Crown Automobile history

But the range of products would begin to grow with the manufacturing of gasoline in 1925.

Five years later, in 1935, Crown went public, listing on the Curb Exchange, the predecessor of the American Stock Exchange.

In 1943, Crown opened its first stations in the Baltimore area, marking the start of an extensive marketing campaign.

The Toyota Crown was preceded by a number of post-war models dating back to the 1947 Toyota SA two-door saloon (below).

In September 1953, Toyota made a further step forward in saloon car manufacturing with the introduction of the SF’s successor, the RH model (above). Visually identical to the outgoing car, this ‘Super’ model was powered by a bigger 1.5-litre R-series engine.

Since its first release into the Japanese market in 1955, the Crown has served as a steady performer in the Toyota line-up for almost 60 years.

Technical Center in September 1956, and the Crown could not very well be sent to the United States without performing full-scale high-speed endurance tests.

In August 1957, Managing Director Seishi Kato and two others from Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. traveled to the United States as an advance team for exporting Toyota vehicles to the United States and began the work of establishing a sales company.

Accordingly, wholesale operations were separated from Toyota Motor Sales, United StatesA. and Toyota Motor Distributor was established in February 1958.

To address these problems, the Model RS22L series and the Model RS32L series with higher output and improved high-speed cruising performance were introduced in July 1960.

2 Assembly Plant, built exclusively for Publica production, was fully completed at the Motomachi Plant in May 1962, including ancillary facilities, establishing a platform for full-scale mass production.

Monthly sales topped 3,000 in December 1963, and looked set to reach 4,000 units.

In 1964, the Crown Eight was introduced as the top of the line full-sized Crown with Japan’s first mass-production V8 engine.

Further improvements were applied in November 1965 in the form of a newly developed in-line six-cylinder 2.0-litre M-series engine.

He purchased it in 1968 when he was stationed in Cyprus.

In 1970 the Toyota Crown was a very rare car in the UK and received many admiring glances.

All models were initially offered with a choice of 2.0-litre powerplants – 5R four-cylinder or M-series six-cylinder – although in May 1971 a larger 2.6-litre 4M straight six was introduced to saloon and coupe models to enlarge consumer choice.

The fifth-generation Crown saloon arrived on the market in October 1974, neatly coinciding with the model’s twentieth anniversary.

In October 1977, Toyota used the Crown to unveil its first diesel-powered passenger car.

Thanks to the success of this model, Toyota added two more diesel models to the home market line-up in September 1978.

Soon after launch, cumulative production topped 1,500,000 and by April 1979 the two millionth Crown had rolled off the assembly line.

A further innovation applied to this generation Crown included the arrival of Toyota’s first turbocharged passenger car engine in October 1980.

The sixth-generation Toyota Crown ceased production in Japan in August 1983 and Toyota GB took the decision to discontinue the model line at this point in order to make room for the smaller Toyota Camry as the manufacturer’s largest family saloon car.

My dad rebuilt the engine in about 1991.

In 2000, Toyota released a limited run of a modern rebuilt RS Crown called the Origin (which sold for ¥7,000,000)

Toyota’s breakthrough hybrid technology, “Hybrid Synergy Drive,” debuts in the all-new 2004 Prius.

In its 50th year in the United States, Toyota introduces the 2008 Toyota Tundra, as well as the second-generation of its iconic Scion xB and the world’s first V8 hybrid, the Lexus LS 600h.

In December 2012, Toyota debuted the fourteen generation of the Crown under its “Re-born” branding and did so with a jaw-dropping exterior in hot pink.

Toyota commits to an additional $13 billion investment in the United States by 2020; including $800 million into artificial intelligence and robotics research through the Toyota Research Institute.