1/25/2011 9:46 PM

Before we go back to the TAS show features.. Lets do one more non TAS feature.

We had the chance to visit a huge Toyota dealership in Odaiba, MEGA WEB and when we set foot in the door we knew right of the bat why it was called Mega Web. But we will  explain later what this dealership was about.

What caught our eyes in this dealership wasn’t a tricked our ride. But it was part of Toyota History. It was a 1955 TOYOPET Crown.

This was the first-generation Crown. When your in Japan all you see is Toyota Crowns as taxi cabs. So you know it came a long way from 1955. The Crown is also Toyota oldest sedan thats still in production. In many countries the crowns were replaced with the Cressida in the early 80‘s. As many may not know what we know as the Corolla 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. Since than the Crown his evolved into a full size luxury sedan by Toyota and very popular in the VIP scene.



When you look at this car, you can tell it was part of the 1955 era. You can see that Toyota was looking at the rest of the world as far as design. Although it was of a compact size it resembled a miniature 55 Chevy in a way. The huge stainless side trimmings, to the style of the bumpers, grill and hood ornament that reflected US designed cars. Even semaphores on the pillars added a touch of some euro styling.

It always amazes us to see cars like this in such good condition.