get the metal to make military equipment.

Toyota AA prototype and the car found. Photo: Toyota

Around 1987, Toyota announced that it would buy the Toyota AA prototype to display in their museum for their 50th anniversary.

However, they could not find any car.

So Toyota had to rebuild another one. But because the car’s documentation was lost, most of Toyota’s engineers were “finding” as they worked.

The Toyota AA when found in Siberia, Russia. Photo: Old Car Weekly

Surprisingly, 20 years later in 2008, a Russian student found a 1936 Toyota AA for sale with an address at a farm in Siberia, Russia.

The biggest question is how did this car get to Russia when Russia and Japan were on opposing sides in World War II?

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Toyota AA interior. Photo: Toyota UK

That aside, we have now found the car…although it is in a very bad state and has been extensively modified: rusted all over, converted to right-hand drive, fitted with a radio, fitted with Soviet-era truck wheels….

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The front of the Toyota AA shows the level of deterioration. Photo: Toyota UK

After learning of the information, the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands sent a representative to verify the information. It took them more than 7 months to negotiate with the Russian government at that time to bring the car back to the Netherlands.

This 1936 Toyota AA is currently on display in its original condition at the Louwman Museum in the capital of Den Haag, the Netherlands.