Let’s look at this unlikely survivor I recently found in an old San Salvador neighborhood. A ’65-’67 Crown; Toyota’s top offering at the time in the passenger car segment. Coming from a Japan still trying to gain cred in the world, the Crown arrived as an enticing if yet unknown quantity. A low-cost luxury offering, carrying the qualities for which Toyota would become known; care of assembly, and good value for the money. But showing up in a period where both the model and its parent company had yet much to prove.
Time would show that the company’s international fortunes were to be found mostly elsewhere. Regardless, the vehicle was a solid offering and deservedly wore the Crown moniker as the company’s top model. After all, it embodied the best efforts Toyota could muster at the time, and it laid the foundations for the company’s future upscale ambitions.
Today’s find belongs to the Crown’s second generation, launched in the Japanese market in 1962. With this model, Toyota would re-enter the US-sedan market and reach Europe, the latter in ’63. Additionally, it would help Toyota in gaining a bigger foothold across Latin America and Southeast Asia.
So the Crown may not be quite the international landmark later Coronas and Corollas were, but it still was a significant development in the carmaker’s trajectory. And an overall success that is still in production to this day.
Upon arrival, the ’62-’67 Crown marked a significant improvement over its previous generation. The updated boxy body looked far trendier, possessing elegantly subdued lines embued with somewhat Italianate cues. It was a distant cry from the dated first-generation.
Admittedly, not an outstandingly distinctive shape, but a tasteful in-house design that showed the growth of Toyota’s stylists. Partly the result of efforts started in 1958 when a number of the company’s designers were sent abroad to study the trade. It’s a chapter already covered at CC, quite comprehensively by Don Andreina on his Crown entry.
On the technical front, there were many significant updates. Great effort was made to create a quiet cabin with a new X-frame, with all drivetrain pieces elastically supported to reduce vibrations. The new frame also provided a lower center of gravity, aiding handling and performance.
At launch, the model carried the R-Series 1.9L inline-4, with 2L and 2.3L sixes becoming available in 1965. Shifting was via a column-mounted 3-speed manual or a Toyoglide automatic.
The Japanese marketplace was still somewhat iffy in regard to the purchasing power of their middle class. So to aid the market case for the likes of the Crown, makes like Toyota and Nissan (with the Cedric), catered to private and fleet sales.
As such, private buyers could purchase their Crowns in Deluxe and Super Deluxe states of trim and tune. Ten additional HP were available on those models, and they also differed in a rear suspension provided by trailing links and coil springs.
Meanwhile, the rear suspension on the Standard and commercial lines was via rigid axles and leaf springs. A sturdier and better setup for Japan’s inner cities and the hardworking demands of the segment. It was the Masterline, and besides the obligatory taxis, it included a utility wagon and a pickup.
(A larger and more luxurious Crown Eight with a 2.6L V8 also appeared. Also covered in Don’s post).
When these Crowns arrived in Latin America they encountered the same doubts they had in Europe and the US. They were pricier than a low-cost car, but lacked the cachet of a real luxury brand; yet offered much for the money. Would buyers take to them?
As a previous entry on a period US review summarized: “Part of the challenge the Crown would face was exemplified by Road Test attempting to define the competitive set for the car. Should it be viewed as an alternative to smaller, more expensive imports like Mercedes-Benz or Volvo? Or was the Crown an Asian alternative to compact domestics like the Rambler American? Road Test couldn’t quite pinpoint it, and neither could potential buyers.”
Understandably, the Crown didn’t set sales records in the US or Europe. Toyota’s future in those regions would ride in a middle-class-oriented vehicle that was to appear in ’64; the T40 Corona.
Unlike the US and Europe, Toyota as a brand may have lacked cachet in Latin America, but it was certainly a value product. With the car-owning public being a relatively small segment then, buyers were more receptive to Toyota’s new proposal.
It also helped that while in the US the car was a “large-compact” difficult to define, elsewhere it was a proper mid-size/full-size vehicle.
Maybe not quite fit for a king, (Hey, we have no monarchy!), but sufficiently upscale.
Toyota tip #1: The logo in the center grille is original, while the CROWN badge on the hood belongs to a later model.
So for all purposes, the Crown did find a distinct audience in the region. And as it gained acceptance the model duly trained buyers to accept Toyota’s in-house Sloan ladder. By the late ’60s, the locals truly knew how to ascend in the Toyota world. Buy a Publica, rise to a Corolla, move to a Corona, and crown yourself with a Crown.
(Toyota tip #2: All model names –except the Publica– are variations of the word ‘crown’.)
So a good segment of Latin drivers responded to these Crowns. As I recall, the model was not rare around the streets of San Salvador in the ’70s, though understandably, nowhere as common as Coronas or Corollas.
That said, no one thought of them as being in the same league as a Mercedes or BMW (Or fit for kings). Still, people knew the cars denoted Toyota nobility. Vehicles owned by upper-middle-class families, with professionals living in new suburban neighborhoods. A similar fate would await the nameplate in other regions around the globe.
Window sticker reads “Crown Fest 2017”. Looks like this old Crown could still run, up to that date.
Much is said about early Japanese cars being derivative in styling and execution, and I would be hard-pressed to make the opposite case with this Crown. But I would add it all comes with the context of the times and Japan’s particular history. For one, with an industry developed mostly in the ’50s, they had the advantage to pick and choose from technologies tried and tested elsewhere.
It more or less makes sense their vehicles would embody traits familiar to Americans and Europeans; all while being neither. A mix of the best (to Japanese makers’ needs) of all that was available out there. Clearly the results varied from maker to maker, as each vied for a unique angle with their products.
The tail lights tell this is a ’65-’67 model.
Styling-wise, the Japanese were certainly clunky and cartoonish early on, as beginners can only be. However, as their styling houses grew in capacity their products were often seen as derivate. Which they are, to a degree.
Then again, the native Japanese aesthetic is either too busy and fuzzy (or overtly spartan), to Western eyes. And lacking the captive colonial markets that the UK or France had, or the global footprint of the Big 3, Japanese cars were designed to please. They had to be. Their survival depended on products that had to be attractive, yet familiar, and not too adventurous.
(If the Japanese were given free rein, I think Mitsuokas is what they would come up with).
Don’t get me wrong. I do find this early Crown sufficiently appealing, and I feel it accomplishes its mission of understated elegance quite well. Also, I truly enjoy some of the car’s details, like the latticed work on the grille.
So today’s find is part of an early chapter in Toyota’s history when the company was testing and trying different strategies around the world. With their products finding varying degrees of success –or failure– in each market.
And this lonely old Crown is a leftover from those days. A silent remnant sitting in a gone-to-ruin upscale neighborhood in downtown San Salvador. And to think the car itself probably belonged to some family of this area, back in the day when both were in their splendor.
Of course, upscale and upper-class San Salvador families have moved away from the old downtown. Mostly to pricey townhouses on the city’s outskirts, with driveways stuffed with Cayennes, Audis and… Toyotas Lexuses.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1962-67 S40 Toyota Crown – The Generation Gap
Vintage Review: 1965 – 1970 Toyota Crown – “You Can’t Always Get The Gold”
It looks like a Japanese Studebaker to me.
Wow, you just wouldn’t see one in this condition here in Melbourne now. In fact, over the last five years I’ve noticed anything like this sitting curbside has disappeared. A guy nearby had a fastback Datsun 120Y in similar condition. Recently sold it for $6k.
+1 I don’t think you’d see that sitting in that condition most places. I always liked the Crown, I think the last one I saw was on Vancouver Island in 1995, I said Wow, a Toyota Crown! but my GF at the time was unimpressed.
I think you mean he paid $6K for someone to improve the world by taking it for crushing, surely?
Nothing like this exists curbside anymore here, nothing. Even utter garbage like that vomitarious Datsun gets hoovered up by fools eager to be parted from their monies, though I kind-of get why: when absolute, bona-fide turds like, say, a Holden HX in reasonable order is $25 or $30K, there’s nothing old left for anyone to play with.
It’s nuts that everyone “knows what they’ve got” and wants $1000 for four wheelcaps that are rusty but badged Holden!
The gentleman who sold this also runs a 1200 ute as his DD (tall fellow as well). He’s an ex-mechanic who knows exactly what he had. But the look on his face when he told me how much he was offered for the 120Y…
I have yet to find one of these in the wild. Well, there is one not far from my digs, but it’s inaccessible (and in the same condition as the one in this post), but what I’m really hoping for is a wagon or pickup.
These 2nd gen Crowns display how Toyota were a couple of streets ahead of Nissan already by this point in time. The contemporary Cedric looked like a Soviet product, whereas this could have been made by Ford UK or Fiat, and nobody would have batted an eyelid.
I’ve a soft spot for these. A bit oddly, our neighbours had a wagon, my best friend at age 7 had a wagon, and my uncle had a sedan, so I rode in them quite bit. They felt quite luxurious at a time when the big three here sold such horribly basic cars (and so few folk seemed to buy the upmarket versions). Radio, heaters, clocks, lots of interior lights, electric window on the wagon, and, praise be, way, way nicer vinyl on the seats than the others. The engines too sounded purry and classy (though also rather tappety and soon enough, a bit smokey) and a great deal nicer than a gaspy whooshing Holden. Ironically enough, many ended up with a Holden engine anyway because of the smokiness mentioned, a rare example of a Japanese engine being far less long-lived than a US-designed one.
I’ve just read Dr Don’s post from ’16, and most excellent it is. My view of the styling is a bit kinder, probably influenced by the nostalgia factor.
I’d call these Crowns a bit of a success hereabouts, if only for the reason that those who did buy them spread the word that Japanese cars could be high-quality items (and not Jap Crap, as they were so often racistly called), which laid the groundwork for the justifiable rise and rise of that perception to where it is for Toyota, in particular, today – which is at the top.
Oh, most definitely a success. While Aussie Holdfordiants had the bogan ‘shoutiness’ factor, these seemed to attract a different type of buyer. My grandparents’ elderly neighbour had one, and boasted of cruising at 90mph. I’d guess that was the 2.3 litre; I’d thought at the time they were only a 2.0. As Dad’s Falcon could barely top 80, and sounded like it was about to blow up, a similar-sized popular-priced sedan that could cruise at an even faster speed was unbelievable.
Speaking of unbelievable, maybe I should check his claim…?
A girlfriend’s parents had the next generation, an S40. I never rode in it, just saw it. Never parked in the garage, always sitting in the driveway when they were home, and just as immaculate as the rest of their garden. Understated good taste.
Stellar curbside find. I never saw these until I moved to SoCal in 1976; they just didn’t sell in the East and Midwest, but there were a fair number in LA. There were enough folks on the West coast that appreciated what Toyota was doing, but for the most part, Toyotas were still seen as cheap VW-alternatives, and not in the Volvo class.
Nations with no domestic automobile production have to have the least biased car shoppers. Buying simply becomes a question of “does this fit my wants/needs at a good value?”
You caught me with the opening shot – briefly thought it was a Lancia!