Toyota Century VG45

The first-generation Century (G20/G30/G40, 1967–1997) launched as Toyota's response to demand for a Japanese luxury limo that would not be mistaken for a Crown taxi. The car was built on the 1967 (S50) Crown platform but stretched, re-bodied, and re-engineered: 3.0-litre, 3.4-litre, and finally 4.0-litre V8s drove the rear wheels through a 3- or 4-speed automatic — or, until 1974, a column-shift 3/4-speed manual. Toyota declined to use an inline-six in the Century because the engine bay weight and (at the time) the V8-vs-I6 marketing competition with the Nissan President demanded V8 power.

Across thirty years of production the styling barely moved. A longer platform arrived in 1989, on which a true Century limousine variant was built — extended rear cabin, opera window in the B-pillar — giving Japanese buyers a domestic alternative to the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and Cadillac de Ville imports of the era. Interior changes through the run were modest: cassette recorder, Japan-only signal TV with remote, rear-cabin stereo, automatic climate control from 1973 onward. Engine fuel injection, transmission upgrades, lighting revisions, and the 1974 switch from column-shift manual to floor-shift electronic 4-speed automatic comprise most of what changed in three decades.