This might just be the cleanest, most original MS55 Toyota Crown in the United States. It was purchased new in 1970 by an elderly woman in Butte, Montana, and comes with a thorough ownership history, including the original sticker and sales card from Knievel Imports (of Evel Knievel fame)
The odometer reads just 51,931 miles and judging from the vinyl interior, it’s the first time around the clock for these digits.
However, a 40-year-old car, even one that’s been mostly stored for the past 10 years, is not without its blemishes. The rear quarters have been repainted at some point and the C. Opal paint doesn’t quite match perfectly. A few dings and paint chips are scattered throughout, but they’re nothing that can’t be easily restored.
The interior is in astonishing condition, aside from a small tear in the lumbar area of one seat and some warpage on the right corner of the dash pad — amazingly, it hasn’t cracked.
Even this kanji sticker has traveled on the front bumper for lo these years (though it seems to have been affixed upside-down). Can any Japanese readers translate?
And here’s the first owner Mrs. Gorsh, in a photo taken around 1990, and the car she affectionately named “Mamie”. Click to eBay to see the auction.
Hat tip to willhaven.
From the questions section
“The sticker on the bumper is the three Japanese characters representing TO-YO-DA for the then common Japanese version of the name, Toyoda… Later replaced by Toyota as Toyoda is literally translated as “fertile rice paddies” and was seen as unfavorable in the American Market. The sticker is extremely rare to still be on the vehicle and you will probably find the same symbols engraved on several of the parts 🙂 Rusty”
Looks like a decent example. Definitely deserves a full restoration.
No, that sticker does not say “toyoda”. It says “export” (輸出).
AKADriver is correct and beat me by a few minutes lol good job (ゆしゅつ 輸出)
I see another almost classic Honda Accord CA in the background. 🙂
Montana again… Birthplace of american crowns!
Ah, thanks for the correction. I don’t know Japanese so I could not verify it. I thought it looked quite different from this
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/1436298801_55e6d281c0.jpg
I was about to say the SAME thing, Banpei. I love the 3rd gen(86-89) Accords. I’ve owned 3 of them. As a matter of fact, I just sold one, a tan 89 DX, just a few months ago… to some kid. It was his 1st car.
I’ve just seen it, like 2-3 months ago coming off a highway exit, when I was going onto the exit. 🙂
Yup. It says 輸出 (upside down) which means export.
BTW, Toyoda is never used on the vehicle. It’s the family name of the founder and also the town name where Toyota is located, but not used on the car.
MY HEART HURTS!!! I die a little more every time I see this. It’s at $5000!! Last night it was at $2500, and it started at $1500! “SIGH” Every time one of these comes up for sale, it’s at the worst time for me financially. Oh well….someday my ship will come in, and it will have a Crown on it!
This thing is uber clean, although they should have had the whole car painted. The warped dash pad seems to be common on these cars.
Sigh 🙁
Did you save up yr bottles yet ?
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/saskatoon/toyota-crown-deluxe-1970/1351878079?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
Wow – other than the dash pad that’s a super clean interior. The rust showing in the metal makes me feel that this one looks to be on the verge of perhaps needing a proper paint job, and perhaps one or two emblems, but this would be an easy one to show at JCCS, then paint and freshen, then show again!
yeah if not for my corona, i’d make an effort on this auction! good stuff…
Dig this, the Mooneyes crew seems to have one the auction. It is being offered on their Japanese website for the paltry sum of ¥1.8 million or $21,663. Nice!
http://www.mooneyes.co.jp/garage/car_s/crown2_3_2011/index.html
This car is in great condition.I had the chance to talk to the owner who had purchase this Crown from the original owner. I myself have two of the Crown one is a 1968 and the other is a 1969 also low mileage but need a restoration which will be an easy one.I had a 1958 Toyopet Crown which I sold to a Toyota dealer in Puerto Rico .
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/saskatoon/toyota-crown-deluxe-1970/1351878079?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true