[Car History] The brand’s flagship model CROWN was born in 1955 and has undergone more than half of its evolution. As one of the earliest imported luxury cars to enter the Chinese market, the Crown has a high degree of recognition in people’s hearts. On December 25, 2012, the 14th generation of the Crown was officially released in Japan. The newly released Crown has been further improved in all aspects. At the same time as the launch of the new Crown, we will also review the development of the Crown car series.
Notes: Since the Crown car series has 14 generations of models and is longer, this article will be divided into two chapters for everyone to introduce, the first one introduces the evolution history of the first to seventh generation models.
◆ Toyota CrownOriginAnd its birth background (early 1950s)
Built specifically for the business market
In the early 1950s, in order to better meet the growing demand for corporate vehicles in Japan, Toyota began to develop the Crown sedan for business people, preparing to replace the previous RH model. However, Toyota was not sure whether the new design of the Crown would be acceptable to the market, so it also launched a slightly more conservative design of the Master model, mainly for the taxi market. However, due to the popularity of the Crown, Toyota discontinued the Master and changed its factory to produce the Crown.
The RH, also known as the Super, was the fourth generation of Toyota’s first SA line-up after World War II, when the more competitive Crown replaced the RH as the mainstay in 1955.
Toyota’s first-generation Crown (1955-1962)
Features: Compact/with open doors
In January 1955, the first generation of Toyota’s self-produced Crown sedan was officially launched, and the first Crown was personally driven off the production line by President Hideji Toyota. The crown at that time had typical characteristics of the times in terms of styling design. The first generation of the crown used a ship-shaped body, the front of the car had two independent cylindrical headlights, the prominent cover was designed with prisms, the grille was designed with two layers inside and outside, and the lower bumper was also designed to be more prominent.
The most distinctive design on the sides of the car is the folio of the front and rear doors to make it easier for passengers to get on and off. The same design was used on Toyota’s first model, the AA. The straight line at the rear of the body extends to the rear of the car, and the luggage compartment cover is designed to be streamlined.
In today’s standards, Toyota’s first-generation crown is just one, its length, width and height are: 4285mm × 1679mm × 1524mm, 2530mm, and its body size is close to today’s. The curb weight of the first-generation crown is 1152kg.
The first generation of Toyota Crown was exported overseas, so there are both left and right rudder forms. The design of the car is very simple, the shift lever is located on the side of the steering column, and the central control part is made of metal. Except for simple instrument display and light control, there are only a few functional configurations. The front and rear seats of the first generation of Crown are all integrated headless design, which can seat up to six people.
In the power part, the Crown was originally equipped with a Toyota R series 4-cylinder engine with a displacement of 1.5L and a maximum of 49 horsepower. It transmitted engine power to the rear wheels at 3 speeds. In the chassis part, the structure of the first-generation Crown was an independent front suspension and a non-independent rear suspension.
In December 1955, Toyota introduced the Crown Deluxe Edition, which turned the left and right windshields into one piece, and upgraded the radio and warm air to standard configuration. In October 1958, the Crown ushered in the first facelift, and the changes in the new car were mainly reflected in the appearance and power. The front face was redesigned, the headlights were added with a protective cover, the grille style was more holistic, the trim strips on the side of the body were extended to the rear, the trunk cover became angular, and the area of the taillights was also increased. In terms of power, the facelift model followed the R series 1.5L engine, but the power output of the standard version was increased to 61 horsepower, and the power output of the deluxe version was increased to 63 horsepower.
In October 1959, Toyota first launched the equipped Crown model, which was also the first diesel sedan in Japan. It was equipped with the Toyota C series engine with a displacement of 1.5L and a maximum power of only 40 horsepower. In October 1960, the Crown ushered in a facelift again. The new car was equipped with a new 1.9L 3R engine, and the transmission part could choose 2 speeds in addition to a 3-speed manual transmission. The 1.9L power version was originally only equipped with the Crown Deluxe Edition (maximum power 96 horsepower). In April 1961, the Crown Standard Edition was also equipped with a 1.9L engine (maximum power 86 horsepower).
In terms of special editions, the first-generation Crown was introduced as a taxi version in March 1959, in addition to two commercial vehicle editions: and.
From 1957 to 1960, the first-generation Crown became the first Japanese car to be exported to the United States, but it sold only 287 units. To promote the reliability of the Crown, Toyota held long-distance endurance races from Los Angeles to New York. Unfortunately, it did not have a positive effect because the Crown withdrew from the race shortly after the start of the race.
The Crown was "unsuitable" in the United States, because the car was only equipped with a small 1.5L engine in the face of the characteristics of Japanese road conditions at the time (mud, low speed, unpaved). The embarrassment of insufficient power caused the Crown to be criticized in the United States. Even after being upgraded to a more powerful engine, sales still did not improve.