A Toyota Cressida sedan, seen on a car market in the far north of Beijing in 2019. The Toyota stood alone parked partially in some bushes and it didn’t have license plates on. Happily, it was generally in a good shape but clearly in need of a bit of work and love.
The fourth generation Toyota Cressida (MX83 ) was made from 1988 until 1995 with a facelift in 1990. Our Beijing car is a post-facelift example. The MX83 Cressida was based on the sixth generation Toyota Mark II (X80).
Design was simple yet elegant, almost timeless, with a typical sedan shape and a almost perfect proportions. Even now it still looks modern. A very cool detail of the Cressida were the standard mud flaps front and rear.
The interior was in a decidedly worse shape than the exterior. Large parts of the trim were missing and the whole cabin looked dirty. Oddly, the leather seats seemed to be in a fine shape.
The Toyota Cressida sedan was available with a long list of engines, ranging from a 1.8 four to a 3.0 six-in-line. Sadly, the car I met in Beijing had no engine tags so I can’t be sure what was under the bonnet. License plates are of Liaoning Province. The Toyota Cressida was not officially sold in China but quite a few cars arrived via the gray market and diplomatic channels.