Car model names are a thorny issue. There have been plenty of instances of bizarre or inappropriate name selection by Japanese carmakers – not just them, but they have a particularly poor track record in this particular field. (I am preparing a post on this; there is a lot to say.) Toyota (as well as Honda) have been less likely to come up with silly car names than, say, Nissan or Mitsubishi. But that doesn’t mean Toyota never put a foot wrong, especially as far as JDM models were concerned.
For after all, the Japanese are famous for misusing English words – or rather, to use them as a form of decoration, voiding the words’ meaning and mangling grammar in the process. To a certain extent, car model names could be interpreted that way – just something that is supposed to look good when written in chromed cursive and slapped on a bootlid. However, “Decoration English” (which also exists in French and Spanish versions, by the way) is never meant to be spoken, whereas car models and trim level are.
I’m sure we can all give Toyota a pass as to the use of the term “Cresta.” When this clone of the Mark II / Chaser / Cressida arrived on the scene in mid-way through 1980, Toyota were the fourth carmaker to use the name (after Hillman, Bentley and Vauxhall), so they were on well-trodden ground there.
But turning to the other cheek, we find ourselves confronted by two badges and a host of questions. Well, I’ll narrow it down to two: Super though it may be, what, pray tell, is a “Lucent”? How and/or what does said Lucent “Exceed” exactly?
The “Super Lucent” component of our feature car’s comically long name is Crestaspeak for “top-of-the-line.” Just because the Cresta was but a Mark II in a business suit did not mean Toyota scrimped on trim levels. We’re talking about the height of the Bubble Economy epoch on the JDM, the last years of the Showa era – the X80 platform appeared in august 1988. In those days, any JDM nameplate worth its soy sauce had at least a dozen trim variants to go with a half-dozen 4- and 6-cyl. powertrain options. Both are too numerous and confusing to enumerate here, but the lower-end cars even kept the live axle, so the X80 certainly provided a lot to choose from.
The JDM lapped it up. The X80, in its manifold Mark II, Chaser and Cresta variants, sold incredibly well. The Mark II Hardtop version is still a fairly regular sight on today’s roads – not many cars from that period can claim that. Chasers and Crestas, being more conservative-looking saloons, are now a bit less common.
Trim designations for the X80 Cresta originally ran the gamut from the lowly Standard, ordered by driving schools or private taxis, to the Super Lucent G. Our feature car blurs the lines a bit by wearing the GT Twin Turbo’s alloys. As time went on, Toyota kept adding special trim variants to the range. “Super Custom Extra” became a sub-Lucent level. And up above the top-dog Lucent G came the Lucent Exceed.
Trouble is, there were several Exceeds over time. Usually, the famous 1JZ 2.5 litre straight-6 was the engine of choice. However, our feature car has a distinctive chin spoiler that only came with the May 1991 2-litre Exceed, so that’s what I believe we have here, the 1G-FE (6-cyl. 24-valve EFI), providing only 135hp, as opposed to the 1JZ’s muscular 180hp.
But then the power was only part of the picture. The Super Lucent excels in cocooning its occupants in ample plushness and copious gadgetry. Doilies are extra, but you just wouldn’t have one of these without them.
Same thing for the rear passengers. Minus the gadgets, I suppose. Still, expectations were doubtless exceeded and legroom was pretty generous. I suppose that is one reason why they used this car (albeit the live axle version) as the base for the Crown Comfort taxi.
The X80 platform lasted until late 1992 in Japan as a civilian car, but the Mark II Standard saloon was kept on as a Toyota taxi until 1995 (when the Crown Comfort took over). Consequently, it had managed to outsell the previous two generations put together. The Cresta version alone, sold until 1992, managed over 350,000 units. But that was the effect of the Bubble Economy: everything was inflated and the crazy ride came to an abrupt halt, a burst of epic proportions.
The Cresta X90 and X100, which we will be visiting at some point in the near future (the photos have already been taken), were just as excellent as the X80, but sales were well below this generation. Nothing excelled like the excess of the Exceed.
Related posts:
CC Capsule: 1989 Toyota Mark II Grande (X80) – Onwards And Eastwards, by T87
CC Capsule: Toyota Cressida – 意表 Inside!, by Perry Shoar
Honda (Acura) had a different name for the Legend but changed it before production. What do you think of the name Acura Climax?
No worse than Coventry Climax or Cooper-Climax, they are both legendary names.
I guess that would have made the later RL the Anticlimax…
Nice find. I had a generation previous to this, a GX71, and six years prior to that a GX51. Both exceeded my expectations…
Lots of these things have emigrated but are becoming a rare sight here now as they age out of use Hilux diesels were fitted to many of them.
“Emigration” = importation of JDM models into NZ?
Indeed, as we’ve been a huge market for JDM used imports since the 1980s. It’s meant we’ve received pretty much everything, no matter how odd, that the Japanese manufacturers made, including numerous Crestas. Or should that be Crestii or perhaps Crestaceans? Either way, as Bryce says, they were here en masse once but have now largely been scrapped.
Names are funny things…I used to have a (US) Datsun 710, which actually was a Nissan Violet, so both the make and the model were changed in the US (though a decade later Datsun became Nissan, though the model names were still altered. I’ve not owned a Toyota, but through my job did get a chance to travel to Toyota City (quite awhile ago, almost 25 years) and noticed that the names of cars I recognized were often different in their home market (plus they had many models that weren’t sold in the US).
As far a Lucent…Even further back, I worked at AT&T though before the breakup I left, some of my former co-workers afterwards worked for Acatel-Lucent, but of course Lucent is just part of the name. Don’t know how I’d feel driving a Lucent…but they now work for even another company (their jobs are about the same, just the company name and location has changed). Lots of changes, but of course it has been a very long time since I worked there.
I like how shinny both tail lights, grille and head lights are in this one. Maybe they were worked this way to justify the name Super Lucent, what means “Super shinny”, maybe the Exceed version carries even more shinny trims.