When Toyota teased its upcoming Gazoo Racing GT3, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the Century phoenix joined Toyota’s other major brands — Toyota, Lexus, GR, and Daihatsu — with a standalone logo in the lineup. Turns out that Toyota is indeed spinning off Century into its own ultra-luxury marque. It’s part of ToMoCo’s “Five Brand Project” that will launch an “above-Lexus” family of cars.
Since its 1967 debut the Century has been the pinnacle of luxury cars in Japan. The favored car of government officials, captains of industry, and anyone important enough to employ chauffeur, it has preserved the Japanese traditions of craftsmanship, quality, and quiet grandeur in vehicular form. That’s why in almost 60 years of production there have been only three generations of the Century.
However, with the introduction of Lexus in 1989, Toyota had a new luxury marque that was supposed to represent a more premium car than those wearing a Toyota badge. That wasn’t much of an issue in the home market, where the Lexus LS and SC were Toyota Celsiors and Soarers, but things got complicated when the Lexus brand was introduced to Japan in 2005.
How could the best of the best, the ultimate flagship, still be badged a Toyota when Lexus was ostensibly the world-class luxury brand? Akio Toyoda had been exploring the idea of a car above Lexus that could take on brands like Rolls-Royce and Maybach. Century was right under his nose all along.
Then in 2023 Toyota introduced a second model to be adorned with the Century phoenix, an SUV. In a sense, the path became obvious. The Century should be positioned above Lexus, and to do that it had to become its own brand.
“In a sense, Lexus will be freer to act,” said Simon Humphreys, Toyota’s chief branding officer. “Lexus should continue to take on challenges as a pioneer. Century will take on the high-end market as the top of the top, one of one.”
To drive that point home Toyota will unveil a Century coupe at the Japan Mobility Show later this month. Traditionally Centurys have been dark, subdued colors like black or deep blue. The Century coupe is a departure from that, finished in a bright pearl orange. Humphries created the commercial introducing the coupe, which uses flowing cloth to convey the progress of Toyota from a manufacturer of looms to a maker of unrivaled automobiles.
Does this new direction finally put Century in its rightful place in the hierarchy, or is it a blasphemous deviation from decades of tradition? We shall see when the third Century model is fully revealed at the JMS.
It worries me that a brand like Toyota is focusing on expanding into the ultra-luxury market at a time when car companies are eliminating all low cost vehicles from their lineups. It seems there must be demand for a rebirth of Scion but I guess the math means there’s more profit in super expensive cars at low volume than high volume, less profitable ones. At some point there will be so little competition in that market, someone will figure it out and kickstart things all over again. My vote is to make one small car that’s available in 2 or 4 doors, hatch/wagon, and convertible forms. Such things used to exist!
Is that why they let the LS platform die?
I understand them trying to go ultra-luxury with a new shinier name, but I fear they will aim Century not above enough of present-day Lexus that their brands lineup will end up with Century replacing current-Lexus with no more cachet, and Lexus will become the Mercury of the common-person’s Toyota.
And we know what happened to Mercury, it became nothing more than a recolor Ford that died off and got replaced by the Platinum trim package. I fear for Lexus.
I admire Akio-sans ambition to extend the overall Toyota name. It is bold, however, the Century having been exactly what it was meant to be, I think the overall hurdle will be how they implement in to markets outside of Japan.
If they model the Century as exclusive as Ferrari does to their lineup, it may fair very well.
Lexus as a brand, will be safe, but the fear should be in how well they present and continue to reflect the Century brand.
When it comes to ultra-luxury, I think RR and Bentley have always missed the mark in terms of serviceability, quality, and longevity.