Toyota Crown History in Malaysia

The Crown was first assembled here in the early 1980s with a 2.8-litre petrol engine. Interestingly, it had a chassis frame construction like a pick-up. The price then was in the low RM30,000s. Two generations were assembled locally and in the mid-1980s, there was also a 2.2-litre diesel version which cost RM35,000 and the 2.8 petrol Super Saloon was RM47,000. I remember testing both and they had conveniences like power windows and central locking and the door locks also had auto-locks which were triggered by a metal ball bearing moving backwards. Assembly stopped after the mid-1980s as the yen shot up and large Japanese models were no longer cheap and people preferred to buy European models instead. Also, after Proton came out, the market went through 'restructuring' and companies dropped many models which would not sell in sufficiently large numbers. Later on, in the 1990s, UMWT imported Crowns mostly for its top management and they cost quite a lot but were never in the showrooms for public sale. Toyota never really pushed the Crown hard even though it was the flagship before Lexus came out. The Japanese recognised that while it was a big Japanese limousine and respected in their own market, outside Japan it was considered poorly against European limousines and in Australia, there was a time when some magazines even made fun of its name saying it was a 'Toyota Clown' and that its acceleration was so poor that you could even use the clock on the dashboard to time it! The Toyota Crown in Malaysia had a competitor in the Datsun 280C which Tan Chong also assembled in the early 1980s. This was also a large limousine and in the same price range and also had a diesel version (220C). I remember one of the 'exciting' features in the 280C was its overhead audio console which was actually an accessory supplied by National or one of those companies. It was attached to the ceiling and had a cassette player at one end and the switches were on the panel so you reached up to operate it... just like an aeroplane! Tan Chong also dropped the 280C by the second half of the 1980s. Its domestic name was Cedric, which was certainly not going to be good for markets outside Japan (just as Fairlady was not used for export versions of the 240Z). You may wonder where all those Crowns went. Well, in the late 1990s, a used car dealer in PJ Section 8 discovered that because of the chassis-frame construction of the Crown, it was a very tough car and East Malaysians liked it. So he began to buy up as many used ones as he could find in Peninsula Malaysia and did them up and then shipped them to East Malaysia and sold them for a nice profit. His buying efforts puzzled many people who wondered why someone was buying so many Crowns but before values could go up, almost all had been bought up by the guy. As for your observation about the taxis in Singapore, the Crown they have used for decades is actually a special taxi model made by Toyota which I remember was called the Crown Crew Cab. Its design didn't change for a long time and its main selling point was reliability and low operating costs. Because of its reputation, it was the choice of taxi companies down there and I think they still like it but maybe because of competition, there are attractive offers from other companies these days. I know that there are now Skoda and Sonata taxis there but a car company guy I spoke to (and he is not associated with Toyota at all) remarked that those who bought other models will probably go back to the Toyota later on because it's so well proven and very economical to run.

Car thefts down in 2010 nationally, across Savannah

Bucking national trends, Savannah’s car thieves prefer later-model vehicles with the keys already in them.
Rounding out the city’s list of the most stolen cars in 2010 are the 2011 Toyota Tundra, the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado and the 2007 Ford Taurus, according to Savannah-Chatham police.
On the national level, Asian automakers held the top three spots, with models from the early to mid 1990s appearing most often, but this year the remainder of the top 10 consisted mostly of American brands, which is unusual, said Frank Scafidi, a spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
He couldn’t say why exactly thieves shifted to domestic producers this year, but Honda and Toyota typically own the list because they own the streets, he explained.
“There’s just so many of them out there,” he said, adding the top 10 changes by location, depending on the tastes of the car owners and criminals who live there.
Thieves typically go for earlier models because they assume older cars won’t come equipped with security, but the majority of thefts in Savannah result from people leaving their keys somewhere in the automobile, said Julian Miller, metro police spokesman. Savannah’s car thieves are an opportunistic bunch, seizing vehicles when the keys are visible or after discovering a spare set during a break-in, he added.
“These guys aren’t stripping Maseratis and selling the parts overseas,” he said. “You see a car with keys in it, and you’ve got a car.”
William Hopkins III of Ardsley Park recently fell victim to exactly this when someone made off with his truck in the night. He said he accidentally left the vehicle unlocked with a set of keys resting in the console.
“The whole thing’s my fault,” he said. “I have no one to blame but myself.”
Nationally, car thefts dropped off sharply in 2010, and the same held true for Savannah, though the reason may differ, Miller said.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau credits improved technology from manufacturers, but Miller attributes the decline from 1,135 to 624 largely to Police Chief Willie Lovett’s decision to transfer greater control to precinct captains who know their area more intimately.
“His concept was you can’t have a cookie-cutter approach to crime,” he said. “You have specific issues in specific areas and they need specific tactics to address them.”
With 394 auto thefts so far this year, 2011 has largely mirrored the success of 2010, when the city posted 358 at this point.
The city’s central precinct, which runs from just west of Abercorn Extension at West 59th Street eastward to the Victory Manor neighborhood, has experienced the most auto thefts annually for many years running.
The islands precinct, which includes many east Savannah neighborhoods in addition to Wilmington Island, finished second twice in the past three years.
Miller said the problem is simple: Although the central and island precincts contain pockets of affluence, they’re also home to some of the most economically depressed areas in Savannah.
The Edgemore-Sackville neighborhood had to fight hard for the gains it made around the time in 2010 when auto theft rates improved, said Joan Williams, a former president of the neighborhood association who stepped down in 2010 after serving for nine years