The fourth generation Toyota Cressida (MX83 ) was made from 1988 to 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).
The design was simple yet elegant, almost timeless, with a typical sedan shape and almost perfect proportions. This particular example was painted in silver with black trim all around. The wheel covers were gone.
The interior was in good shape. Cushy cloth seats and lots of gray plastics. The seats are in remarkable condition. almost as new. My guess is that the previous owners always used seat covers to protect the original cloth. This is very common in China. And if you do it well, you can preserve the seats nicely indeed
. The steering wheel cover is an after-market accessory.
The Cressida had a Cressida badge on the steering wheel.
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 saw in Beijing had no engine tags, so I can’t be sure what was under the bonnet, but I did see it had an automatic gearbox.
The Toyota Cressida was not officially sold in China, but quite a few cars arrived via the gray market and diplomatic channels. Today, they are a very rare sight on the road. New emissions regulations have sent most of them to the scrapyard, and others have simply died of old age. Parts are not easy to get, so owners got to be creative when stuff needs to be replaced.
It seemed that this Toyota Cressida was at the end of the line too. Always a sad thing o see, but I am sure the car served its owners well over the years.