This corner of Aichi prefec -ture has long been Japan'srnanswer to Detroit. It was in Aichi that Kiichiro Toyoda tore apart an imported Chevrolet to see how it was built, then created what he called the Model Ai. In 1938 Toyoda opened a car factory in an Aichi town called Koromo, then in 1959 the town took the name of the corporate citizen that would grow into a global powerhouse. More recently, Toyota City has prospered even as Motor City has deteriorated. By 2008, Toyota had dethroned General Motors as the world's biggest carmaker, confirming Toyota City-not its sister city Detroit-as the true center of the auto world.
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