We’ve had a lot of CC posts about the Previa. Could we just squeeze in one more? I’m inclined to say yes, provided it’s a little one. A little post, but also a little Previa, i.e. the narrower and shorter JDM variant.
In Japan, the Previa was called Estima. But this odd beast, with its centrally-mounted 2.4 litre 4-cyl. and ovoid demeanour, had a slight problem: it was a little too big for Japan. It was designed by CALTY, Toyota’s Californian styling outfit, without consideration for the rigid car width and length regulations imposed by Japanese authorities, putting it at a disadvantage against its main domestic rival, the Nissan Serena.
So Toyota devised a JDM-only slimmed down variant dubbed the Lucida, sold by Corolla dealerships, and the Toyota store’s Emina. Width was cut to just below 170cm and length shortened to a whisker less than 470cm. But the engine stayed the same, i.e. above the 2-litre mark, so the Lucida/Emina was still in the higher tax band. But size was a key component nonetheless: some Japanese garages and streets are calculated to only accept vehicles under these limits, so Toyota obviously thought the game was worth the expense. Whether they were correct in this assessment is a matter of debate. Sales started in January 1992 and were off to a good start, but this was not to last.
The redesign included a completely different dash, obviously. Not quite as space-age as the full-fat Estima/Previa, but still pretty cool. This is the high-trim Eluceo, as well – only available for MY 1998 and 1999.
The Lucida got this quirky four-eyed face when it was facelifted in 1996 – it’s hands down the most interesting of the lot, visually speaking. The engine was downsized to a 2.2 litre back in 1994, but that did not change the fact that these were over the 2000cc limit. A 2.4 litre Diesel was also available, as was a floor-mounted (and thus space-wasting) 5-speed manual.
Apparently, the domestic market did not find the Lucida/Emina all that compelling, in the end, once the Honda Odyssey was launched in 1994. Toyota further muddied their mid-engined minivan’s prospects by tarting up their Lite Ace, which was available in a lower tax band. Sales lasted until January 2000 and a few of these are still about, but the whole engine-in-the-middle concept was obviously a dead end. Just goes to show that even Toyota can lay the occasional egg.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1995 Toyota Previa DX – How Do You Take Your Eggs?, by Brendan Saur
Curbside Classic: 1991-97 Toyota Previa/Tarago – The First and Final Frontier For The Space Pod, by William Stopford
Curbside Classic: 1991-97 Toyota Previa – How Hard Can It Be To Make A Minivan? (Part 6), by JPC
CC Outtake: The Last Extraterrestrial Embassy Previa, by William Stopford
Curbside Outtake: Toyota Estima: Not Quite A Previa, by David Saunders
CC Outtake: The Last Previa Taxi, For Sure, by PN
My First Car Of A Lifetime: 1994 Toyota Previa All-Trac – The G-Bubble, by Mike Lakusiak
Curbside Outtake: 2000 – 2005 2nd Generation Toyota Estima (Previa) Van: The One North America Didn’t Get, by Jim Brophy
Now there’s a name I’ve never heard of!
Derivatives never improved upon the simplicity of the original Previa’s clean design.
Never seen Altezza headlight before, and now I can see why. Good gawd they are hideous.
A mate drove me 4kms home in a Toyota Altezza, THE most uncomfortable car Ive been for a long time, once it got angry it went ok, the tri to my mates lace was in a 66 Hillman and nicer
Hard to imagine the expense which Toyota went to make the Previa “fit” the Japanese domestic market. Reminds me of the Cheviacs of GM Canada in the early 1960s that were styled the same as US versions, but downsized a bit to fit on a Chevy chassis. Only a very large corporation has the resources to pursue every possible market niche.
Possibly because they were narrower, these were quite common where I used to live; ‘grey’ imports. With Previas, Estimas and Lucidas and facelifts thereof it was quite hard to keep track of them all.
The successful minivan was the one that had been derived from the compact car. Not the compact truck, (Astro, VanWagon & Aerostar), nor a new design from the ground up, (GM Dustbuster & Previa) – the compact car like the K-Car, the Accord and the VW Beetle. There is a reason for this.
The compact car design is flexible enough to be a sedan, a coupe, a wagon, and a minivan. That is a lot of configuration to pay off the same basic vehicle.
The compact truck design is flexible enough to be a truck or a minivan – but that’s not as profitable. The compact truck design also sits higher than the sedan-based minivan. GM Safari, Astro, Ford’s Aerostar, and Toyota’s first minivan, the VanWagon, sold in the early years, but eventually they were replaced. The GM versions remained as good small options for those needing express vans, but fell out of the family minivan market.
GM and Toyota decided to trump Chrysler with a “better” minivan built from the ground up. That’s expensive. GM’s Dustbusters cost a BILLION dollars. It took GM over a decade to pay off that billion too. They tried selling it from four different divisions, a dustbuster generation and a SUV-like second generation + Aztec/Rendezvous “CUV”s. The Dustbusters didn’t sell, the moment a prospective buyer sat behind that yard-long dashboard and felt like they were driving a vehicle from the back seat. How that flaw ended up in production vehicles is a story in itself. A complete disaster.
Toyota scored with this minivan, but it failed to be the disposable kid hauler the market demanded – it also lacked two more cylinders in its outstanding long-lasting engine. These minivans were good, but there was no return for that huge investment.
Minivans worked when they are car-based. That is what we seemed to have discovered between 1984 to now.
The driver’s view over the massive Dustbuster IP.
This vehicle is same of Previa, but that has a very poor crash rating according to the crash test conducted by insurance companies. Does Japan have the similar test? I understand the vehicle is highly regulated.
Quite a few Lucidas made it to Ireland as grey imports. I once made a 400 mile round trip in a turbo diesel AWD one. Felt a bit like being in an aircraft cockpit – a plane with curtains on the windows. Engine noise and transmission whine were speed dependent, but turbo whine was not.
Yes the turbos are noisy but they can be made to get up and go ok
These used to be common as used imports in Australia, where we got the full-size models. They do look a bit strange at first, sort of familiar but notieably narrower. I never knew they came with this face though – good find!
The front is a little, uh, distinctive, at least until the resemblance (in a “same same but different kind of way”) to the slightly earlier Lexus SC, the ’94 Celica, and even the similar era round-eyed Corolla variant. I guess Toyota had a round headlight fetish going for a little while there amongst some of the range. One designer? Who knows.
The size benefit for Japan is obvious and it likely looks “normal” there, however after 30 years of US Previa proportions are internalized, seeing the Jenny Craig’d version is a little jarring. A nice find though, and bonus points for body damage on a Tokyo car, makes all of us feel a little better about our own not-always-immaculate rides…
It won’t make it through the next Shaken with those dents.
Those vans sold really well on the JDM thousands and thousands came here ex JDM they literally were everywhere so somebody was buying them new, they are disappearing now as van folks upgrade to newer models,theres a huge pacifica population where I live now and they love people mover vans the variety is astounding
Note to readers, kiwi means “pasifika”, a self-adopted term for indigenous peoples from the pacific (Micronesia, melanesia, polynesia) living in NZ (and in Oz too, now).
My ex mother-in-law is pasifika, but she’d need the original wide one.
I thought my eyes were packing up when I first started seeing these bizzarro Taragos (Previas) as grey imports here some years back. They looked comically thin, almost as if the seats’d be single in a line down the van.
I imagined that if one flew in one sliding door in a rush, one might well find oneself straight out the other one.