Car Of The Day: November 19, 2011

Today's car of the day is Playart's 1971 Toyota Crown.

The Toyota Crown is a line of full-size luxury sedans by Toyota. The range was primarily available in Japan and some other Asian countries, originally designed to serve as a taxi. Throughout the Crown's production, there has always been available a minimal content Crown in the sedan bodystyle platform used as a taxi, and in the mid 1990s, Toyota created an offshoot of the Crown sedan to serve specifically as a taxi, called the Toyota Comfort. The Crown also serves as a police car nationally, as well as transporting government officials at all levels.

In Japan, it is only available at Toyota Store dealership retail channels.The Crown is Toyota's oldest sedan still in production. It is outranked only by the Century and the Majesta in social status. The Crown is used by many Japanese companies as the company limousine. In many markets the Crown had become very expensive and was replaced by the Cressida in some international markets when it became available for export in the early 1980s. Most models are distinguishable by a unique "Crown" badge on the front grille, in place of the normal stylized 'T', but the normal Toyota badge is usually used on the rear.

It was sold in the United States during the late 1950s and up until 1971. Exports to Europe began in 1964 with the first cars going to Finland. Other European countries which saw imports of the Crown included the Netherlands and Belgium. The United Kingdom was another market until the early 1980s. It was also exported to Canada for a few years—1965–68. Australia was another important export market for the Crown—to the extent that it was manufactured there from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s using many local components. Trinidad and Tobago was also another country where the Toyota market had a successful run, which saw some productions between 1960-1980.

The Crown has existed in some form post World War II, and Toyota uses the "Crown" name as inspiration for their primary sedans, the Corolla which is Latin for "small crown", the Camry a phonetic transcription of the Japanese word kanmuri that means crown, and the Corona which is Spanish for crown.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Toyota Crown

I actually saw one of these a year ago.  Very rare car in the USA- I was thrilled to spot one!

Launched in Feb 1971, the 4M 2600 engine was introduced with this generation, as was the luxurious Super Saloon trim level, followed by the Super Deluxe and Deluxe. The top of the line Royal Saloon was first introduced in the face-lifted Crown from 1973. The 2.0 liter 5R engine and the 2.0 liter M engine were also available in certain markets.

The Sedan and Wagon are coded MS60/MS65 and MS62/MS63. The Hardtop Coupe is MS70 (2.0 liter), or MS75 (2.6 liter). This generation was the first Crown marketed as a Toyota in Japan, as previous models were marketed as Toyopets. Also, in Japan, this model was known as the "blue whale" or "kujira" Crown. While the domestic market Hardtop has rectangular headlights, all export models come with twin round headlights. This model sold very badly in the US, possibly related to the futuristic styling with flush bumpers that was a bit ahead of its time. Only the first 2 years were exported. This is the last Crown to be sold in the USA. The Corona Mark II, replaced the Crown in North America.

The trunk could be opened remotely by turning the ignition key to the far left, and a button on the floor caused the radio to engage the signal seeking feature. A separate signal seeking feature was installed for rear seat passengers, installed behind the front seat facing the rear seat compartment.