The shrieking night in my brain grows louder as the stars shine bright above. CRESSIDA is its shrill call. CRESSIDA is that against which I have no power. CRESSIDA is what I require.
The Cressida was Toyota’s proto-Lexus. It was their first stab (at least in the American market) to say that Japanese cars were not simply dinky and cheap and economical; they could be big and luxurious and well-made, too.
Toyota sold them in the US from the mid ‘70s through the early ‘90s, though if you look past the name, Toyota continues to sell these cars as the Mark X. Before that, Toyota sold the same car that we know as the Cressida as the Mark II since all the way back in 1968, part of the Japanese auto industry assertion into the global market with really world-class products.
It is the mid-80s Cressida that now most viciously clutches to my brain folds. Cheap, rear-drive boxes, simple and with straight sixes. A manual transmission and a later engine (all the way up to the whatever-power-you-want 2JZ) is not uncommon.
They are proudy cars, and the villainous howls that take me in the dark wish to turn that spirit to violence, shredding tires in a retired business sedan. Not fast, just reckless.
Photo Credits: Toyota
Contact the author at raphael@jalopnik.com.