Staff writer In 1957, Toyota Motor Corp. shipped two samples of its Toyopet Crown sedan to the United States as the first Japanese cars exported to that market. Nissan Motor Co. followed with Datsun compacts in 1958.

But the challenges ended in miserable sales: Japanese cars were not designed for highway driving or prevailing American tastes and neither Toyota nor Nissan had sales networks in a country dominated by the then Big Three -- General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp.

This was the reality of the Japanese auto industry more than 40 years ago. Today, Japanese automakers have secured a major presence in the U.S. as well as globally.