Weird Wagons: Toyota Classic

Toyota paid tribute to its first car with 100 of these things.

We know Japanese manufacturers love a bit of retro style. It’s a national fascination with classic western design aesthetics. Our last weird wagon was perhaps the worst of this. A tragic cash grab, the Impreza Casa Blanca…

But the obsession doesn’t stop with just styling. Said manufacturers also go to lengths to pay tribute to their foundations, their first-ever cars. Some are pretty neat… others… not so much.

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This car is the 1996 Toyota Classic. It pays tribute to Toyota’s first ever car, the 1936 Toyota AA.

Here's the original 1936 Toyota AA.

The styling is remarkably spot on (which is kind of easy, given that the AA was just a straight rip-off of the Chrysler Airflow) and the Classic is even built on a ladder chassis, just like the times of old.

The '96 Toyota Classic, check out those gross alloys.

Yeah. You read that right, ladder chassis. The Classic sits on a HiLux frame. It also shares ‘90s HiLux running gear, and under the hood lies a 72kW (3Y-E) 2.0-litre four cylinder, apparently the same engine used in the Aussie version of the Daihatsu Rocky. Sadly, no V8 or V12 option here...

Nice off-the-shelf steering wheel.

Inside you’ll note the gratuitous wood trim, reasonably period-accurate seats amongst very standard Toyota switchgear shared with the HiLux and Camry. We also like the clearly off-the-shelf Nardi Torino steering wheel.

Looks pretty plush back there.

Outside the car gets either spoke-style alloys or some truly awful ones that are meant to reference white-walls (we think…). Funnily enough, there’s a full size spare underneath the car, but the wheel cover on the back is purely aesthetic.

The boot isn't tall, but it is deep.

Toyota built exactly 100 of these things, still a tall order given they would have cost (the equivalent of) a bit over AU$150,000. Can you get one? You’d probably have trouble complying it, but it’s RHD and really just a HiLux so, maybe?

Anyway, here’s a rather odd video showcasing some detail of the car: