http://www.bloomberg.com/?b=0&Intro=intro3 Toyoda Apologizes for Recalls, Says Carmaker Still Weighing Prius Measures
psytrade is correct , Toyoda is the founding family's name , they thought the D had a heavy feel to it in english. Japanese like a lighter feel . Many cars were named after flowers in Japan as they didn't have a macho culture attached to them. The Nissan Z car was called the Fairlady in Japan. How many Americans would have bought into that.
did you know that pac man was originally called puck man but they changed puck to pac because it was to close to the "f" word.