A Toyota Cressida-based Paragon prototype has surfaced in a California junkyard

An extremely weird car has appeared in a California junkyard. It’s a Paragon sedan, essentially a Toyota Cressida dressed up to look like it’s from the 1930s. Though fitted with skirted fenders flanking an elongated hood and upright grille, as well as a bustle-butt rear, the greenhouse area is unmistakably that of an X60 Cressida.

Like Excalibur or Mitsuoka, Paragon sought to build a neoclassical car on a then-modern drivetrain and chassis. According to Cars That Never Made It, the 1985 Paragon was conceived by the Paragon Motor Coach Company of San Marcos, California.

They were even able to dig up an old ad with an elegant illustration of the car. The copy says that there will only be a limited number of them built, but doesn’t specify how many. It also states that the Paragon never got past the prototype stage. If so, this junkyard car is a — possibly the — prototype.

Under the baroque bodywork was a Toyota 5M-GE, surrounded by stock cooling, emissions, and electrical equipment. However, the long nose added several inches of space between the grille and the radiator. A new core support was fashioned and the strut towers moved forward to a position ahead of the radiator.

The ad boasted that the Paragon would be “powered by one of the smoothest and most reliable twin cam six cylinder engines available today,” which was a fairly accurate description of the 5M. It also talks about the “outstanding chassis,” and if there ever was a suspension capable of handling the weight of all that extra bodywork, the stiffly sprung X60’s was it.

There appears to have been no attempt to hide the Cressida’s interior. The blocky dash, the two-spoke D-shaped steering wheel, the T-handle gear selector are all there, unchanged. All Toyota and Cressida insignias have been removed, replaced by Paragon badges. The optional digital instrument cluster and center console trip computer didn’t make it, perhaps for being too futuristic.

There was also a limousine variant planned. The original Cressida had an immensely smooth ride but was not exactly speedy. Its stiff suspension was designed to reduce body roll, not corner. A stretched Paragon seems like a lot of weight for the 143-horsepower and 154 lb-ft of torque to pull.

We could only find one digital photo of the Paragon. It looks like it was shown near a Toyota display at an auto show. Finished in dark blue, it could very well be the exact car found in the junkyard.

The trunk even has contains what appear to be parts removed from the original Cressida. There’s a couple of window frames from the original’s C-pillar opera windows. Whoever owned it all these decades probably had a bunch of items related to the Paragon’s creation.

The odometer reads 45,798 miles, but we’ll never know if those were accumulated before or after the conversion. According to the Paragon’s VIN it started life as a 1983 Cressida, so it could have been driven quite a bit before undergoing the knife. Regardless, that mileage nothing for a 5M.

If you’re interested in the car, it’s located at an LKQ recycling yard in Chula Vista, California.We doubt anyone is crazy enough to save it, so this is likely the last we’ll ever be hearing of the Paragon.

Special thanks to Dennis David and Ray Guerra.