Toyota Cressi-WHAT?!

The Cressida thru the years. 70's - 2000's

Contrary to popular belief, Toyota built luxury cars to compete with Mercedes, Volvo, and other luxury marques prior to the inception of Lexus.

The Cressida was brought out in 1973 as a Japan only model, and was only sold outside of Japan starting from 1977 onwards. In essence, the Mark II, Cressida, Chaser, and Cresta, are basically the same vehicle with different names and formats. The Cressida itself was available as a wagon, coupe, or sedan till 1981 which saw the birth of the Cresta that joined the Mark II and Cressida family.



The Cressida was one of the most well engineered cars of it's time with class leading build quality, tight clearances and panel gaps that would still put some modern cars to shame. This comes from a time where manual windows were still the norm. Standard features included air conditioning, intermittent wipers with adjustment, concealed wiper arm mounts, automatic transmission, power steering, rear seat armrests, casette player, map lights for driver and passenger, integrated volt and oil pressure gauges, power side mirrors, power windows all round, reclining front seats with lumbar support adjustment for the driver, and a rear window defroster. Sound proofing was immense and the straight-six engine was both powerful and quiet, at the expense of fuel consumption.

In 1992 Toyota permanently dropped the Cressida nameplate, though production of the basic vehicle under other names in Japan, and eventually renamed to Mark X in 2004.