There was once a time when many car manufacturers each offered station wagons to American car buyers in various sizes. In the early eighties there was even Mercury had wagons available in small, medium and large sizesand Toyota itself had three: the little Corolla, the slightly larger Corona And the lush Cressida. Today Jewel of a car graveyard is one of those Cressidas, found in a car graveyard in the birthplace of northern california by John Steinbeck.
The rear-wheel drive Cressida was available in the United States from 1978 Through 1992which continued for four generations. It descended from the Corona Mark IIAnd in fact retained the name Mark II in Japan until well into our current century. Until the Lexus LS 400 arrived here as a 1990 model, the Cressida was Toyota’s most luxurious car for the American market during its reign here; the avalon comes closest to replacing Cressida on the American market.
This generation Cressida was sold in the United States for the 1981 through 1984 model years and was closely related to the Celica Supras from the same era. That means it has an M-series overhead-cam straight-six engine driving the rear wheels. A big difference between the 1982 Cressida wagon and the 1982 Celica Supra is that the station wagon did not get independent rear suspension (the Cressida sedan did that).
In this case, the engine is a 2.8-liter 5M-E with electronic fuel injection, rated at 116 horsepower and 145 pound-feet. The curb weight was just 2,906 pounds (considerably less than that of the current Corolla), so the performance was decent for that time.
A four-speed automatic transmission with overdrive in the top gear was standard.
The MSRP for this car was $12,699, or about $42,294 in 2024 dollars. The only 1982 Toyota with a higher price in the U.S. market was the Land Cruiser four-door $13,218.
This was a car for the California market from the start, as evidenced by the emissions sticker under the hood.
The 1982 Cressida came with many standard features that were extra cost on most comparable cars (besides the automatic transmission, mind you). Air conditioning, cruise control, a rear window defroster, and a four-speaker AM/FM audio system were included.
I have found many Toyotas with many miles on the clock in car graveyards over the years, including an Avalon that drove 949,863 miles And a Camry that has driven 648,928 milesbut this Cressida barely reached the 100,000 mark in its 42-year existence.
The station wagon version of the Cressida was available in the United States from the 1978 through 1987 model years, after which it was replaced by the more expensive versions of the Camry wagon.
These cars have quite a following of enthusiasts, but that wasn’t enough to save this rust-free car from its fate on the scrap heap.
No one else can give you that feeling!
Unfortunately we never got the turbo version in our region.