Toyota’s Crown jewel isn’t coming down under yet. Maybe not for a decade.
The brand is the Century. Hand-built. Quietly arrogant. It sits at the very top of Toyota’s stack, looking down on Lexus, Gazoo, and the rest. Last October, the company decided to spin it off as a standalone global marque. The rumor mill went into overdrive. Could this be Australia’s answer to the Bentley or Rolls-Royce?
Top brass from both Toyota Australia and Lexus said the same thing. We are considering it. Lexus would likely be the one selling them here. But considering is doing nothing.
Jack Hobbs, CEO of Lexus Australia, puts a dampener on the excitement. It is a study, not a promise.
“It’s certainly something that’s under study,” Mr Hobbs told CarExpert. “This is an ultra-luxury vehicle… we’re trying to understand where that would fit best… whether it’s going to fit our-market, and whether we can get for our market.”
He pauses. Then admits the hard truth. It will be a long process. Unique vehicles complicate things. There is global buzz, yes. But it is expensive, rare, and sits in a space Toyota aspires to enter rather than already occupies.
Careful consideration is the watchword. Which really means delay.
Julian Meldrum, product planning manager for Lexus Australia, gives the timeline its teeth. Late this decade. If then.
“We need to study the business case… and of course, the car… need to be developed meet all regulations.”
Years. Probably.
It isn’t just about fitting a car on a trailer. It’s about fitting a legacy into a market that doesn’t quite know what to do with it.
The stakes are high for the brand. Toyota listed Century as one of its five core pillars, right above everything else. They unveiled the Concept car last year too. A high-riding coupe. Electric sliding doors. Magazine X reported a 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 with a hybrid kick. No word on when, if ever, a production model of that beast appears.
The name itself is old news. First used in 1967. The original was a rear-wheel-drive sedan. It became the chariot for the Imperial House and Japanese political titans. Serious stuff.
In 2023, they shook things up with an SUV, built on the Toyota Kluger platform. A weird pivot, maybe. Or a necessary evolution.
But none of that changes the local reality. The import paperwork, the safety ratings, the sheer logistical nightmare of bringing a bespoke Japanese legend into the Australian fold.
Will it come? Hobbs thinks so, eventually. But not now. And certainly not quickly.
For now, we can only imagine. What does it smell like? Is it quieter than a Lexus LS? Do you press buttons to start it?
It remains a ghost. Haunting the speculation columns. Driving no one here.
Not yet.
