Imagine you are shopping for a car in Japan 30 years ago. You are keen to purchase a fairly large car – none of those noisy, gutless kei contraptions for you. Nothing foreign either, obviously. Too expensive, too flashy and hard to fix when it inevitably lets you down. No sports cars, no wagon, no convertible – something presentable, sensible and reliable. That still leaves you with a lot of possibilities.
Somebody with this frame of mind, a fistful of yen and a deeply conservative streak could not have done better than getting this Crown Deluxe. This is about as un-fancy, bog-standard, understated and plain vanilla without sprinkles as a late ‘80s JDM four-door can get. Chrome bumpers. Zero door trim. Leaf-sprung live axle. Zen minimalism in a Crown shape. But thank God for scrooges and frugality, I say.
1987-90 Toyota Crown S130 Wagon and Hardtop Sedan
For this generation of Crown, made between late 1987 and 1990 (after which the S130 was heavily facelifted, but carried on for ages), the pickings were still rich. There was no coupé anymore and pickups were long gone, but the wagon was still there. If the hardtop sedan really didn’t tickle your fancy, the saloon still had a gazillion trim levels to choose from.
With Cheese: the top of the heap of the S130 Crown pillared saloons, with interior by Nintendo
The top dog in this kennel was the redundantly-named “Sedan Royal Saloon G,” with its brand new IRS, air suspension, space-age digital display and probably more gadgets than James Bond ever had on his Aston Martin. Maybe this range-topper was a tad expensive. No worries, there were lots of cheaper options.
You’ve seen the best, now see the rest. You really have to go waaaaay down the list to get to the Deluxe. I caught a Super Deluxe when I lived in Rangoon, so you can have a look at that to compare with the plain Deluxe. The Standard was probably only ever bought by private taxis, Buddhist monks and people who had brought shame on their families. I doubt they were popular. The Deluxe was the real miser-cruiser, the dog-dish Plain Jane that you hoped your Dad wouldn’t buy.
The thing about older low-spec cars – particularly larger models – is that they are in some ways more desirable with age. For one thing, they usually lack the clutter of higher-trimmed cars, with their bigger bumpers, spoilers and cladding, so they look better (to some eyes). And they’re usually pretty rare, too. I’m not sure whether it’s a matter of lower survival rate, lower production or a combination of both, but base models are thin on the ground. A number of examples of this phenomenon have been featured on CC before as regards American cars (for example this, or better yet this). Europe was quite similar, it seems.
Allow me to illustrate with an example I know well. My father had the French equivalent of a Crown Deluxe when I was (very) young: a Peugeot 504 LD, bought new circa 1974. Peugeot launched the L/LD in April 1973 to gradually take over the 404’s place as the cheapest “big” RWD Peugeot. The petrol version had a 1.8 when the other 504s had the 2-litre. Dad’s was a Diesel – a 1.9 when the better 504s had a 2.1. Other 504 saloons had IRS and four disc brakes – the 504 L had the wagon’s live axle and drums at the rear. Outside, it had less chrome and no bumper overriders; inside, a substantially simplified dash sported an outdated rectangular tach and a column gear change. Quite a lot of similarities with our feature car. But then, once you’ve seen one stripper, I guess you’ve seen them all.
It’s not like Peugeot’s trim choice was as plethoric as Toyota’s. Only three flavours of 504 were on offer in the ‘70s. The mid-level GL was the one most people bought, while secretly yearning for the swanky fuel-injected TI and pitying the penny-pinching L. In the ‘90s, long after the paternal chariot had been traded in, I was always on the lookout for 504s (they stuck around for a while), but I can only recall seeing this L/LD model a handful of times. They almost never showed up in the classifieds, either. So the question is: can this “base-spec = rare” theorem be applied to the Japanese context? I really don’t know. I haven’t been here long enough to have sussed this out. But I have a feeling it is probably the case.
Call me an extremist, but for this generation of Crowns, I kind of like this one the best. The clean flanks and the chrome bumpers really make this version the better-looking one of the lot. My second choice would be the other extreme, that over-the-top Royali-G Saloon thing. I’d be curious to see how all that cutting-edge technology survived three decades of use. Of course, that’s only in the pillared saloon category – the one I really prefer is the S130 wagon, with those twin rear wipers. I understand that the big sellers were the hardtops, as this was the height of the Bubble Economy and folks wanted to splash the cash. Makes this Deluxe saloon all the more unusual, contrarian and irresistible.
Related posts:
CC Capsule: 1989 Toyota Crown (S 130) Super Deluxe – Conservatism On Four Wheels, by T87
In-Motion Classic: Toyota Crown Royal Extra Estate – Wrong White Whale, by T87
Base model Crowns have made it to here, there was a wagon on a FB site not long ago someone was resurrecting but it had a diesel and column auto manual windows and few power accessories, it would have landed here used during the early used import boom and survived, not a lot of those early imports have, Its quite interesting that cars like that still exist in Japan, they havent all been sent to the huge auction sites for export or crushed to make new ones.
Top of the range cars do pop up for sale usually with electronic problems though the much vaunted reliability becomes mythical with age and use.
The big stripper was still fairly common in the US into at least the mid 70s. I saw many examples of theoretically nice brands (Buick, Oldsmobile, Chrysler, Mercury) with AM radios, low-trim cloth seats (when vinyl was the extra-cost good stuff) and no A/C. Crank windows and manual locks were still common on even nicely equipped cars then, but FM radios and A/C were expected.
I like it. I wonder if it had a stick shift?
Interesting (?), some of the brochure (?) pictures show cars with the ubiquitous fender mounted mirrors while other pictures don’t show any outside rear view mirrors.
Also, you would have to be fairly sharp to notice the differences between a top-of-the-line model, and one of its cheaper “sisters”. To some extent grille or even grille texture SEEMS to be the main outward differentiator, I would imagine the bigger differences were inside or under the hood.
Until “recently” U.S. car and truck manufacturers made it quite obvious as to which were the cheaper and which the more expensive models.
BTW, I would probably take one of the hardtop sedans, like that blue one shown, though the wagons are interesting, too.
Wonder why JDM column shifts typically had a LONG stick and a WIDE throw? American stick shifts usually stayed inside the radius of the wheel, and Euro sticks were even more compact and crisp.
It can’t be mechanical sloppiness or poor design. Those are impossible for Toyota. It must be a matter of customer demand.
Just speculating, but could it be so the shifter doesn’t block any controls or gauges? Except in neutral of course, when the car isn’t actually being driven.
I wonder if it is so the shifter clears the driver’s knee/leg when the front seat is fully forward…like in a taxi or chauffeur driven car?
I love the list of trim levels: Standard, Deluxe, Super Deluxe, Super Saloon, Super Saloon Extra, and Royal Saloon. It reminds me of the good old days growing up in the 50’s when cars hand interesting trim and model names. For instance, Rambler had (in ascending order) DeLuxe, Super, and Custom. Buick had Special, Super, and Roadmaster. And behold the beauty of the Chrysler New Yorker DeLuxe St. Regis! None of this L, GL, GLX, LMNOP nonsense today’s newfangled cars have!
(tongue planted firmly in my cheek, of course. And I do love my Mercedes E300).
Goodness, how true. In many ways, this car reminds me of a 1988 Chevy Celebrity that lives near me. Similarly stripped-down, also in silver/gray, and also with virtually no options. Thirty years ago, just about everyone would scoff at such a car, but now I find it strangely alluring.
The one-piece bench seat in this Crown is the single detail that really jumps out at me. Even among American cars, such seats were mighty uncommon in the late 1980s, since even split-bench seats could be had for not much more. I’m surprised to see such a seat on a Japanese-market sedan.
And one final point: Maybe it’s due to a lack of familiarity, but I really like the overall design of this car. It wears its frugality well.
Bench seats and column shifts were fitted to lots of Japanese vehicles in the late 80s especially their pickups, you havent lived untill youve wrestled a worn 5 speed tree shift in a Nissan Navara(Hardbody US) ute and slid across it every time a corner it encountered, the joys of being in a RHD market I guess vehicles designed to fit three small Japanese across and they did the same to some of their cars,
Strange as it may seem these poverty trim level cars were very common among Australian manufacturers in the 80s/90s their base models sported nothing inside in the way of creature features no power options other than steer and AC only became standard when it became impossible to build the cars without it, those same cars sold new in NZ had AC and front power glass just so theyd sell.
I like it. It’s a good thing it has that bench seat with the “slide-o-matic” center seat material section to scooch over to the passenger side when exiting the way he’s parked.
And I see the doilies get lower-rent when you go down in trim level too. Now it’s starting to look like the old white T-shirt over the seatback look you see in some cars over here sometimes.
This generation Crown were still BoF, right? Very American.
US detective/crime TV shows from the 50’s & 60’s usually yield a stripper or two. While Perry Mason tooled around in an Eldorado or suicide-door Lincoln, craggy Lieutenant Tragg was chauffeured around in a plain Jane black ’57 Chevy 150.
Like how the seats in the wagon fold down to make a bed.
Being a bit of a weirdo, I always liked the looks of strippers (no, not those ones, well, actually yes, but elevate your thoughts, I mean, really!) even when they were new. Too often the paraphels and nalias of the better models mucked up the shape. That 504 is a good illustration, a unspectacular looker made worse as it grew more trim over time.
However, I sure would rather ride in the topper job, rather than becoming welded to the vinyl in the non-a/c non-p/s with clunky manual. As Bryce mentions above, if you lived in Aus, you had far too much exposure to such miseries right in to the late ’80’s.
Btw, there was another level of 504 here, the LTi, with electric windows and a sunroof and alloys and maybe even p/s. Virtually a limo, non?
helluva parking job!
i’ve been toying with the idea of buying a jdm car next time. i would love to own something like this s130 deluxe or better yet, my dream car the honda beat.
“Only three flavours of 504 were on offer in the ‘70s. The mid-level GL was the one most people bought, while secretly yearning for the swanky fuel-injected TI and pitying the penny-pinching L.”
This is so true. Ls were thin on the ground already as new and I think very few of them have survived. If I remember well GLs were basically THE standard 504 (and these are the ones you still see today). The more expensive TIs had “tough guy” written all over them. My English teacher drove a TI (fast), looked a bit like John Wayne, smoked Pall Malls during recess and none of us pupils would have dreamt of misbehaving in his classroom.
Interesting perspective on the low trim level.
These were/are also used as a pedestal or promotion car for the dealer to use to tempt you in with “get a Turtletop Origami (or whatever) for just £/$/€ xxx”, and indeed in my section of the CC skunk works is a Talbot Solara that was exactly that.
That roofline is almost Honda or Nissan, BTW