A QUARTER of a century ago, Toyotas were being dismantled by American autoworkers appalled by the notion of Japanese imports at a time when US car companies faced financial disaster.

At the same time in Britain, the industry bowed to pressure from domestic manufacturers and brought in a "gentleman's agreement" to limit the influx of Japanese cars.

It is a very different story today.

Once again, America's "big two" - General Motors and Ford - are facing a difficult market.

Here, the demise of MG Rover means the UK has no volume car maker to call its own.

Everyone wants to be Toyota's friend this year. That is why the state of Michigan offered Toyota $39m in tax incentives recently to help grease the wheels for a $150m expansion of an international research and development centre.

Toyota offers something MG Rover and General Motors can't, and that is jobs. And that is because it makes cars people want to drive. It made $11bn profit last year. To put that into perspective, it made more than GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler put together.

In Britain, Toyota doubled profits at its UK operation, demonstrating that the £1.7bn invested in Britain is starting to pay off.

The Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire, and the engine factory at Deesside in North Wales, notched up £13m in 2004/2005.

The company employs 5,500 people in the UK - only a few hundred less than worked at MG Rover's doomed Longbridge factory, in Birmingham.

Indeed, within hours of MG Rover pulling down the shutters at Longbridge, several hundred job applications had arrived at the Burnaston plant.

Sir Alan Jones, Toyota's UK chairman, said their performance was due to the collapse of the Euro and increased productivity.

With eight in every ten cars produced at Burnaston destined for sale abroad (mainly Europe and Japan) the weak pound has given the factory a timely boost.

The Derbyshire plant is home to the Avensis and Corolla. Toyota says it will make almost 300,000 variants in the coming year.

The steady increase of output at Burnaston has compensated for a tendency to switch parts- buying away from UK suppliers (local content is down from 70 per cent to just under 50 per cent).

In the medium-term, Burnaston still faces stiff challenges.

The Corolla model is due for replacement and a question mark must hang over the long-term future of the Avensis when the market it competes in is shrinking (the same problem affects the Nissan Primera, which is made in Sunderland and is now outsold by the X-Trail 4x4).

However, if the factory continues to make money, it will be well placed to win contracts for whatever vehicles Toyota chooses to replace them.

If only every part of the British car industry were as well run.