And much nicer than the first Lexus I saw/rode in, which was an obviously rebadged and re-trimmed Camry. ES series I think, can't remember the numbers after ES, a thoroughly forgettable early attempt. They should have started with the Cressida but that's my opinion and they seem to have done OK without my input :-)
@@justinb9223 Wow, nice! Lucky guy. I absolutely would have no complaints about owning one and put in my (tastefully done) very high quality sound system. They're good cars.
@@justinb9223 I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one today. Even if I had to restore the outside and/or the the interior, so long as the drivetrain was good, it would be worth it.
My parents had an '88 Cressida. It was a great car! It had all of the options. I got into an accident with it when I first got my license. A Chevy 1500 truck was going the wrong way on the highway and smashed into the front of the Cressida. The Cressida was totaled, but I did not have a scratch on me and the car still turned on after it was completely smashed.
My mom drove an 88 also. My freshly licensed brother was involved in an accident on the interstate vs a semi-truck and got bounced around like a pinball. The car was severely crushed on every corner. Surprisingly the insurance repaired it instead of totaling it. I drove and enjoyed the car for a number of years afterwards. Seeing them now brings back memories of the velour seats and all of the 1980s glory. My brother and sister were also not harmed whatsoever in the crash, impressive for a non-airbag car.
While the Cressida, was discontinued in the States in 1992 and eventually replaced by the Avalon, in Japan the Mark II as it was called there, carried on for 3 more generations for a total of 9 when it was replaced in 2004 by the Mark X. The Mark X is getting long in the tooth now as it's 2nd generation has been around since 2009. About the same size as the current Camry, it's still a RWD vehicle with optional AWD.
given the 1st lexus was the ES 250 ..which was nothing more than a dressed up camry..the Cressida was the better buy..Toyota learned their lessen and later came back strong with the LS 400...
John Drake they came out at the same time, but the ES was kind of a last-minute thing after they realized they spent all their time on the LS and didn’t have a more affordable counterpart to it
Hell yeah thats right😎✌am from the middle East persicly from Dubai I treasure a 1993 cresida wagon that use to be my dad's , intiriour & extiriour all stock to the bone I just made an engine swap to 1jz twin turbo!! I enjoy driving it on weekends more than my 2013 rangrover sport..this car got big time lagasy over here & got A LOT OF ADMIREREs over here❤ sorry for the book though🤣
@ATCkeepsUsafe In the gulf states (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar), American car brands are actually pretty popular. Not ad popular as Japanese and Korean but definitely more popular than most European brands. Crown Vic, Caprice, Tahoe, Expedition, Charger...etc
It sure beats all of these slow-ass cars trying waaay too hard to look aggressive and sporty. The amount of times I see some hatchback with red trim, aggressive lines, big rims and it turns out it has 75 hp lol
Maximas and Cressidas are what started the "sports/luxury" sedan segment from Japan. Now one is pure Cruiser type and the Max is struggling to try to hold on to its sporty image!
Awesome. I had one, black with dark red leather. One of my favorite cars ever, that smooth inline 6 and perfect ride/handling mix. If I could buy a new one today I would.
@@donaldloukjr.7260 Maybe the reason why people buy foreign like Toyota and Honda is because of reliability reputation, I'm not saying American vehicles are unreliable because my dad owns a Chevy Colorado 2007 and it's run like a charm.
Rally Rallo well I don't know you could be right it's possible but I still don't think people should continue to buy him that's why I feel our American Sales are down because of people buying too much that's why we lost the US market will you still want have a u.s. market but it's no longer US market and that makes me sad that we lost so many brands of our American cars because of the foreign parts or because they weren't selling or because the company had to file bankruptcy like General Motors or the company changing names and being sold or bought out by another company there's so much that's killing our brands of our American cars in the US and it makes me sick that we lost the US market to the overseas people China Japan Germany Mexico Canada Korea it just makes me sick that we lost our US market to these countries and more overseas that continue to ruin our sales and that's why people keep buying like you said Toyotas and Nissans Hondas I don't care where the stuff is made the names aren't American made they're not American names and that's what burns me up about it and just makes me sad and sick to my stomach that we lost the US market in the US we don't longer have a u.s. market because of people keep buying this junk but still killing ourselves as causing our factories to move out of the u.s. and go overseas which is not right that's why people need to start buying them or American cars they have American names like Chevy Ford Dodge why do people buy foreign like you said maybe because they're more reliable but they break down to and I don't want to kill the American economy cuz it's ruined enough and people just continue to destroy it and it just makes me sick it disappoints me that allow this to happen it should never signed that foreign trade with NAFTA that was a stupidest dumb mistake ever made and look what problems it's caused us or US market as far as our car business truck van SUV have a good day peace
@@donaldloukjr.7260 you sound like the one with no brains and all useless anger. Lol. Common sense car enthusiasts would know what a good car and whats not a good car, Japanese have a fleet of dependable, fun cars that can be tuned for whatever discipline you want to pursue. Drift, autoX, track, drag, etc.. Stop making a mockery of yourself, you give everyone a giggle while you're all upset. Lol
Holy shit, those walls of punctuation-free, redundant text were a pain to wade through. Free market provided us with better cars. Imagine how much worse American cars would’ve been in the 80’s had they been granted the gift of no foreign competition. Even the Oldsmobile Cutlass’s badge falls off in Motorweek’s video. See for yourself.
I bought this as my first car about 2-3 years ago for $700 with about 60,000 miles on it and in a pretty good condition. Only downside is the last owner removed the radio :/ Anyways I have owned and drove it plenty of times now and I have been able to drive other cars since I got it and I have to say I love the way it drives and how much window space there is. A lot of vehicles I've driven I feel like there are too many blind spots and with the Toyota Cressida that isn't the case at all. Besides the way it drives, the comfort of the seats, and how clearly you can see out, it does have downsides though. Since it's rear wheel drive, during the winter it's really dangerous to drive and the back likes to fish tail. Also with the one I bought the air conditioner only gives you the option of cool air on high or hot air (after its finally warmed up) on high. The last downside is that there aren't any cup holders, but that's a given since it's an older car. All in all even though my Toyota Cressida has downsides the upsides out way them in my opinion and I love the car!
Will go down as one of the worst ideas in history to actually become law. The seat belt that puts itself on, but you STILL have to buckle the lap belt. Had a friend who was hurt bad in an accident bcz she never thought she had to buckle the lap belt. Another friend told me he didn't have to buckle the lap belt because of the auto shoulder belt. Huge sense of false security.
Christopher Waits Toyota was still considered a "Japanese car", meaning inexpensive and flimsy in 1985. A Cadillac or Lincoln was a premiere luxury car and paying $17-20K for a Japanese car was considered outrageous. Yes, hard to believe, but the average American consumer didn't see Japanese cars as anything more than sensible "small" cars. The same could be said of BMW cars in the mid 70's, a tiny 2002 cost as much as a Cadillac, only liberal, college educated professionals bought them. Besides, all cars back then required frequent maintenance to keep them operational and reliability was more of a thing of the car not falling apart and burning out the engine inside of 100,000 miles. Retrospect isn't a thing that should be used to criticize the past as the future hadn't been written yet......
WestSide I really don’t have that much time but here’s the top hits: MKII Supra MKIII Supra MKIV Supra ST-165 Celica Alltrac ST-185 Celica Alltrac AW11 MR2 SW20 MR2 ZZW30 MR2 UCF10 Lexus LS400 UCF20 Lexus lS400 SC300 SC400 Every version of the 4Runner Every version of the LandCruiser I can do this all day. Every one of those are better cars.
@@negativeindustrial I've owned multiple cars on that list- all JDM versions. LS400 I owned Celsior, SC300 I owned Soarer, MkIII Supra I had with 1JZ-GTE engine. I also owned a Cresta GT Twin Turbo (GX71) and that was honestly my favorite car of the bunch.
WestSide You slept on the SW20 Turbo. That’s where you fucked up IMO. It basically ruins you for all other cars. My ST-205 and my UCF20 haven’t moved an inch in two years.
itsmegp46 build quality and materials were top notch. This extended into the late 90s and early 2000s for Japanese cars. The reason why their build quality was outstanding was because of the yen. The japanese had so much money to burn on R&D, they manufactured 3 different versions of some models sometimes with their own distinct bodies. They dumped some of the craziest technologies on cars back then. In Japan, you could get a JDM "Cressida" with parking sonars, rear seat TV, cabin air cleaner, electric folding mirrors, twin turbo, 5 speed manual trans and a limited slip differential. Even the solid thunk of a 90's Toyota cannot be matched by whatever the bean counters are forcing them to make now unless its a Lexus.
CACressida I respectfully disagree. We are in fact now in a golden age of automobiles. Cars that can go 110,000 miles between tuneups, that will easily slide past 300,000 miles. Electric mirrors and cabin air cleaners are nothing new. Chrysler had cabin air cleaners in their cars equipped with air conditioning way back in 1955. Today's cars have anti-lock brakes, a hundred airbags, brake assist, traction control, multi-geared transmissions just to name a few.
Thanks Motorweek for posting this Retro Review for the '85 Cressida. My family bought one new, and it was a great car. It certainly drew lots of looks in it's day because, as you say, there just wasn't much of anything that looked like it in its day. Audi meets Park Avenue. There wasn't anything like it on the street. As a longtime viewer, I remember seeing this review back in 1985, and remember how the conservative/ahead of its time styling caught my eye.
@@FloridaPlayzYT yes, this generation came out for the 1985 model year. It was Toyota's luxury car, which was eventually discontinued when Toyota debuted it's new luxury brand, Lexus, in 1989.
I learned to drive in one of these. My grandmother had one. It was an extremely reliable and comfortable car. It was also pretty fast with that Supra engine. It had more buttons and doo-dads than any car I've had since. I really miss it.
I had one back in the day. The outside was pretty slick looking...the flush side windows were rare back then. But when a friend would get inside for the first time, the reaction was always "WOW! This is a Toyota??" My dad called it a rolling bordello because of the plush seats that were as overstated as the Buicks and Caddys of the day. One of the nicer cars I've owned.
Dajour D we are in the same page buddy😎 shining like a star..except that i got it from my dad and am in my 20s & it got a twinturbo engine under the hood😁✌(deadly serious)
@MotorWeek Do you have a video on the 85 Nissan Maxima. My Aunt had one, I remember when you opened the door and it said door is ajar door is ajar.. haha
You're so right. I bought an 89 CRX HF that never needed anything but oil, tires and one clutch over the 125,000 miles I put on it. Plus being the high fuel economy model, I once drove from Philly to Boston on three quarters a tank of gas. It was amazingly reliable. I wish I kept it but a mustang cobra had my name on it (which incidentally was nowhere near as reliable lol)
This era was a particularly bad period of time for American engineering. Lack of R&D, poor marketing, corporate raiding of profits, and ridiculous union labor lead to an unsustainable American car market that ultimately produced, with few exceptions, POS's on the road. I
I always thought the Cressida to be Toyota's answer to Nissan's new Maxima. Yet the Cressida was rear dive, and if available with a 5 spd., even better. And for once, had a nicer engine than Nissan. Cushy Japanese version of American luxury interior with new (for the day) electronic dodads. They were around here and there when a few years old, came and went, and are nowhere to be seen these days. A rare bird.
I miss the front engine, rear-wheel drive Toyota Cressida. Why it was ever discontinued in favour of the front engine, front-wheel drive Avalon is beyond me.
pbfloyd13 The LS is a large car, with lots of available space. Most of their other rwd cars have very tight back seats. Their fwd ES, based on the Camry is in sharp contrast very roomy,
Oh the memories, I owned an ‘86 about 24 years ago. Fantastic car, more than adequate power, less than adequate handling but it wasn’t pretentious enough to think it was a BMW 5 series. Great highway cruising car with decent MPG. They really don’t make em like they used to...
Hi, I have the same cressida :) but I don't know how works the automatic seat belt :( the automatic seat belt move into the car it's okay, but it's always free loose, it's normal?
I'll take this car way before I'll take anything the Big 3 made in 1985 sedan wise. Period. This was and still is an excellent car. That straight 6 is legend. Especially when you compare it to what the Big 3 were putting out back then.
My parents owned a 1982 Maxima but we always felt the Cressida was probably a better car. I didn't realize it had sporting pretensions, though; I always thought it was a softly-spring luxury car.
Someone at my college used to drive one of these. I would see it in the same parking deck I always used to park in, and it was in remarkably good shape! It was just so funny seeing it parked next to more beefed up/swollen/bulky modern cars. I know this was considered a mid-size back then, but now it might be considered a compact just because of how much cars grew over the last few decades.
My 1985 Cressida really looked good, and it gradually became even more stylish as the years went on. :-) I liked it a lot, but it rusted out after 15 years in a cold climate with lots of road salt.
They don’t make them like this anymore. No useless tech and things that will break in a few years. Just quality, comfort, performance, and reliability!
Yes and no. The Avalon did take the place of the Cressida in Toyota’s lineup, but the Lexus GS was the closest we got to it from 1993 on. The car was produced until 2007 in Japan.
Will the word Asian sound racist in 15 years? How did oriental come to sound racist? The orient is the old way of referring to that part of the world. But...
A lot of posts here that have no idea of what they are talking about. The Cressida is legend and in Canada it didn't come with the stupid seat belts. I've owned four and they were all great and extremely reliable. My current '85 has 70, 000 miles and runs awesome. It also attracts a lot of admirers. We love to roll in this motoring classic from Japan.
Well said if you weren't alive in the 80's then you don't understand the history when Toyata, Honda , Datsun had arrived. Hence look at. early Celicas, Accords, Preludes,Maxima's ; Man they came out balling!😎
If you happen to be selling one in future, please let me know?? My name is Cressida... and I want to someday own a Toyota Cressida.. bc it just makes sense to meeee
My dad’s car growing up was a gold one. It was fairly extravagant, but he had driven an old yellow Corolla until the driver door literally fell off, he had to tie it on with string to drive it to the dealer. So he had earned an upgrade.
That straight 6 from Toyota is bullet proof you can get 400,000 out these and still going the best Toyota made. This car made Toyota what is today excellent quality even for the 1980's
My parents had an 86 camry. It had that same overdrive button. I had forgot all about the overdrive button until I saw this. It was that same steering wheel and the dash was similar. But the Camry wasn't as luxurious, it was FWD and it was a lot cheaper.
Demosthenes409 Yeah, somehow it got decided, for no apparent reason, that Oriental was "offensive" when describing people. I think that happened some time in the 90s, when the whole politically correct train really started gaining steam.
That's a very true comment but I find that everyone is trying to follow BMW and the new Jaguar these days more than ever .. Lexus, Hyundai, Kia even the new Maserati Ghibli. Put together they really all look a lot alike especially in the side and rear design treatments.
TEDdotcom Practically everything in the 80s looked the same. Angular shapes and little to no curves. A 1984 Nissan 300ZX looks too much like a 1985 Corvette for example. One reason people spent a huge amount on a SAAB 900 was because it wasn't angular in design.
Yeah. Toyota definitely outclassed Nissan in every way in the 80s. Even in Japan, The President (nissans top offering) was basically equivalent to the Toyota Crown...which wasnt even Toyota's top level sedan. That said, imagine the price shock if Toyota would have sold the Century here? As nice as they were (and as HUGE as they were by Japanese standards of the time) you were still talking about a car the size of a GM G body Lol
I had one of these and was a really nice car. It went up in flames though one day because of a oil leak and ??. Not sure what happened just driving and someone honked pointing to the flames coming from underneath. After that it was history.
My father, a mechanic, fixed up a first generation model for someone back in the day. It was black, and I think it had a five speed. That was my first time knowing about the Cressida.
