Toyota never should have dumped the Cressida for the Avalon.

 

Agreed! The MX73 and 83 chassis were nice and RWD. The 5 and 7M engines were good except for the 7M's head bolt under torqued fiasco. We replaced our Cressida for the LS400 though I'd have probably liked the Chaser variant if it were stateside.

 

Why not? The Cressida was an ancient RWD design that was not only relatively space-inefficient but also would have been more difficult to update for increasingly more stringent CAFE rules.

 

Another way of saying Toyota got lazy and let the Cressida become outdated. I've said it time and again what is the point of making bucket fulls of money if you can't produce desirable, enthusiast cars. But clearly Toyota doesn't give a toss anything even remotely sporty and fun is barely a Toyota.

 

Cancelling the Cressida was the proper thing to do. North Americans vastly prefer FWD and FWD is what was wanted at the time. Avalon is a much nicer name. Toyota was going after Buick owners as well. And the whole Made in USA and then designed in the US was a huge factor. Cressida was a very nice car though. Weak name IMO

 

I don't think the Cressida was a weak name, but it wasn't an American focused name it was a JDM model name. Sort of like "Carnival" sounds weird to us Americans and "Sedona" was a much more appealing name here.

I do agree that at the time in the 90s Americans wanted FWD cars.

 

I think it was more marketing than anything.

It was supposed to be the safest way to travel in winter conditions. I for one drove a rear wheel drive Grand Marguis thru the worst winters in the 90's without a problem. (I did put 3-40lb sand bags in the trunk)

 

It absolutely was marketing for winter travel

 

The problem with the Avalon, though, in the 90s, was that it was released at the wrong time....when Lexus was attracting more and more new customers every day. Many of the people who would have bought Avalons instead went with the Lexus ES. So did a number of Buick owners who were tired of GM's poor quality in those days, although the Buick 3.8 V6 was an excellent power plant, and many of them are still running today.

 

But the Avalon sold well at that time.

There were/are consumers who want a large car without a luxury brand. My uncle who had Avalons would never have bought a Lexus even if it were the same cost (he had a 1990 Cressida too, by the way)

 

Toyota was booming big time then. I don’t think Lexus mattered as many many Toyota buyers had a choice, buy something from the beloved brand they know…or spend a little bit more and get a premium marquee. Toyota/Lexus was like Chevrolet/Buick. A win win for either of the brands