ben_gomes_casseres.jpgLast week, Toyota announced it will close the plant of New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (Nummi), its one-time joint venture with GM to make cars in California. (GM had pulled out of the JV in July.) It was third-page news in the financial section, but the passing of an era nonetheless. Nummi represented the first footstep of Toyota in US production, taken in the early 1980s, deep in the last recession. The plant never made money, but allowed Toyota to learn a lot — less so GM.