Sal Collaziano

http://www.toyota.co.jp/Showroom/All...yal/index.html

squarehat

Nope, the Toyota Celsior is the Japanese version of the LS.

Sal Collaziano

Ohh, so this is something new from Toyota... Interesting... It looks very nice.. I suppose it could either be a new ES or maybe even an Avalon in the U.S.?

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

No, it's just a model that Toyota doesn't offer in the US. It's been around for a while I believe.

Pagong

the toyota crown has been around for a long time. Its been around longer than the Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS400).

Brett

Appeared in 1955, "Crown" has served as the mainstream sedan from Toyota in the Japanese market throughout its existence and holds the distinction of being the longest running passenger-car nameplate affixed to any Toyota model, along with being the first Toyota vehicle to be exported to the United States in 1958. Generation after generation, today’s Crown is still the most popular company car in Japan, which is good, but its presence is still bounded in domestic market and South East Asia, which is less good. One word summarise its character - Conservative. To please Japanese company executives and businessmen, you know, it HAS to be conservative in styling and trimming. It has to ride as supple as magic carpet, offering independent audio, climate and lighting controls for the rear passenger. In contrast, driving pleasure is not very important.
But the latest Crown is no longer that conservative. It has been styled, tuned and trimmed to please driver as well as passenger. To be honest, it is still not as driver-bias as Lexus GS, but the improvement made is substantial enough to let you forget any pervious Crowns. For the first time, I found the Crown looks quite nice. Nice, if not handsome. Doesn’t it look like a Lexus LS400?
The cabin also looks fresh. Lexus-like back-lit gauges looks cool. Center console has a unique shape and is no longer taxi-like. Two-tone colours match very well with wood decoration and leather trimming, although I suspect the wood is fake. Fit and finish is first rate, so is the quality of material. My only complain is the dull-looking 4-spoke steering wheel. There’s plenty of space for front and rear passengers, the latter also enjoy independent audio and climate control, reading lamps and a small refrigerator behind the arm rest. Overall speaking, it’s an enjoyable place to spend hours of long journey.
There are 3 versions of Crown - Majesta, Royal and Athlete. The Athlete is the most sporty, with stiffest suspension setup. Majesta is most luxurious, powered by a 280 hp V8. It also has longer wheelbase. Royal runs middle of the road and is usually the best seller among them. No matter which version, handling is far beyond imagination. Gone is the traditional soft suspension setup, which is replaced with firmer springing and damping. As a result, steering response and body control are greatly improved. Although it is still regarded as comfort-bias by European standard, it is already more driver-bias than other domestic rivals, including Nissan Gloria. In particular, it rolls less and steer with more feel than the Nissan.
Although the range-topping Majesta is powered by Lexus’s 4-litre V8, most other Crowns are likely to be ordered with 3.0 inline-6. This 24-valver is actually the same as Supra and Lexus GS300. No matter with or without direct-injection, it output 220 horsepower and 217 lbft of torque. As in Lexus GS, it is silky smooth and quiet. Predictably, Toyota provides no option for manual gearbox, but there are two electronic automatic for choose: 4-speed automatic is smoother; 5-speed Super ECT (with Tiptronic style manual override mode) is quicker

Shaffer

Brett is right. The Toyota Crown does go way back and was actually available in the USA back in the late 1960s thru at least the early 1970s (1972-1973?). They are quite rare however. They were indeed the top-of the line Toyota. I know that beginning in 1977 that the Toyota Cressida was the top of the line Toyota sedan in the USA, so perhaps the last year for the Crown in the USA was 1976? The oldest Toyota Crown I have seen was a 1968 model. They were actually fairly large cars. About the same size of a mid-size car of the late 1960s- or maybe just a bit smaller- not sure. They were loaded with features such as A/C, automatic, AM/FM, etc. However, even the smaller Toyota Corona (Camry of the late 60s and 70s) had available A/C, automatic on the column, with bench seat and was considered a 6-passenger car and also have an available AM-FM radio. Really neat little cars.

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I see you know your crowns............

To bad out of all the crowns that have came out now you see one you like. I have liked them all since the 14. This new one is the 18 and have two styles the Athlete & Zero. The Zero is more of a VIP car but both kind of look the same. Since the late 80's the 14, then 1995 the 15, 1999 17 & now the 18.

Im a Majestic kind of person............

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Heads Up Display

Losiho

Oh man, that nameplate brings back memories. My parents owned a 1977 Toyota Crown. They paid a mammouth (for that time) sum of A$7,000 for it. Choclate brown exterior colour too ! It was ahead of its time for that day and age, which audio and a/c controls for back seat passengers and automatic central locking that would automatically lock the doors once the car was on the move.

If only the damn thing was more reliable.....it kept blowing water pumps with alarming regularity. Toyota's response was "tough luck, it's a design fault, nothing we can do"

Brett

In the interest of full disclosure, I copy/pasted that article from some japanese site. I dont know that much about crowns. Although, the styling is pretty cool. Is the Crown considered higher than the Celsior? or vice versa. Or are they kind of even a la Deville/Seville?

dj.ctwatt

I had an earlier post about this topic, and have extensively studied both cars. If you do some good research, you will find out that the Crown has both a smaller wheelbase and a smaller size all around than the LS430. I don't have the exact specs on me, and it will take forever to do all the research again, but I assure you they are not the same cars. A key hint is the roofline of the Crown, more camry-esque(ES330) and less tank like square. The rear windows are also key. It is a completely different, yet similar, design. It is a rear drive car with both 2.5L and 3.0L engines available with a choice of 5 spd auto and 6 spd auto.
New Crown Athlete

Sal Collaziano

I wonder if the Crown would ever make it to the US (again) as either a new ES or maybe a new flagship sedan for Toyota (over the Avalon). It's too nice to not be here, damnit!

Brett

From what ive seen here, the crown would make a good ES, maybe a little too like the LS430 though....Now how bout the century being sold here