I instantly recognized this car as one that I had seen before. It sure looks good all cleaned up! This 1970 Toyota Crown is listed on eBay with bids of just over $1,000 but the reserve isn’t met, of course. It’s located in Junction City, Kansas. Is it ringing a bell yet?
It’s pretty coincidental to run across this car today when almost one year ago I was in Junction City, Kansas meeting with one of the nicest guys that I’ve ever met, Mr. Don Lacer. He has a car collection that is mind-blowing and this appears to be one of the cars that really caught my eye there. The seller must have bought it and it looks like they really cleaned it up! The paint is a bit faded in spots and there’s a portion of paint that has flaked off of the hood, but this car is really rare and it has a manual transmission and AC which made it even more desirable.
The seller has provided a few underside photos which is great. Things look pretty tidy and solid with normal surface rust as you’d expect to see on a 48-year old car that has been stored in an unheated building for what was probably a couple of decades or more. There are a few dings and a couple of areas that need bodywork but overall this looked like a great example of a rare car. This is a third-generation Toyota Crown, a model that Toyota has made for over six decades!
The interior looked like it was in great condition when I saw this car last February, other than needing a severe cleaning and if I remember right there was a glitch with the top of the right side of the dash which isn’t shown here. Maybe it’s been fixed since then. The back seat looks great, too.
This car really blew me away, being a huge fan of obscure Japanese cars. A rare sedan with a manual transmission and AC? Yes, please. Toyota’s 2M, 2.3L (2,253 cc) straight-six is legendary Toyota goodness despite having a mere 110-115 hp. The seller says that it “runs and drives” and that the “Clutch is still good, doesn’t grind in any gear.” Do any of you remember this car? Or an even tougher question: do you remember the Toyota Crown?
Not many sold in the US- it was an upscale model and we wanted econobuckets over here. The Crown could be found hauling around heads of state in Japan.
It’s the “Crown Jewels” of 1970
as I recall allegedly many were sunk on a shipment to America by the notorious Godzilla 🤡🤠
Seriously my guess was this one was probably 🚢 over to USA by a GI stationed in Japan
I never heard of this model. I thought the corona was the top of the line. I as well love these Japanese vehicles from the era. That’s how they built their reputation on these fantastic beautiful vehicles.
The 71-73 crowns had an updated front and rear compared to this, and look great in all variations. One of the cars on my bucket list.
My dad had one just like it, only white….manual trans, ac, etc. Remember it well. I was about 13 at the time.
I never met Don, but I met his dad, L. L. Lacer. He sure had a lot of weird stuff. The Crown was sold in this country, just not very many of them.
Awesome – I have a Tomica Crown diecast. I would totally drive this.
We, in the midwest, never saw the big Crown’s. The Corona was as big as it got, and even those were rare in the early 70’s. Toyota had not yet become a household name like today. If I’m not mistaken, these were the Lincoln’s of Japan, government officials, police and big shot businessmen used these, from what I read, it was top of the line. If Asian cars stayed like this, I’d like them a lot better. Great find. Again ( and again), I hope you can find parts.
While growing up (1963 vintage myself) in a suburban neighborhood of a Northeast city, my neighbors had one, in the same color, but a Crown Station Wagon! It was styled like this example, but it had a blue vinyl interior, and a rack on top. It was an automatic transmission. It was a great car, and rode me to many Little League games! They kept it until 1975, replacing it with a new model (at the time) Ford Granada Sedan. Two Toyota dealerships had opened locally around 1968, and eventually that number grew, too.
This Crown is almost top of the Toyota range, only pipped by the Toyota Century, which is what the real big wigs and important politicians got around in. It is also still in production (commenced in 1967, whereas the first Crowns were produced in 1955). I don’t think the Century was ever exported new, however there are a few private imports getting around here in Australia.
When I was a child in the 1960s my family spent summer vacations in Massachusetts, outside of Boston. A neighbor there, who lived about four houses away, was a Toyota dealer–his dealership was in Woburn. I remember seeing one or two of these Crowns on rare occasions, probably driven home by him or sold by him.
When my family lived in New Jersey we purchased three Toyotas at a dealership there between 1969 and 1973. None of those were Crowns but I distinctly remember seeing both this generation and the next generation Crown for sale there, in both sedan and wagon form. They were very roomy. They were nicely appointed, but more at say an Impala level of luxury rather than a Cadillac level. Most had “Toyoglide” automatics but some had manual 4-speeds like this car.
Lovely looking Toyota Crown. It’s damn unforgivable that the Crown wasn’t advertised, and therefore never sold in large numbers here in the USA. While cars like the Corona, the Corolla, and the Celica were good vehicles, I would think that American car buyers would’ve preferred something of a similar size to that of a Volvo 164.
When I was a kid, our next door neighbor, (a genuine Mafia hit man) drove one.
I had a Crown in the mid-70’s. My friends used to call it “the limo” because of the room in the back seat. It was really nice to drive around, except for: the water pump died so I bought a replacement at the Toyota dealer, but the shah was pressed in to a casting for the viscous drive fan. Toyota and the Micallef machine ships refused to handle it. I had to use science to get the work done. The tranny bearings started to sieze so I sold it.
Back in the 1980s, I owned a ’74 Crown sedan. It was a lovely car to drive, and my late son thought it was pretty cool. I think he considered it his car, judging by the satisfied look on his face, every time we traveled in it.
I took him for a ride in the car just after I brought it home and asked him if the car was all right? He smugly smiled and replied, “Yup!” LOL
At the risk of being a bit politically incorrect, I used to have a close friend and work colleague named Makoto Hashimoto. He looked out his office window at my Crown and said, “Ah, that’s a real ‘crassic’…” (His words, not my interpretation.)
I hope one of you guys get motivated to pick up this example. You’ll be glad you did…
Back in the mid 80s, one of my younger brothers tried to palm off a 1966 (I’m pretty sure) Crown wagon on me for $200, a 6 cylinder / 4 speed manual, that just about shook the fillings out of your head at idle. I chugged home and discovered it had one completely dead cylinder and another w/ low compression. Was too much of a $$$ loser to fix, flip or even drive, because nobody wanted them back then. So I took it to the junk yard, long gone C & F Auto Wrecking off of the Big Rock Road in Duvall, Washington (about 30 miles East of Seattle) anyhow I kept the $50 they gave me as a nuisance fee. Next time I went to C&F, I saw that my old Crown had been turned into a torch wagon, the two sons of George the owner (RIP George) had cut out the back of the station wagon’s roof and created a Lark Wagonairesque look torch wagon, and had strapped the oxy & acetylene tanks on each side in the back. And they used it as a torch wagon for many years even with the dead cylinders. One other thing, it came w/ a complete set of manuals that I still have, any body want ’em?
these things (Toyota Crowns) were built tough- copied American builds- separate chassis- and in Australia it was common to take the body off the chassis and use the chassis as the basis for an AC Cobra replica. My brother and I restored a coupe some years ago but had a lot of trouble with the cylinder head on the original six cylinder– cracked valve seats – eventually fitting a 302 ford v8 which transformed the car. In this photo Crown is in the middle- as you can see we restored all sorts
another crown coupe
There were quite a few of these sold in Canada. Nice body, good interior, but the drive train didn’t seem to have the durability you would expect. They just quietly went away. They were BIG sellers in Australia, New Zealand, the Phillipines and parts of Africa.
Was the Crown before the cressida
Yes, Guy, but both were still offered in Japan.
My folks bought one , I was working at the dealership at the time as a repairman ( mechanic) it was a great car but low on power. Tried to get the folks to buy the 2000 sports car head and carbs would have made a fantastic combo.
No Toyotas for me. Give me a Datsun/Nissan, Mazda or a Subaru any day.
Why?
The Toyoto TV Add’s late at night were. Get Your Hand’s on a Toyota and your never Let Go !!!
I owned a toyota crown when i was about 20 y.o. i loved it. Replaced the master cylinder twice. It was a buttercream yellow with the best leather seats.
saw these cars in thailand, okinawa and viet nam in the 60s. mostly by big wigs.