Toyota Truck History: Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1933 by Kiichiro Toyoda and they introduced their first truck, called the 'Hilux', in 1968. In 1978 the Hilux name was replaced with simply the word 'Truck' which became the 'Toyota Land Cruiser' for the North American market. Then in 1983 they introduced the 'Toyota 4Runners', followed by the 'Toyota Tacoma' in 2004 Toyota trucks compete with Nissan trucks, Chevrolet trucks and Ford Trucks.