(first posted 4/6/2015) Toyota Motor Corporation CEO, President, and founding family scion Akio Toyoda and the most diehard American hater of Japanese cars quite likely have something in common: Their favorite Toyota model would be the Crown Comfort, introduced in 1995 and sold in only Japan and a few other markets in Asia. A rear-wheel drive sedan with cavernous rear seat room and a live axle in the rear, the Crown Comfort resembles a Ford Crown Victoria redesigned by Toyota engineers. Like the last generation Crown Victoria, it is an old-fashioned design that has survived because it is well suited for certain purposes, but unlike the Crown Victoria, it appears likely to survive for many years to come.
Before delving into the Crown Comfort, it is necessary first to explain where it fits into the long-running and extensive range of Toyota Crown models. The Crown name dates back to 1955, and Toyota has used it on large, rear-wheel drive sedans near the top of its Japanese domestic market model range. There have been 14 generations of the Crown during its first 60 years, the most recent introduced in 2012, continuing separately from the upmarket Lexus line from the 1990s onward. In addition to sedans, the model range has included hardtop coupes, wagons, and even a pickup during the 1960s. The U.S. market received only the first four generations from 1958 to 1973, after which the Corona Mark II replaced the Crown as the top Toyota offering in the U.S. The Crown Comfort diverged from the main Crown model range in 1995 during the introduction of the 10th generation Crown (shown), as a distinct design intended specifically for taxi usage.
When it split the Crown Comfort from the regular Crown, Toyota intentionally reverted to older chassis engineering to make the model less expensive to produce and maintain. In place of the four-wheel independent suspension used in Crowns since the 1980s, the Crown Comfort had a more durable and simpler to maintain solid rear axle. Rear drum brakes took the place of the Crown’s four-wheel discs. Aside from a unit body replacing the 9th generation Crown’s separate body-on-frame construction (sorry, BOF fans – Toyota fell a bit short in giving you all of the old-school features that you wanted), the Crown Comfort chassis was a throwback when new in 1995.
Toyota further specialized the Crown Comfort for the taxi role by changing its dimensions and body panels to make it shorter, narrower, and taller, maximizing rear seat space while keeping the overall dimensions within Japan’s “compact” classification. Only 4,695 mm (184.8 inches) long and 1,695 mm (66.7 inches) wide, it was shorter than a 1995 Camry and no wider than a 1995 Corolla, making it easy to maneuver through tight city streets. The vehicle was small and light enough, with a curb weight of only 1,400 kg (3,086 pounds), to power adequately with a 2.0 liter four cylinder engine for economy in urban taxi use. Within these compact dimensions, the tall and formal roofline, high seats, and nearly vertical side windows gave enormous headroom and legroom for passengers.
The large windows also created excellent sightlines for the driver and for passengers as well. They are well suited to ease driving in urban traffic, and also to allow tourists a panoramic view, although they may be bad for salarymen trying to hide from the boss while going home early at 2 AM.
The boxy design also gave the Crown Comfort useful trunk space despite its short rear deck.
The Crown Comfort interior is a spartan place, in keeping with the taxi role. Interior panels are hard plastic shaped in simple straight lines. Seats are flat, firm, and covered in hard wearing vinyl, and they can be configured for four or five passengers, with the front bench seat version (shown) allowing two passengers in front and coming with a snaky column shifter for the four-speed automatic. The curbside rear door has the driver-operated automatic door opening and closing mechanism expected in Japan, which confuses visitors unfamiliar with it.
Toyota has changed the Crown Comfort very little over the years, comparable to the long runs of the Checker Marathon from 1961 to 1982, the Austin FX4 from 1958 to 1997, and the London Taxis International TX1/TXII/TX4 from 1997 to today. The chassis has continued unchanged since 1995, despite the introduction of four new generations of the mainstream Crown. The only significant exterior styling change has been replacing the original small vertical taillights, seen in preceding photos, with a larger and more visible full-width arrangement in 2007.
The most significant evolution has been in the engine compartment. The engines initially offered were a gasoline 2.0 liter OHV four; a utilitarian pushrod 8-valve design dating back to the early 1980s and used primarily in Hi-Lux pickups and Hiace vans; and a diesel 2.2 liter SOHC four. In 2001, Toyota added an LPG fuel version of a more modern 2.0 liter four from the Hi-Lux pickup, a DOHC 16 valve design with VVT-i variable valve timing, producing 114 horsepower at 4,800 rpm and 139 ft-lbs of torque at 3,600 rpm in the Crown Comfort’s LPG version. The LPG engine became the most popular in Japan and is the only engine currently offered in the Crown Comfort.
A short wheelbase version (100mm shorter) with its name shortened to Comfort also is sold in Japan, where it is commonly used by driver education programs. The most interesting Comfort has to be the limited edition (only 59 produced in 2003) TRD Comfort GT-Z Supercharger, powered by a supercharged 160 horsepower version of the DOHC 16 valve 2.0 liter four used in the Camry and RAV4 during the 1990s. With a special monochrome exterior, spoilers, wheels, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) racing seats, and other TRD interior pieces, it is an amusing take on a car that many Japanese drivers first turned a wheel in as teenagers.
In Japan, the Crown Comfort is the leading taxi nationwide, seen everywhere in Tokyo and in smaller cities and towns. The unfashionably square Crown Comfort with its automatically opening rear door is as characteristic of Japan as an FX4 or TX-series black taxi is of London, or a yellow Crown Victoria has been of New York in the 2000s. Its main domestic competition has been the Nissan Cedric, archrival Nissan’s equivalent to the Crown.
Although produced in small numbers (only 36,400 from 2005 to 2011, approximately 6,000 per year) and only in right-hand drive, with insignificant export sales, the Crown Comfort has received recognition from Toyota’s highest authority as one of the company’s most significant products. Akio Toyoda, President and CEO and head of the Toyoda family that founded the company, declared the Crown Comfort in 2010 to be his favorite model and the best representative of Toyota as a company, during Toyota’s response to its 2009 quality crisis. He chose it over the class-leading Prius hybrid, the Lexus LS flagship luxury sedan, the worldwide-respected Hi-Lux and Land Cruiser, and other far more popular and high profile models. Many Ford fans must wish that William Clay Ford Jr. had made a similar statement about Ford’s Panther platform cars at around the same time.
Outside of Japan, Hong Kong is currently the main export market for the Crown Comfort. Red-and-white Crown Comforts are the main taxicabs in the Hong Kong special administrative region, where cars continue to drive on the left, as they did when the city was a British colony, instead of on the right as in the rest of China. Over 99 percent of Hong Kong’s 18,000 taxis are Crown Comforts. All are LPG fueled, as imports of diesel taxis ceased in 2001 and operating a diesel taxi became illegal in 2006. The pre-2007 taillight configuration is still commonly seen, which is a testament to the durability of these cars.
In Singapore, another Asian country with driving on the left, the Crown Comfort was formerly the predominant taxi, but it recently has disappeared from the streets–ironically, because of clean air requirements that the LPG engine was supposed to address. In 2006, there were 19,000 Crown Comfort taxis in Singapore that made up 80 percent of the country’s taxi fleet. With all Singapore taxis being diesel powered, and the Crown Comfort’s older diesel engine design being unable to meet the stricter Euro IV diesel emission standards that Singapore followed and that went into effect in September 2006, imports stopped in 2006. Singapore requires taxis to be retired after eight years of service, so the last Crown Comfort went out of service in September 2014. The Hyundai Sonata took its place as Singapore’s leading taxi. Trials of LPG powered taxis are currently in progress, and if they lead to general adoption of LPG taxis, the Crown Comfort may make a comeback.
The Crown Comfort has reached its twentieth year as the taxi of choice in Japan and other right-hand drive markets in Asia, and there are no signs that it is in danger of being replaced. At the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota displayed a taxi concept car called the JPN Taxi which borrowed the shape of London black cabs, but there has not been any movement toward putting it into production. The familiar three box-shaped Crown Comfort does its job efficiently and with a strong reputation for long-term durability, so demand from taxi operators has been consistent and appears unlikely to switch to something new. Few Americans will ride in a Crown Comfort, but those who do during trips to Asia will find a lot that reminds them of the last of the traditional American rear-wheel drive full size cars, although in a far more efficiently sized and laid out package. There is no need to hurry to Japan or Hong Kong to ride in one, because they will be around for many years to come.
Although I’ve never visited Japan, I’ve seen movies that take place in Japan, and I’ve seen cars like this.
Are they also used as police cruisers?
As I recall, they use regular Toyota Crown in the similar generation but even if they use Crown Comfort, it’s still alright. Golf-cart speed just does the job for them ( they have Nissan GTR for high speed chase just like some Camaro commonly used in states ) so sometimes they use even smaller and more traffic cone-like cars.
I haven’t actually seen a Crown Comfort police car, but I can’t say for certain that they don’t exist. The cops around here (Ito city in Shizuoka) have a bunch of normal Crowns, some kei-cars and scooters for neighborhood stuff, some subcompacts, and there are at least two Legacy B4 sedans.
EDIT: They also have a few vans where they carry the stuff for those sunny, pleasant days when they set up their speed traps.
I was Military Police stationed in Sasebo Japan until 95 and our entire fleet of patrol cars were the Crown Comforts, but fitted with the 2.0 SOHC 24V six cylinder.
Yes
I was in Japan last month and although the Crown Comfort is still the car of choice for most cab companies in Japan, the Prius is rapidly replacing it, as the Prius is simply cheaper to run than the Crown. I was in a Crown Comfort and the driver told me he likes the Crown a lot, but it is much more heavy on fuel than the Prius, and since they rent taxis, they pay for their own fuel. LPG is in fact common in the Crown taxis in Japan and has been for many years.
When I was first in Hong Kong circa 1990, the streets were awash with Crown taxis. They were all four on the tree diesels in those days.
Crown Comforts still outnumbers Priusesses- uh, Prii here in Ito by probably 5-1, but this is a pretty small town. Tokyo or Osaka and the other biggers cities have larger fleets of Prii, for sure!
I remember Nissan did exactly the same to Cedric but seems Crown is more popular. It’s a sort of tried and true design appreciated by fleet users.
I think the reason why Crown Vic was discontinued unlike Toyota Crown is the different market environment. In those places where Toyota Crown is sold, they have higher requirement on taxis in service ( and higher market demand for taxi ), LPG is more commonly available as an energy for vehicles, ( the nearest one is 2hr drive away ) and it doesn’t cost an arm and leg to make a production line build a car specifically for fleet service.
Taxi choices here ( and nationwide alike ) just tell us not to take them as a daily transportation. Either an okay size and dirty enough retired police car ( Crown Vic, or smaller Impala ) or a rather clean but amazingly cramped and narrow mid-size volume Prius ( volume is just another smarter misleading measurement in interior space ) , or Lincoln Navigator such black cars with drivers in suits. Probably most motivation for Ford to build Crown Vic comes from police and rental companies, taxi became a leech rider in last years.
I ride in Prius cabs all the time and I don’t find them “amazingly cramped” at all. Also, the number of times you will have three abreast in the rear of a taxi is very rare. It’s all about $/km/passenger comfort in choosing a car for a taxi. Only fools let emotion make that choice, and I have seen plenty of fools do it.
I bump my head and legs in Prius taxis, and I am only 5ft 7. When I bump myself in cars, I know it’s really smaller than it should be.
Even though Checkers were quite dated, the last one hanged around till ’99 in NY, and they were quite appreciated as taxis in the last section of lifespan.
I’ve never had an issue fitting in the back of a Prius, in fact I’ve been amazed by how much leg room there is, head room is okay but not great. I’m 5’11.”
I’m 5’7″ too, and feel lost in the back of a Prius. The seats must’ve been pushed way back or something… and maybe you like to stand up REALLY fast when you’re getting out 🙂 .
Probably I am too used to roomier cars. When moving a ’02 Accord last week, I bumped my head first then bumped my knee on the dashboard. The soreness kept me alarmed enough to move carefully when getting out.
5’10 here, and I had no problem in the rear of a Prius taxi on holiday. Luggage space was a challenge though.
I wouldn’t call them “amazingly cramped” but they are certainly not very roomy.
I think a good negotiation between passenger and driver for the seats is appreciated.
Here taxis are mostly carbon-neutral, therefore most are Prius with a few Hybrid Camrys, Sonatas or Euro-diesel Skoda Superbs. I’m 6’1″ and I find there’s plenty of room in any of them.
Just a few years ago taxis were inevitably Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores so that’s just one of the reasons you won’t see any more of those built pretty soon. However the semi-livery Corporate Cabs still has some very nice looking Statesmen (Statesmans?).
Pic didn’t post
Yeah Corporate cabs were strictly Fairlane until the supply dried up Ford tried to reenter the NZ cab market but Toyota offered operators 300k warranties on the Camry hybrid nobody wanted Falcons after that.
Interesting. Here in Victoria they all seemed to be Falcons. Toyota tried to get into the taxi market with the Avalon (when it was a flop with private buyers), but the taxi driver over the road hated it – and drove it accordingly.
Canucklehead,
I suspect that you are correct about cabs in large cities. However my experience in a smaller college town is the opposite. The goal here is to maximise passengers per trip. Having experienced a driver & 6 passengers in a Taurus, there is a reason most cabs here are mini or full size vans.
True, almost all cabs in my town of just under 250,000 are Grand Caravans.
If Detroit had something like this, a compact “Crown Vic,” they might’ve been able to keep it in production w/o endangering their CAFE rating.
Detroit for a long time has been under relentless (self-imposed?) pressure to rationalize their product ranges, whereas the Japanese seem to have no problem retaining specialized models like this and the Century/President (for VIPs). Is it little demand by shareholders for high dividends that makes this possible? Note that Toyota is listed among the top corporate cash-hoarders in the world.
I wonder about it too. I remember they discontinued MN12 Tbird for low sales, but by the time they made the decision, sales were well over 100,000. It was low compared to Explorer though, but 100,000 isn’t low by itself.
I think rationalization makes the industry less efficient. ( and discontinuing division only leads to more loss in market share )
The MN12s had a high per unit cost, at least initially, in addition to missing their weight and fuel economy targets (all of which led to Tony Kuchta’s early retirement). The platform got decontented heavily between 89 and 93 though so surely the cost per unit got brought down somewhat by then. It’s kind of sad in hindsight, the Thunderbird alone in all the MN12 years outsold the recent Mustangs since 08, that’s not even factoring sales of the Cougar and Mark VIII platform siblings.
I agree, I think rationalization is a really bad idea in the long term. I’m sure shareholders love it though.
MN12 Cougar was moving at 35,000 units in the slowest selling year, and overall sales is as strong as ( if not more so ) Dodge Challenger nowadays. Lincoln Mark VIII was just behind sales of Riviera and Eldorado. Even it was obvious how coupe market was declining, but I can’t imagine where did the market go ( 35,000 Cougar, 14,537 Mark VIII, much more Tbird, 18,000 Riviera, plus Eldorados ) I just don’t get how a 70,000 units market disappears, as I don’t see it ending up in foreign companies’ neither. Or, maybe it just means cars no longer have association with styling and fashion, as no car nowadays represent this market place ( excluding Bentley Continental for sure. CTS Coupe only comes in half though )
Rationalization is very ridiculous. People are blaming on the declining market share of GM in general, but without Oldsmobile and Pontiac 25% of all market is the best they can do. Chrysler has the same problem, but the big chunk of lost market share of Plymouth was picked back by Jeep, as a result the market share is rather stable from ’60s to now.
It’s not at all uncommon for Detroit to keep older designs in production for extended periods of time with only minor updates — the aforementioned Panthers and the long-lived GM A-body compacts of the ’80s and ’90s are two obvious examples, not all that terribly dissimilar in concept.
I suspect that the tipping point in these things is not so much rationalization as plant utilization. One of the reasons automakers may keep an older model in production after a newer replacement has arrived is that retooling assembly lines is very expensive, so it may be necessary to do it in stages. Also, once a model’s initial tooling cost has been amortized, the vehicle may still be profitable as long as it sells in at least moderate numbers. So, for a while, it may be a better deal financially to keep making money off the older car rather spending a bunch of money tooling up for a new one.
However, manufacturers have finite plant capacity. At some point, they have to weigh whether the space they’re using for the modestly profitable older model might be better used on a new, hot-selling one. My recollection is that that was why GM dropped the B-body Caprice/Impala/Roadmaster — they could probably have kept them alive on mostly fleet sales for quite some time (as Ford did with the Panther), but wanted the factory space to build trucks and SUVs, which were selling better and had significantly higher per-unit profit potential.
Also, if the manufacturer ends up overcapacity — with more factory space than production volume can economically justify — a plant that’s building only an older, modestly selling product is an obvious downsizing target.
In the case of the Crown Comfort, the wild card is that it’s been built by Toyota’s Kanto Auto Works supplier rather than Toyota itself. Since 2012, Kanto Auto Works has been wholly owned by Toyota (it’s now part of Toyota Motor East Japan), but I’m guessing that group probably operates on the profit-center model, which would mean it has its own P&L. Kanto Auto Works has built Crowns since the beginning, but it’s also done a lot of Toyota’s lower-volume specialty models, like the Century and the Z30 Soarer/Lexus SC, so I assume its economics work out a bit differently than Toyota Motor Corporation’s “in-house” operations.
Toyota Crown Comfort can be made alone as a fleet model, which is something Detroit automakers usually unwilling to do. ( But Checker isn’t from Detroit ) Caprice came with Roadmaster, Crown Vic came with the other two, and Gran Fury had Diplomat and Fifth Avenue. All three popular taxi models from Detroit had at least one more luxurious companion with bigger profit to keep them afloat. Why can Toyota keep a barebone model hanging around that long?
In the scale of economy, ’91-’00 Lexus SC was quite small. Sales in US went below 10,000 for 6yrs, but somehow the model was still kept. ( only hundred units ended up outside US each year ) For Lincoln Mark VIII and Buick Riviera with double or triple sales figure, they were both discontinued for slow sales. ’01-’10 Lexus SC had similar sales compared to ’02-’05 Tbird, but Tbird did it in three years until Ford felt the sales was such a disappointment, while SC hanged around for much longer with even slower sales. Tbird would definitely move few more units if they produced it half long as SC. But on the other hand, if they made it longer, probably Tbird would not be so hot in used car market now.
My point is that I really don’t think it’s simply a question of sales: It’s also about how much money the manufacturer originally sank into the tooling, whether that cost has been paid off (which takes time, even for popular models), how much it’s going to cost to keep the model compliant with the latest regulations, and whether there is some better use that could be made of the factory space.
Automakers undoubtedly have whole departments full of finance people to calculate and project this stuff, and that’s how the decisions get made. There’s not really anything mysterious about it.
I saw and hailed more than a few of these Crowns during my visit to Japan last year. I remember a strange sense of nostalgic deja vu in encountering these; even though they were new to me, they bear a resemblance to a number of Japanese sedans here in the US. Sort of a cross between a Toyota Avalon and a Corolla with a little Lexus aesthetic too. Nice looking sedan. Simple, but elegant.
It’s not that the Crown Comfort was made smaller so much as it was based on a smaller platform — the 1988–1995 Toyota Mark II (a.k.a. Cressida), according to Toyota’s official history, although obviously its mechanical and stylistic relationship to the Mark II was not that vast either.
Yes; calling this a Crown is confusing and erroneous, because it has no real connection with the actual Crown line, and is nothing but an update of the taxi-oriented Cressidas/Marks they have been using in Japan since many decades. The taxis I rode in when I was there in 1982 were essentially the same thing, and they all ran on propane back then too, since Tokyo had such bad air back then.
Maybe they took lessons from GM, back from the days when seemingly all Oldsmobiles were called some sub-type of Cutlass? 😉
Probably sort of. The Crown was popular with taxi fleets going back to its introduction in 1955 (back then, there wasn’t yet much market for private passenger cars in Japan), so there was some nameplate loyalty there, but the private-owner Crown had really gotten too big and too sophisticated for taxi users. The X80 was still a smaller 5-number car and the cheaper grades still had a live axle. (U.S. Cressidas didn’t, but the low-line Mark II/Chaser/Cresta did — I looked up the specs.) So, I guess it fit the bill even if it was now a Crown in name only.
The MK11 came with a wide variety of engines on the JDM, that supercharged Corona engine was in other things too but the NA one I had poked out 130hp and in a smallish four door could be quite rapid luckily mine had Amon suspension tune so it held the road rather well.
I would love to be able to buy a super durable, simple RWD Toyota sedan with such excellent passenger and cargo space, here in the US. The closest I’ve experienced this sort of car was a well worn late 80s Crown “Royal Saloon G Supercharger” pressed into taxi service in Novosibirsk Russia, back in 2006 as I recall. Fantastically comfortable vehicle, and it had some decent pick up, a small green “Supercharger” light would illuminate on the dash when the driver stepped on it.
Akio Toyoda is wrong when he says the Crown Comfort represents Toyota best. It represents what Toyota WAS, and what made Toyota so well loved by so many, and what many of us would like to remember when we think of Toyota.
As for what Toyota IS, it’s harder to pin down a representative model. Many would say the Camry, but it’s so American, it can’t represent the entire company. The Prius is a good contender, but I think it’s a bit more forward thinking than the rest of the line-up. The Corolla line-up has likewise been too fully differentiated globally to easily say it represents the company. I’d have to say that these days, the RAV4 represents Toyota best, and it’s not the most flattering picture. It’s not especially class leading, and its quality has declined where many competitors have improved. Say what you want about Ford today and what the Crown Vic represents, but what Ford makes and sells is a lot more compelling and unreliability isn’t what it was in the bad old days.
The drivers of those taxis in Singapore used the top gear all the time to save fuel. Accelerating in top gear from 30kmh, that old diesel’s vibrations would shake the whole car.
Nowadays the taxis in Singapore are various new Nissans and Hyundais, no shaking but far far less space especially headroom.
Very interesting write-up! I had some knowledge of this car, but I enjoyed reading this and filling in the gaps.
I can’t help but think of the video game “Sleeping Dogs”, which is set in modern-day Hong Kong and features the “626 MHC”, which is quite obviously based on the Crown Comfort.
It comes as a taxi;
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/sleepingdogs/images/f/f6/626mhctaxi-0.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150202175155
A civilian sedan like the ‘Comfort’;
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/sleepingdogs/images/8/8e/625mhc.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130130122615
And even a sports version (with a spoiler, asymmetrical grill, and tinted glass) not unlike the GTZ:
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sleepingdogs/images/6/66/625mhcgts.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130130122704
The headlights and C-pillar are modified but its easy to see what it’s based on.
I was in Hong Kong in 1992 when still a British Crown Colony and these Toyotas were EVERYWHERE, but back then, these Crown Comfort cabs were – 1) Diesel and 2) four-speed stick on the tree.
Nice piece, Robert. My knowledge of JDM pretty much stops at the 80s, and even though i owned (and loved) a 76 Crown it’s only been exposure to CC that has opened my eyes to this sub-category. I wonder what the penetration of Uber will be into the Japanese and Chinese market. Grabtaxi seems to be the model with the most penetration into the APAC region and focuses on existing taxi fleets.
There is something to be said for a distinctive taxi body or colour that works its way into a city’s consciousness. If I see a generic cityscape with pale yellow cabs, it immediately draws an impulse of recognition and familiarity – hey that’s Melbourne!
Well, in China, the taxi fleets are generally pretty well regulated. They might have some “gypsy” unlicensed cabs around already so I am not really sure how the Uber or Lyft concept will go well there.
Yep – distinctive cabbie colors are the thing. Hong Kong’s have three color schemes – red and silver for HK Island and Kowloon, light blue for New Territories, and green for outlying islands.
Yep, i’m figuring some of these tighter democracies will leave less wriggle space for the Uber model, which I’ve never used. This article has brought one thing to mind; the user-experience directed nature of this type of car. Not all Uber drivers will have cars that are so specifically task-focused.
In a bigger government country, their no is louder to newcomers.
http://www.ibtimes.com/uber-hit-latest-setback-japan-orders-halt-ride-sharing-trial-1835604
Government is even bigger and no is even louder/firmer in China. ( loud enough to keep google out )
Oh yes – the Crown Comfort, quintessential Hong Kong taxi. I lived in HK for several years in the 1990s and have been returning frequently to visit family and friends. Up until the late to mid 1990s or so they had a more rounded rear C-pillar; they’ve since gone to the more upright rear pillar for increased passenger headroom, which exists to this day.
HK taxis used to be diesel until a few years ago they were mandated to change to LPG (better for cleaner air). They also used to have the column-mounted 4-speed manual but nowadays most of them have automatics.
I never even knew these existed until I saw that Expedia commercial- the one with the young American woman traveling to Japan all by herself but quickly making new friends.
Nice article, learn a few things after reading. I can’t help but notice that Toyota differentiate the taxi and luxury version of their Crown by chassis design. IRS vs solid axle, Disk vs drum. Quite sure the interior would be somewhat different too. Chassis enhancement requires more investment: design, different assembly line etc. In case of Ford, the chassis of Crown Vic and Town Car was almost identical, just to save a few bucks.
After reading this article, somehow I understand why Toyota is so much more successful than Ford.
Air ride is enough to entertain the mechanics on Town Car, if they put IRS, snowbird with trailers will have one more thing to worry about.
Usually Town Car is reasonable to maintain but if the air ride goes wrong it can turn to a money pit pretty fast unless using coil springs instead. ( but keep in mind the alternator though )
As mentioned above, the Crown Comfort isn’t directly related to the luxury car Crown — the Comfort is based on the cheaper versions of the late ’80s Toyota Cressida. (The U.S. Cressida had a six, fully independent suspension, and disc brakes, but the low-line JDM versions of that platform did not.) So, it’s not so much that it was differentiated, but that it was a different platform.
However, in the ’90s, Toyota DID offer Crown buyers a choice of unibody or BOF, remarkably. That’s maybe overstating the point a little because they had the same shell; the Majesta had front and rear subframes, the Royal had a full-length perimeter frame with a different rear suspension. Both were all-independent, though.
This is a timely reply to Ms. Shafer’s essay on back seats. 🙂
I don’t require rwd, nor body on frame construction, but as a sedan fan, I would like to see four-doors designed around shoulder room and sight lines again.
Unfortunately, the sedan is the new coupe; it’s assumed we’ll buy two-box vehicles if we care about roominess, so the three-box look is reserved for those whose back seats are usually empty.
Wonderful article, Robert – For some reason I find these to be my favorite Japanese car, no idea why, just something about them. (And I like Japanese cars in general). Thank you for this. I’ve ridden in them in Japan and Hong Kong, one of the most memorable moments being when my wife decided she wanted to open her door herself not realizing she was on the traffic side and almost had it taken off by a bus, followed immediately by the previously quiet driver becoming absolutely irate! I think it scared him more than anything…
These things can scoot as well, driving in from the airport we were certainly moving! Overall it felt like and reminded us a lot of our old ’86 Cressida, which was a well-loved car of ours.
One minor point – the Hong Kong taxis are red with silver roof, not red and white.
Very nice article – I’ve had three Crowns, my first being a MS-60 “Kujira”, that was an ex-US Embassy fleet car. If you like Japanese luxury, you’ll love a Crown.
I’ve never owned a Comfort model but ride in them from time to time. Those who have been to Japan know how meticulously their taxis are kept – spotless inside and out.
I would love to have that silver Crown Majesta in the second picture.
I’m familiar with the Comfort Crown and the Nissan Cedric from time in Singapore – as you say, a straight forward and well thought through solution tot her taxi question, and as tough as old boots obviously. And the fares weren’t bad either.
Surprisingly comfortable, but then after a London taxi…….
No automatic doors in Singapore, disappointingly
I’ve ridden in many of these, especially in HK, and whether diesel or LPG, they often seemed to vibrate horribly at idle. And the 5 on the tree versions were definitely candidates for a short-throw shifter. But always a fun ride. I still have my Hong Kong taxi iPhone app to translate the destination into Chinese for the driver … despite all the years of British rule, most drivers’ English seemed almost as bad as my Cantonese.
I’ve always liked these, but it’s no surprise as THIS is what I drove for eight years professionally.
thanks robert. it’s because of articles like this one that i can’t resist stopping by cc everyday. what a fantastic car. even though the economic logic explained above makes sense, i am still scratching my head as to why no one has bothered to fill this niche for the north american market. i mean couldn’t somebody have bought the obsolete tooling for some older model rear wheel drive car updated it enough to pass modern safety and fuel requirements and sold it through limited dealerships as a fleet only model? volvo 240? benz w124? ford panther? how hard would it be for toyota or nissan to make a left hand drive variant of their current offerings?
I imagine the main obstacle to that is likely regulatory compliance. Fitting an engine that complies with current emissions regulations might not be that bad, particularly if the engine is still used in other current products. (The EPA used to provide some provisions for piggybacking on existing certifications, potentially sparing the expense and time of the emissions durability testing; I’m not sure if that’s still permitted under current regs.)
However, the safety standards are quite another matter. Some current regulations, such as the recently updated roof crush rules, are considerably more stringent than even five or six years ago. Updating an older body shell or chassis like the W124 or Volvo 240 to pass the new rules isn’t necessarily going to be easy or, more to the point, cheap. Plus, even if you do it, I assume you’d have to go through the crash testing process to certify it, which is also expensive.
As I said the other day, there’s also the question of where you build such a thing. One of the reasons older, largely fleet-oriented products like the Panthers get discontinued is that the manufacturer needs the factory capacity for something with more financial upside.
The other consideration with fleet-oriented vehicles is that older platforms may not meet the requirements of current U.S. fleet buyers. A lot of fleets are now very interested in low emissions and high fuel economy, either because they want to reduce running costs or because they have an actual mandate to do so. (Some government fleets, for instance, seem to have policies on only using low-emissions vehicles.)
So, a company would have to weigh the potential sales against those issues to decide if it’s worth it, and I assume that’s why it’s relatively rare.
Safe as Milk, there actually IS a small niche built vehicle sold here in North America. It’s the VPG MV-1, and it’s the first vehicle designed from the ground up to be mobility-impaired accessible. My friend Ben has one. Having been behind the whell of it, I can tell you that it is built with some Ford parts. Power is from the 4.6 Modular V8 ( leftovers from Panther production, no doubt) and has a Ford instrument panel most likely borrowed from the F-150. It’s not quite an E-series panel, but very similar. I have about 200,000 miles behind an E-series, so I know what to look for. I think that the rear end may also be another left over part from Panthers, but I haven’t been underneath it to be sure.
Here’s a link.http://mv-1.us/
So the Marauder’s Japanese cousin’s name is TRD Comfort GT-Z Supercharger. Whoda thunk it?
The article missed an engine. A 3 litre inline 4 diesel , yes 4 cylinders for 3 litres (output about 95hp) was used in the Singapore market.
Engine code is 5L, Came with mechanical fuel injection.
Sorry, late to this party. Nice article, but you’re mixing up two Crowns: the Comfort and the Super Deluxe.
The Comfort is the basic taxi. In Japan, it can have a bench seat / column shifter combo (fewer do nowadays), a partition, vinyl seats, rubber mats, etc. It also has the small rear lights – they definitely still make those.
The Super Deluxe is a bit more plush inside, usually with gray velour seats and carpets. They always have floor shifters. Those have the large rear lights, and have had them for longer than 2007 (not sure of the exact date, but pre 2002).
Both models are extensively used as taxis in Japan. But the Super Deluxe can be ordered by non-taxi fleet operators (driving schools, gov’t departments, municipalities, corporations, etc.). These can have other options, such as rear ashtrays, back-seat radio controls and door-mounted (as opposed to wing) mirrors. They do not have the driver-operated rear door either.
I know this because one of these “private” Super Deluxes, a 2003 with large rear lights imported (used) from Japan, is my daily ride. These things are bullet-proof, and sooooo roomy inside.
That is the most anonymous car I have ever seen in my life. Somewhere, the datsun stylists responsible for its 70s atrocities and the current honda designers responsible for its parade of horrors are battling with whoever. . . Didn’t bother to style this car and are cancelling each other out. The second gen stratus/cirrus were anonymous and there are some sonatas that were anonymous but this gets the . . . Crown.
I would think if it’s primarily destined for taxi/fleet use it would be available as a wagon, but I was too bored by the styling to see if it is in fact available as a wagon.
So this is a CCCC?
Rode around quite a bit in these when in Japan in 2018, but not nearly as much the first time in 2012. We did more trains then. The CCs were comfortable and quiet enough, had a higher seating position than I expected, and of course very clean. The styling reminds me a bit of an AA-body LeBaron/Spirit/Acclaim.
Not quite a replacement; they added a trunk lid applique with an extra pair of brake/tail lights on high-trim cars, but lower-trim cars carried on as before. The main light clusters mounted to the quarter panels are the same size/shape and physically interchangeable across both designs. To get super extra geeky about it, “more visible” is also a kindasorta matter; the brake and tail lights were bigger, but not necessarily brighter, and the turn signals got much smaller and dimmer, so significantly less visible.
Earlier discussion here.
I was a bit confused as the article is dated April 7 but is clearly a few years old. We are now onto a new iteration of the Crown as of 2020 bit sales have fallen off a cliff as buyers favour SUVs and the Alphard. There are even rumours that it may be discontinued as a sedan.
The Crown Comfort production ended in 2017, as the JPN taxi model superseded it. I imagine, though that there are still plenty of Comforts still plying their trade on the streets of Japanese cities, as well as Hong Kong.
Now the main Crown sedan itself, as you’ve mentioned, is rumoured to be discontinued… we shall see.
This is one of my favorite vehicles I can not get in US, Actually I checked Duncan Import of Virginia few times, it never listed Crown Comfort on its featured vehicles. In my opinion, rather than Ford Crown Victoria, it is Toyota answer to Benze W123. Its durability can easily exceed W123. In Hong Kong, Crown Taxi Including other previous generations of Crown could easily run over one million kilometers without overhaul in HK congested traffic. And the local regulations forced the taxi owners running the vehicle for 24 hours to recoup the cost of licensing fee.
Here’s the 2012-18 Crown; you can see why they offer the Comfort for taxi use.
Okay, I lowered it and changed the wheels, but still…..
I’ve heard of the Toyota Crown Comfort. Since I’m neither from Japan, nor have I visited Japan, nor China, so I’ve never seen one. They seem like great taxi cabs for city driving, since they’re quite small.
I am a Japanese car fan and planning to by this vehicle but tipical of japan there’s almost cero tecnical info.
anyone have info about the range in miles or Kilometers of the 2015 LPG?.
will appreciate.