I have never felt that my enthusiasm for cars was anything I could share with those close to me. I’ve never been friends with other gearheads and have been wary of boring anyone with the details of my biggest obsession. How pleasant, then, that my partner and a mutual friend of ours have been happy to accompany me on walks through Bloomington to find rare and/or noteworthy automobiles.
The most recent of these excursions unearthed a very unusual version of a car already uncommon, even when new. Taking pictures of this car in front of its owner’s apartment complex felt somewhat awkward, so I captured what I could as rapidly as possible. While I was excited to see one of these best-ever Cressidas in such stunning shape and in such an appealing color, it’s what I found within its oxblood confines that justified my efforts.
Yes, folks, that’s a five-speed transmission; an unexpected delight, if I ever saw one. At first I thought this was a very rare car ordered with a manual transmission, which would be exciting enough. A quick search shows, though, the four-speed auto was standard in the US market, so this car has obviously had a transmission swap (how does one say “surprise!” in Japanese?).
As these cars shared their 7M-GE straight-six engines with the contemporary Toyota Supra, it was probably a rather straightforward swap for any mechanically inclined owner with spare time and a helpful buddy. And as the very clean, seemingly original installation demonstrates, the persons responsible took pride in doing a thorough job.
It’s nice to see that whoever currently owns the car has continued to take good care of it, as it was the only car in the area not caked with dirt. Given their apparent enthusiasm, I can only hope that this car was also given a Supra limited slip differential, with its lower final drive. I also hope some work has been done on the suspension as rear drive Japanese luxury cars from this era were made with suburban driving in mind and can get quite twitchy and tail-happy when pushed. While big wheels and lowering springs would mar the car’s appearance, rolling stock from a Supra with a very minor, less-than-one-inch drop would keep things subtle, yet sexy for those in the know. These cars have a loyal following, so such an effort would not be out of reach.
One feature of the car which did not surprise me were its Washington State plates. My sister told me some fifteen years ago that the Pacific Northwest was a Mecca of well-preserved Japanese steel, and a lot of posts on this website have confirmed what she told me. In Southern Indiana, car lovers gravitate toward classic American cars from the ‘60s and ‘70s, pony cars and, at the lower end, Civics and Cavalier coupes with fart-cans, loudly straining through their torque converters. Out here, this car and its enthusiast owner are most definitely far from home.
ouside of states many CRESTAs came with 5 speed manual,even while spending some time in DUBAI in 90s I happened to see a lot of CRESSIDAs with 22RE under the hood and stick.i wish that was an obtion here.
Crestas often come with 2.4 turbo diesel manual or auto.
Speaking of Dodge Monacos…
Easiest way to check if it was originally auto is to check the instrument cluster for the PRND… display. On these it’s vertical between the speedo and tachometer. I’m not such a fan of these X80 Cressidas, especially when compared with the X70, but this looks like a stunningly well-preserved example, kudos to the owner!
Love it. Kind of like an enthusiasts LS400 since it has the stick.
1) “I have never felt that my enthusiasm for cars was anything I could share with those close to me. I’ve never been friends with other gearheads and have been wary of boring anyone with the details of my biggest obsession.”
Perry, that’s precisely why I enjoy visiting this site every day, and commenting once in a while. I could not have said it better myself.
2) I’m no expert on what’s involved, but I’m skeptical that anyone would have gone to the trouble of swapping in a manual transmission. It’s more likely a grey import, or maybe it was brought back from an overseas military posting.
I purchased a 1986.5 Toyota Supra soon after they were released, and I remember the salesman explaining to me that a fully equipped JDM version of this car had 26 microcomputers, which back in 1986, was quite unusual. So swapping an auto for a manual would have been a quite a challenge. Maybe not mechanically, but the electronics and software would have been a nightmare.
“I remember the salesman explaining to me that a fully equipped JDM version of this car had 26 microcomputers, which back in 1986, was quite unusual. So swapping an auto for a manual would have been a quite a challenge. Maybe not mechanically, but the electronics and software would have been a nightmare.”
Salesmen do have a tendency to get a little over-excited about things that they have little knowledge of…… I’d be a bit skeptical about the quote of 26 microcomputers, you might get there if you include things like the stereo and the HVAC controller.
Regardless, back in the days before CAN bus all of these things were standalone and not networked, so while the trans may have been electronically controlled, ripping it out and shoving a manual in wouldn’t present too much of a problem beyond the availability of appropriate conversion parts.
But I agree that this particular case would be more likely original and not a conversion, I don’t see someone who wants to go to all that trouble converting to manual keeping the rest of the car stock.
I would tend to agree with you on Point #2. This looks really well finished for a homebrew swap, although the mid 70’s Manta Paul found us a few weeks back was rather well done.
However, even when you’re swapping within the same manufacturer, same model to same model, small but important parts can be different and not always fit the way you’d expect. I can just imagine swapping out the pedal cluster and running the linkages and finding all of the parts (like slave cylinders, grommets, splicing wires into existing looms, etc.) and making sure they fit where and operate the way they’re supposed to. It would have been quite the job and IMO a Herculean effort.
If so, more power to them, it’s a really neat car that way. It’s definitely one in a million!
Totally proper NA-spec Cressida.
The engine/tranny combo together with pedals, linkage, possibly ECU etc. could have been brought as used parts from Japan. This kind of trade is pretty popular. And it is not just Honda and Subaru engines/trannies.
almost a decade later, but from experience, the swap is a straight bolt in, with a few caveats:
– the MA70 supra hardware will not bolt straight in for RHD versions. LHD apparently will.
– The MA70 clutch master studs has different offset to nearly all other toyota clutch master studs. 00-04 Tundra master cylinders and any other cylinder with the same bolt/stud pattern will fit right on.
– The auto ECU will flash the O/D OFF light due to the fact that there are no longer solenoids to actuate. Loop the wires, or simply take out the bulb in the gear indicator.
– Cruise control will no longer work unless you decide to use some relays to replicate the functionality of the auto’s Neutral Start Switch, or remove a black-white wire from the cruise control computer connector.
Other than the above, it runs perfectly fine. People would most certainly have gone to the trouble of a manual swap even with the stock engine, because it really does wake the car up and turn it into an almost entirely different vehicle. Enough people have done it that there are now aftermarket pedal boxes available for purchase for such a swap.
Maybe a Canadian market car? Did they have the motorized belts? Regardless, a nice car, you can even see out of it!
According to the 1989 Cressida Canadian brochure (which I still have), the only transmission available was the 4-speed automatic. There were only two options: a sunroof, and leather (blue or maroon). I don’t see motorized seatbelts in the brochure, which is typical for Canadian cars, since seatbelt regulations were different here.
Interestingly, the four sections of the brochure are titled (translated from French): Aristocratic, Provocative, Serene, and Passionate!
Wow. I can almost believe Aristocratic and Serene, but Provocative and Passionate?
I’ve yet to see or hear of an aristocrat in North America who drove a Toyota (while being one at least anyway) … 😉
Wow, this is beautiful. The leather could use some care, but nevertheless, I certainly don’t see Cressidas of any kind here in New England.
First Cressida I recall seeing was in the late 1990s in Defiance, OH. It was owned by a communications professor who had just moved up from Southern Alabama.
First real cold snap (Christmas Break I believe) it froze up solid and refused to start after a previously pampered Southern Life.
Love it. We had the GLX and Grandé levels of spec. Have been very close to buying one as an in-betweener. One day…
Great find! Not to mention those very Broughamish seats combined with modern (for the early 90s) Toyota interior design.
Cool find. That 5 speed could tip me into Cressida ownership pretty easily.
(how does one say “surprise!” in Japanese?).
“Ah, odorOita!” would be a close match.
But normally a Japanese person would probably express it through something closer to “strange” (変 – “hen” = hen des neeee!) or “changed” (kawatta maahku tsu /Mark II/ da!).
Actually JDM versions of the same car (Mark II and Chaser hardtops) were indeed available as twin-turbo 5MT Q-cars. Cressida’s closest twin would be a lowly 80-series Mark II sedan, normally a taxi or office vehicle. I remember light-green Mark II taxis being everywhere in Kyoto in mid-90’s.
For a while in the seventies and eighties, Toyota offered a really bewildering number of powertrain options for its JDM models. It rivaled Chevrolet in the mid-sixties in that regard.
The days of pre- and immediately post-bubble model excesses are long gone, but the JDM choice is still times and times better for the comparable models than we can even dream of here. Pity…
It is a conversion. There was no manual transmission offered in the 89-93 Cressida. However a manual conversion is not really that hard according to various websites. If you take a manual and the bits and bobs from a non turbo 86-92 Supra (Transmission code W58) than it bolts in with only minor mods and it is certainly doable for somebody with a good set of tools and a lift. If you go for broke and decide to get a trans out of a Turbo 87-92 Supra, then more mods are needed.
Could be a swap. Here’s another in Portland:
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/4262938728.html
Beautiful car, especially with the blue cloth! If it were in Michigan, I might not be able to resist. A RWD sedan of this size, with cloth interior and a manual transmission, is almost impossible to find.
Reminds me of when my friend and I swapped a 5 speed manual from a Cavalier into his 1990 Lumina Euro sedan (and the 4 speed automatic from said Lumina into my 1989 Corsica LTZ). At first we used parts from a Beretta to make it work, as manual W-bodies are so rare, but eventually he found shift cables from a Grand Prix to make the installation a bit cleaner. Also put the seats from a Regal Limited in it. It was fun to drive, but the swap was a lot of work. I could’ve put the 5 speed in the Corsica, but I decided that sticking with an automatic would be less work. In the end I was wrong, as the Lumina transmission (440T4 aka “4T60”) was never offered in the Corsica, so we had to do lots of custom fab and creative parts sourcing (A body halfshafts).15 years later, I have not had the urge to try it again, lol.
great ride till one morning you start seeing coolant in your motor oil&you got less than 100k miles on clock&you are like I thought they said TOYOTAs last4ever.
The first Toyota I ever fell in love with!!!
When I was all of fourteen, my mother had taken a job with a young chiropractor. They were moving into their new office and my parents offered to help. Well, the good doctor’s wife had her brand-new 1989 Cressida, in silver with grey leather, sitting there, and she asked ME to take it over to the new office down the road! I said, “are you sure?” and she said “yeah, you’ll be fine”, and tossed me the keys!
Over the next couple of years I got to ride in and drive that Cressida…it was incredible! I remember when you would start the engine, you COULD NOT hear it run!
What a car!!!
This generation Cressida is a total nothing. The previous generation with its long flat hood and boxy shape was a classic. That said the 1990 Cressida rivaled the Mercedes w124 for tank-like feel.
The feature car looks nerdy with its raised ride height and mud flaps.
Raised ride height? That’s stock lol. The rear does sit a bit high on factory suspension
The 5M-&M manual bellhousing will also mate the M engine into a 4WD Hilux, if you surf through the Toyota parts bin anything is possible.
I have always liked Cressidas and that is a really beautiful example. I love the paint and the alloy wheels–but the clincher for me is that lovely burgundy leather interior!
I found one of these last year, but in much plainer colors: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule-1989-toyota-cressida-id-take-one-over-an-es300/
Did Toyota ever offer a “Troilus” option on the Cressida?