RE: Toyota Century: Spotted
Discussion
Barchettaman said:
shakotan said:
Barchettaman said:
Well, it looks like a Toyota Comfort that's been on the pies, it will drink like a fish whilst returning meagre performance in return, I would imagine it isn't the most fun on anything other than a smooth motorway, and parts availablity is likely to be migraine-inducing.
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If you mean the Toyota Crown Comfort taxi, the Century was out decades before it existed..
The second-generation Century (model code G50), of which the car in the article is an example, came out in ´97.
The Comfort / Crown Comfort predates it by two years:
Edited by Barchettaman on Tuesday 16th January 17:01
Edited by shakotan on Wednesday 17th January 09:16
Tuvra said:
gareth_r said:
Tuvra said:
That makes absolutely no difference, it still looks rubbish (and has Hilux switch gear). The only thing I like about that is the very nice looking gearstick...
I think you you'll find that it's actually Lexus switchgear. 
gareth_r said:
recisely. They didn't fit special high quality switchgear to the Lexus models and inferior parts to Toyotas.
Standardisation of minor componentry and design details was a Toyota fetish in the 90s. The idea was "instead of designing it 5 times, put 5x the effort into designing it once, and get it goddamn perfect". You'll probably find things like the door seal profiles are common between this and a Hilux too.Distraxi said:
Standardisation of minor componentry and design details was a Toyota fetish in the 90s. The idea was "instead of designing it 5 times, put 5x the effort into designing it once, and get it goddamn perfect". You'll probably find things like the door seal profiles are common between this and a Hilux too.
Even today the inside of Japanese luxury cars still look pretty generic. They still use the same interior door locks as they did in the 90's. Build quality no-one else can match though, that's for sure.I can't see the attraction, at all. And I say that as someone who loves the absurd, the unusual, and niche cars. And I love a big barge most of the time too.
Aside from the comical price, it's ugly, but bland looking all at once. It looks cheap - not in city car white goods sort of way, just cheap for a luxo-barge - or maybe naff is more appropriate. It doesn't look like it would be any fun to drive, which may not have been a selling point when new as it was designed for people to be driven IN, but let's face it most of us on here would be the one driving this, not being driven in it, so that absolutely is a factor here. Comfy on a cruise it may be, but you can get similar pleasure in many cheaper and nicer looking alternatives. Access to practical experience and knowledge, let alone sourcing parts, is going to be a challenge (imagine how much time it might spend off the road if something does go wrong).
So the only selling point I can see is the rarity value. As I said, I like niche, but for that price, with everything else against it (IMO) rarity isn't going to cut it. Not sure I'd even want it at £1k, I'd rather follow the herd and take an LS400.
EDIT: And what about insurance? Probably limited number of specialist brokers who would touch this and of course charge a premium. You'd want an absolute cast iron agreed value policy. Imagine if you got shunted from behind a week after paying £12k for it, then find you can't get the body parts to repair it and the insurer doesn't agree it's worth anywhere near the price you paid. Not an unusual situation but with something like this I'd be even more twitchy.
Aside from the comical price, it's ugly, but bland looking all at once. It looks cheap - not in city car white goods sort of way, just cheap for a luxo-barge - or maybe naff is more appropriate. It doesn't look like it would be any fun to drive, which may not have been a selling point when new as it was designed for people to be driven IN, but let's face it most of us on here would be the one driving this, not being driven in it, so that absolutely is a factor here. Comfy on a cruise it may be, but you can get similar pleasure in many cheaper and nicer looking alternatives. Access to practical experience and knowledge, let alone sourcing parts, is going to be a challenge (imagine how much time it might spend off the road if something does go wrong).
So the only selling point I can see is the rarity value. As I said, I like niche, but for that price, with everything else against it (IMO) rarity isn't going to cut it. Not sure I'd even want it at £1k, I'd rather follow the herd and take an LS400.
EDIT: And what about insurance? Probably limited number of specialist brokers who would touch this and of course charge a premium. You'd want an absolute cast iron agreed value policy. Imagine if you got shunted from behind a week after paying £12k for it, then find you can't get the body parts to repair it and the insurer doesn't agree it's worth anywhere near the price you paid. Not an unusual situation but with something like this I'd be even more twitchy.
Edited by PoopahScoopah on Wednesday 17th January 22:40
aaron_2000 said:
Even today the inside of Japanese luxury cars still look pretty generic. They still use the same interior door locks as they did in the 90's. Build quality no-one else can match though, that's for sure.
A class and S class use the same switch gear and so does audi and VW so don t see the problem yes japanese design looks often a bit boring but mostly worksThere's a few imports here in NZ, both the older V8 and the V12. Check out the interior on this one!
There's also a few Nissan Presidents too. Not quite the same league.
There's also a few Nissan Presidents too. Not quite the same league.
There's a Toyota Century I've spotted a few times in Sunny Huddersfield, thoughg I think it's an earlier one than this. It has some kind of fantastic lace curtain 'thing' going on in the rear windows, making it look a little like a drawing room on wheels. Coming from a Vel Satis owner, this is high praise indeed.
SonicShadow said:
2006 Toyota Century V12: Regular Car Reviews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZNSaVOM3s
Wasn't planning to check YT, I have something to eat my lunch to now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZNSaVOM3s
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