After the reign of the Crown, but before the Lexus, Toyota shoppers seeking a (relatively) powerful luxury sedan headed straight for the Cressida. With rear-wheel-drive and the same 156-horse 5M engine as the Supra, the '84 Cressida also came with mildly oddball- by Toyota standards- styling and relentlessly good build quality. They're almost all gone now, however, fed into the ravenous jaws of The Crusher in order to make room for more Camrys... but a fair number still live on in Alameda.

It took me a while before I even noticed Cressidas while out looking for cars to photograph for this series; they tend to look like any number of boxy 80s midsize sedans at first glance. The funky quarter windows are pure vintage Toyota, however.


And how about this hood ornament? There's still some vestige of pre-bland Toyota style here. Maybe not as much as we saw in the '75 Celica from last week, but it's something.


This Cressida probably has 250,000 miles on the clock, and we can assume it will stay alive only as long as nothing expensive breaks. It's in fairly solid shape, but I often see nicer ones in junkyards.