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Toyota’s 1st massive revenue accomplishment in North America was the Corona, which went on sale listed here in the 1966 design yr and proved to be a large amount of car for the revenue (my initially automobile was a 1969 Corona sedan, which I purchased for $50 at the age of 14, so I confess a touch of Corona bias listed here). Toyota did pretty effectively offering automobiles right here throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but hardly ever actually raked in the massive yen from the American luxury-sedan phase until the debut of the Lexus LS 400 for the 1990 design yr. Prior to that, Toyota Motor Gross sales United states of america experimented with to get People in america to get upscale Crowns and Corona Mark IIs, with out notable good results. Ultimately, the 1978 Toyopet Corona Mark II showed up listed here with Cressida badges, and some Us residents felt willing to obtain this large, six-cylinder-driven luxurious equipment. Cressida income in no way truly took off below, but Us residents could invest in Cressidas all the way as a result of 1992. The 1990s Cressidas are almost not possible to locate in car or truck graveyards nowadays, but I pulled off the feat in Sparks, Nevada, a pair of months again.
The LS 400 was a masterpiece of engineering, with its model-new V8 engine and all the other improvements, and it afraid the daylights out of the satisfies at the large European automobile businesses. It also created the Cressida appear a bit smaller and aged-fashioned, so it can be stunning that Toyota retained it on sale right here for the 1990-1992 design yrs.
Beneath the skin, the Cressida was normally a close relative of the similar-12 months Supra. That meant that its suspension and powertrain had been commonly very similar to Supra components of the exact time period (considerably as the rear-wheel-travel Datsun 810/Nissan Maxima shared substantially engineering DNA with the Z-Car).
This automobile has the 7M-GE straight-six engine, rated at 190 horsepower and 185 pound-toes (the Supra version bought a little bit a lot more energy).
When the 1991 Mark II in Japan could be obtained with a 5-pace guide transmission, American Cressida consumers experienced to get the four-pace Aisin computerized.
These automobiles held jointly quite very well, though this one just managed 172,794 miles right before the finish.
In 1991, the Lexus LS 400 experienced an MSRP of $36,955 (about $81,490 in 2022 bucks), which undercut the Mercedes-Benz S-Course by a dismaying amount of money but caused troubles for Toyota salesmen who were being striving to get $22,198 ($48,945 nowadays) for a new Cressida.
The Cressida that 12 months was fairly deluxe and really effectively developed, but the new Lexus looked like extra car per greenback at the time.
Toyota continued to install blend CD/cassette players in Lexuses properly into our existing century. Obviously, this Cressida has that rig.
I assume this is the first Ouija board I’ve at any time discovered in a junkyard vehicle.
Unfortunately, we in no way obtained the supercharged edition more than in this article, nor did we get a Cressida Grande.
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