(first posted 12/8/2013) While not nearly as popular as a few years back, there is still a steady stream of 15+ year-old Japanese market vehicles that make their way into Canada. The vast majority are sports cars, high end SUVs or four wheel drive vans. Trailing behind in fourth place are luxury cars. This Toyota Crown Royal Saloon is the first of its kind I’ve seen here. It resembles the Lexus LS400. but is based on a different platform.
Many of us in North America might be unaware but the Crown name plate dates all the way back to 1955. We saw a few of the early family members in the Vintage Toyota Mother-load Part 1 and Part 2. Our example of the day is a ninth generation design from the early to mid 1990s.
A Ford Mustang features a galloping horse prominently so it seems reasonable the a Toyota Crown but would proudly display, what else but, a Crown badge.
The grill features another Crown.
Cloth? Obviously the Japanese don’t as strongly associate leather with luxury as we do in North America.
Mechanically these S140 Crowns are based on the same rear wheel drive platform as the Toyota Aristo. Luckily for this owner the Aristo was sold (if modestly) in North America as the Lexus GS300. Suspension for all the cars is fully independent with double wishbones at each end. The GS300 was offered only with a silky smooth 3.0L inline six engine. The Crown could have used the same engine or a smaller 2.0L or 2.5L version. A 2.4L four cylinder diesel was offered for Crown taxi duty.
The Japanese dealership sticker is still accounted for on this Crown. While North American dealers tend to attach their badges prominently on trunk lids I prefer the more subtle bumper location. Kanagawa Toyota still exists and looks to be located just outside Tokyo. My Japanese geography isn’t great but perhaps it’s a suburb?
So is this Crown fit for royalty? Well I did find it parked outside of Princess Auto (Canadian chain similar to Harbor Freight) so I’d say so.
Very nice find, I like these JDM barges greatly. The Crown taxis are some of my favorites even though they have a different body style than this. Are there a lot of RHD cars up in your area and do people find it difficult it resell them eventually?
There is a fair number. Lots of Skylines plus a few Supras and RX-7s. Land Cruisers and Hilux SURFs are popular too but look more “normal”. In BC 4×4 vans are quite popular. Resale seems ok on them. Like any specialty car they take a little longer to sell but there is a market.
really reminds me of a second generation Infiniti Q.
Nice I like big comfortable 6 cylinder RWD sedans.The Americans and British used to make them once.
Aussie still makes them but nobody else will buy them
There was a very nice XR6 Falcon featured here,I forgot about Australian cars,sorry
I find it interesting that you guys can import 15 year old Jappas when we have been restricted to much newer used imports for safety reasons, NZ is littered with ex JDM vehicles but the age is on a sliding scale and now only the newer cars are allowed in, Cloth seats equates to luxury leather is awful in hot or cold weather and splits and cracks.
It’s the opposite here in the US – We are allowed to bring in pretty much anything if is OVER 25years old. There is a mini-boom in 80’s BMW 3-series wagons since they were not imported and are now beginning to be eligible. I think Audi Quattro’s with the 20v engine as well as S2’s, RS2’s etc will start coming over as well…
…and to look at European car enthusiasts’ websites is to realize one reason why the prices of nice 40’s to 70’s American cars are increasing.
Oh we can import anything old from anywhere its mainly later Jappas that are being restricted as they are imported simply to be resold as used cars not collectables.
Lots of Japanese market cars have all the safety features left out if not built for export things like side intrusion bars in doors etc so the safety ratings they had as new cars in your home market do not apply
There’s only ONE restriction here: how big (or full) is your bag of money ?
Old or brand new, that’s not an issue.
Grey import of used and new US pick-up trucks is popular, these are commercial vehicles. However, a new V8 muscle for example is another cup of tea. That means an extreme amount of CO2-related taxes on top of the US list price. A new Challenger or Charger V8 will set you back way over 100,000 euro. Better wait 5 years or so, then prices are “acceptable” because the CO2 taxes drop as a car is getting older.
Next year, first year model R32 Skylines will be eligible for US import. Japanese are already hoarding the good ones to sell to Americans for double of triple their home market value.
I wonder how many original examples still exist. We got a flood of R-32-34s in Oz a few years ago and all were, or have subsequently been, breathed upon. Gojiru!
Americans have an obsession with leather and not sure why. I’ve owned 3 BMW’s, one with clot, one with leatherette and one with leather. The leather was the most expensive, least durable and hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
On another note in Japan and Taiwan drivers but little doilies on the backrests of the cars to keep the seats clean…Looks like my grandmother’s sofa
The obsession is due to price. It it costs more, it HAS to be better per the American consumer mantra.
Cool car! Funny about the leather seats too that we consider luxurious. I went to the Nethercutt collection museum in Los Angeles,
http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/Museum.aspx
and saw the most incredible collection of old priceless cars ever. If in So-Cal you must visit. It’s free!
Anyway while taking the tour the docent showed us a Deisenberg from the 1920’s The first thing I noticed was the lack of leather seats. They were cloth. I asked about that and he said that cloth seats were the real show of luxury. He mentioned how plush some cloth was and other attributes. I had never thought of that. So folks with low end cars (like me) have luxury seats 😛
American closed cars pretty much all had cloth seats until vinyl became available in the 1950s.
If you look in old limos from before the late 1970s, they almost always had cloth in the rear and leather up front. Leather was regarded as a durable surface for the hired help while the owners sat on soft and luxurious broad cloths or velvets. Pretty much a utilitarian fabric until softer leathers became available after the 1930s.
Japanese tend not to be too fond of leather overall as it still has negative cultural associations stretching back centuries to when most Japanese would not eat land animals. Plus many don’t like the odour of leather too!
It also applies to furniture for the home. If upholstered rather than bare wood or metal, leather was used in situations that required durability. Cloth, especially plush velours or expensive to produce jacquard was the sign of wealth and luxury. Try to find an antique leather sofa. Unless it was a recent reupholstered version, you will be hard pressed to find one not covered in some sort of fabric.
Times like this I wish I lived north of the border. “Land of the Free” yet we can’t import cars like this for ANOTHER 10 YEARS!
I heard the reason why the Japanese prefer cloth is because leather is too noisy when you get in the car and move around, it’s considered inelegant. I agree, I personally prefer cloth too not only for that reason but the maintenance that comes with it and living in SoCal, the searing pain it gives you in the summer.
Isn’t alcantara considered more “premium” (whatever that may mean) than leather ?
Cloth is fine with me, even in a top model Teutonic ride. Nurse Diesel may play with the leather as far as I’m concerned.
It’s premium rat fur! 🙂
Right ! Coming from rats without flaws in their fur, typically caused by barbed wire. You know, just like the cows they use for the leather in RRs and Bentleys.
Alcantara is actually a synthetic material 68% polyester and 32% polyurethane.
Put me in the not liking leather camp. We have had a cold snap here recently, and getting on cold leather is not fun at all. It takes a good 5-10 minutes to heat the seats up so it’s shiver time, boys and girls. I much prefer a high quality cloth.
I wonder if this kind of car in Canada would be driven by an enthusiast or just by someone who wanted transportation?
I bet an enthusiast brought this over due to the costs of shipping one.
You can buy them pretty cheap. Here’s a Celsior for $2900 on Vancouver craigs:
https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/bnc/cto/d/1992-toyota-celsior-jdm/6740769800.html
About the same as a comparable LS400.
Twin turbo Legacy GT-Bs can be found for 5-6000
You see stuff like JDM Odysseys, CR-Vs, and Nissan pickups, at least here in BC, so not every car brought over is interesting or and enthusiast car.
I’d say it was enthusiast. Too much bother for a non-enthusiast with parts supply and such.
I’d rather go for the MX83 series Cressida. Aussie spec included the 3 litre in a nicer looking body. I can’t be enthusiastic enough about the 1976 Crown I owned a few years ago; bought for peanuts and rock solid reliable.
I think that’s a different six, though — the older 7M rather than the 2JZ/1JZ engine in the Crown and Aristo (and Supra).
I had a 74 MK2 Corona, Crown engine, bulletproof.
Nice ride. I prefer cloth seats in a car as well – cooler in the summer and they warm up faster in the winter.
Times like these are when I wish the 15 year rule existed in the U.S as well. I have to wait another 10+ years to import a Renault Avantime.
Hey dude or dudette your lights are on.
I remember seeing a slightly newer Crown in the Bahamas two summers ago, along with many other JDM imports.
The bloke who lives across the road from my place has an identical Crown (except for colour, his is dark blue). I do like large Japanese Broughams, and this would most definitely count. Plenty of them here to choose from too – although I’d probably go for the V8 Crown Majesta version. Actually, being a Nissan fan, I’d have to go for a the Crown’s Nissan competitor, the Cima, but I’d respect anyone who bought a Crown.
Re interior trim, I’ve never understood folks’ attraction to leather interiors. I find leather cold to look at and cold to sit on – it’s much more rare to see velour-seats with seat warmers! I also think (most) leather looks like vinyl; vinyl looks cheap, ergo leather looks cheap. Maybe in unusual colours with contrasting piping or unusual stitching I could tolerate it, but for me velour or cloth. as worn by the Crown, rules!
Y32 Cima – yeah, what a beauty…
When we bought our ’00 Verada, we got the ‘base’ Ei version as the top one came with leather, while ours had nicely-patterned very comfortable cloth. The kids took one look at the leather-clad Xi in the showroom and went on about the ‘slimy seats’! They’re not old enough to remember vinyl except for covering kitchen chairs.
Velour is pure luxury on a new car. However, on a used car, I’d always choose something less absorbent for a seat covering. Not only do I prefer not to sit on the backsweat of others, but the thought of a previous passenger urrey-urping on the velour does indeed put me off. Maybe that’s just my own memories of my brother’s car sickness upon the velour of the Aries and Taurus wagons of my youth.
No, pure luxury in the long term is having an interior that looks as good as it came out of the factory. To me, there’s only one seat covering that can do that, and it is called MB tex.
And that’s why modern luxury cars all have leather or leatherette seats, the manufacturer is looking out for resale value because they’re made to be leased.
Exactly my feelings. I’d never buy a used car with cloth seats. The thought of sitting in any cloth seats (automobile or not) kinda grosses my out due to thoughts of retained bodily fluids from others.
You’d better make an exception for Ed Gein’s car. No way I’m gonna sit in one of his leather seats.
There is quite a lively trade bringing in 15 + year old Japanese stuff into Canada. Cars this old can be had for peanuts in Japan, a place where anything two years old is hopelessly past its due date. Japan is small, and believe it or not, people often have cars but often as not rarely drove them. I had a girlfriend for over a year and I never once saw her car. Besides, transportation around Japan is so good there is no reason to drive anywhere.
I worked with a guy who was importing LHD German stuff from the early 1990’s but I am sure he is up to 1998 now. He’s pick up cars like mid 80’s 560SEL’s for perhaps $1000, ship them here and resell them for $10,000. He’d do 20-30 at a time and send them all over Canada. In Japan at the time, LHD was a real status symbol, for some odd reason.
The JDM stuff I see around here is mostly the KEI vans, with RHD. Driving such a vehicle is a hazard in Japan (speaking from experience) and these things have about 0.2 mm between you and the abutment you nailed in the snow. Really, KEI’s of this era are death traps, but their fans love them, like the heir to the VW Samba.
The Crown pictured was in fact a very high status car in Japan’s rigid society, the kind of car a bank president would ride in, or a mayor. The Century was VIP (and that is really V in Japan) material only and in a hierarchy like Japan, that’s a mighty small group. This car would make a great prairie schooner, which it seems to be doing. They are very strong, impeccably well built, silky smooth and super reliable. I am sure it would run down the highway quite economically and do it for another decade with any kind of reasonable care.
These were some of the best Toyota cars ever made in my opinion. I was living in Japan when they came out and all my Japanese friends swore Toyota had the best cars and religiously bought whatever one was appropriate for his age and social level. In white, for course, which cost an extra Y50,000.
My worries would be RHD, which for me is no way. I would also think that parts could be a pain in the ass as Toyota Canada isn’t going to stock parts for it, or at least some of it as it would be hit and miss on a lot of it.
RHD? Nothing to worry about, easy as! LHD on the other hand… 😉
That was the problem here no parts or English language shop manuals but so many have passed thru wrecking yards now its not an issue.
Oh and Toyota joined the used dunger game importing and detailing their own used Jappas calling them signature class and selling them with a new car warranty. They stick to NZ models though.
I would not underestimate Japan’s size. Several thousand klicks in length, actually.
Also, the Crown/Majesta, even being rather high in Toyota’s foodchain, is still very much people’s car. Most of these were with 2.0-liter I-6. Being ３ナンバー車 （above 1700 mm width, prefix “3” on the plate) it was taxed heavier than the most, but still affordable. Mayor? Only if of a small town. Bank prez would have chosen a Celcior or, more likely, a W140 300/320 SE Mercedes.
Is the steep depreciation in JDM cars due to the shaken (car tax and inspection pass requirements)? Japan exports a lot of old cars because of that…I think
Despite my most earnest care, the leather seats in my ’95 Lexus LS400 are falling apart fast. A product called Hide Food has helped greatly, but even that can’t continue to resist the ravages of age, time, hot sun, and a 6’4″, 230 lb. driver dragging his Levis-clad ass across the seat 🙂 .
When the upholstery falls apart completely I’m seriously thinking of having the seats recovered in premium velour.
The original LS400 was available with velour over here, one of my co-workers bought one new with it.
For the first model year (or maybe first several) you could also get burgundy-colored interior. I remember my state of shock when I discovered on with it on eBay last year.
This is an S140 Crown Royal, which Toyota defined as a four-door hardtop (I assume because of the glassed-in B-pillar styling and sloping sail panel), though oddly some models were called Royal Saloons. There was also a more conservatively styled though mechanically similar Crown sedan that went for taxi and government fleet duty, and, as Scott mentioned above, there was a fancier version of the Royal called Majestra, which could also have the 1UZ-FE engine from the Celsior/Soarer/Lexus LS400.
Leather upholstery was available on these cars, but it was optional even on the Majestra C with a V-8 engine.
Believe it or not, Crowns were body-on-frame until the early 90s at least. Would this be a BOF or a unibody?
That is an interesting question. The Crown Royal had a separate frame while the Crown Majesta did not, which is somewhat startling because the two look very similar; the Majesta is a little bit bigger (about 4 inches longer overall, 2 inches longer in wheelbase, about 2 inches wider), but not dramatically so.
What it looks like from Toyota’s illustrations is that they had a similar body shell, but the Majesta had front and rear subframes while the Crown had a full-length perimeter frame. I’m guessing that, as with the big GM cars of the late ’60s, the frame is not self-supporting, but essentially a big full-length subframe.
Only sedans (govt/taxi duty) and it was a Jeep Cherokee-style integrated frame, more a subframe, really.
Still awfully strong and robust though.
That’s what I figured from Toyota’s diagrams, although the brochure says the perimeter frame was used for the Crown Royal four-door hardtop as well as the taxi-grade Crown sedan.
Majesta was sort of “sportier”, as opposed to a regular Crown, that had terribly oyajippoi (oyaji = rich older-aged yokelish uncle, -ppoi = “ish”) image.
The V8 Majesta also was AWD. Same setup (V8/AWD) was available in an Aristo.
I’ve had several Crowns during my time in Japan, my first one was a ’74 MS-60 “Kujira” with the strong M series 2.0 litre straight six and a 4 sp manual.
I had a Royal Saloon exactly like this, same color, with the 3.0 2JZ engine – that was a great car – and that six was a great engine – turbine smooth yet very strong – reminded me of a (reliable) Jaguar six.
The post on Japanese not being that fond of leather is quite true – even in the executive class Century sedans which are used for senior government and corporate officials the interiors are all cloth…….
There are still quite a few older Crowns here in Japan for sale – just checked a used car website and they had one very similar to the one pictured in the article, with 53000km, 2.5 litre 2JZ, very nice condition, for about $2600……..tax included!
http://www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/13/700054103820130308001.html
Very interesting find! I’m surprised no one else has commented on this (if they did and I read over it, I apologize), but the front looks very similar to the first generation Toyota Avalon. The dash and instrument panel also looks to be nearly identical save for the right hand drive configuration.
Toyotas parts bin supplies all models even that awful Avalon.
Nice find. Rich moquette seats and hardtop styling are some of my favorite things. It’s so interesting to me that Japanese luxury sedans are so influenced by 1970s American design.
It would make more sense to me if the designs of the mid ’50s to mid ’60s were taken as greater inspiration, but I can’t speak too much to the culture of 1970s Japan or to the understanding of large sedan offerings the standpoint of contemporary US car buyers. All I’m saying is, I see a real link.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the LS400, GS300, Toyota Crown of the ’90s are all closely related, differing primarily in scale. Aren’t their suspension architectures the same, and don’t both V8 and straight-6 engines fit in both platforms?
Anyone know more intimately about Toyota platforms?
The architecture was pretty similar across the 3 lines for the then RWD Toyotas – Mark II (+Chaser and Cresta spin-offs), Crown/Majesta/Aristo/GS300 and Celcior/LS400 and Soarer/SC400. Not very interchangeable though parts-wise, aside from engines/transmissions.
As mentioned above, there were several different contemporary Crowns which were quite different structurally. The unibody Crown Majestra was related to the Aristo, although they weren’t identical. (The Majesta had semi-trailing arm rear suspension, for instance, while the Aristo had double wishbones.) I don’t think the Celsior had much structural relationship to either.
Obviously, Toyota had corporate engines and various technologies (like TEMS, their adaptive damping system) that went into many different cars. That by itself doesn’t mean cars were variations of the same platform anymore than a 1971 Challenger was an Imperial because they both used the 440 and TorqueFlite. Toyota also created variations of the same hardware to suit particular applications; for example, the Z30 Soarer/Lexus SC/Toyota Supra’s suspension was broadly similar to the Celsior/LS400’s, but had more aluminum components and somewhat different geometry.
Now this looks like a luxury car. Why do so many of today’s luxury cars have to look like insectile fastbacks?
I’ve heard of these before. I like the rear end more than I like the front.
Somebody forgot to turn off the lights though…
I’m kinda surprised this car has what looks to be an “infotainment” unit, considering its probably from 1998, back when they were not commonplace at all.
Even has the display plastic it seems.
I think I’d have a Century, if it were possible, simply to experience the Toyota V12.
They should use that engine on a halo model or something. There aren’t enough V12 offerings around 🙂
I like vinal. The vinal seats in my 78 ford ltd lasted 28 years before the drivers seat split car lived outdoors most of its life. Had over 300000 miles on it. Leather disintegrated.
Nice car, I’ve got one too, a 1994 Royal Saloon, imported in 09′..
frameless glass, full frame, RWD, straight six, its a winner..
I don’t understand. If this car was originally retailed in Japan, and the original dealer sticker is still applied, why is it in English?
There’s a lot of English to be found—sometimes seemingly at random, sometimes not—on signs and in business names in Japan.
Prestige to have it in a foreign language.
Nice car. I’d give serious consideration to buying a Japanese-market car, but only one for which correct-side-of-road headlamps are available. And even then, I’d be wary of hassles with parts and service, sightlines for overtaking on 2-lane highways, and being on the wrong side for border guard shacks, drive-thrus, and other suchlike.
I do SO wish Canada would enforce the headlight regulation on these JDM imports…
I remember those Crowns imported in great numbers to Iraq after 2003. Some of them were modified where they made them left hand drive (I think they cut the dashboard or something like that, I’m not sure, but that lowered their value too) and some were driven without modification, right hand drive. I was driven in one (I think it was a 9th or 10th generation) which the owner was using it as a part time taxi.
I remember the ride was extremely quiet in the back seat, the seats were also very cozy and soft (like a soft couch!), and it felt like the car was moving effortlessly. However, the Crowns were available in Iraq even before 2003, I remember my uncle had a 6th generation, and I think it was left hand side drive from factory, they’re used mostly as taxis back then. But anyway, great find, I really love their style more than the LS400, and I think those cloth seats are much more comfortable than the leather ones in the LS400.