Toyota Century

I got into an argument with my coworkers last week about the Toyota product line and where the Century fits in. Americans (and in fact, some Japanese) expect that the top models built by the Toyota corporation would be branded and sold as Lexus vehicles. And for the most part, they're right—often a single vehicle will have both Toyota and Lexus nameplates, and the latter is invariably the more expensive of the two.

But it turns out that the most luxurious (and spendy) consumer vehicle that Toyota sells is not, in fact, a Lexus. It's a Toyota: the Century. It's so spendy that at 11 million yen, it starts at around double the base price of the top-level Lexus series (the LS—and even the new LS600h L, which starts at a hair under 10 million yen..

The Century isn't really built for flashiness (as you can tell in the photo). It's an understated car, and if you read the wikipedia article, you'll find that the marketing material pitches the Century as a vehicle of conservative luxury. It's the car of heads of state and industry magnates, not dot-com executives.

Anyway, the Toyota Autombile Museum has a first-generation Century in their collection. They only need one other stall to display the full lineup, since the car's 30+ year run has only involved a single makeover.