2018 Toyota Century is straight outta the 90s and is awesome!

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You may not know much about the Toyota Century; unless you’ve lived in Japan, there’s almost no reason for you to even realize the Toyota Century exists. Launched in 1967, the hand-built flagship sedan/limousine has only ever been sold in its home market, and even there, it’s a sort of an anti-halo car. Istead of showing them off, using them to highlight the level of craftsmanship Toyota’s builders are capable of achieving, Toyota relegates them to special dealerships. You have to be invited to buy one, and the process isn’t exactly linked to your social media following: It’s popular with businessmen possessed of extremely conservative taste and nothing to prove. The Emperor is driven in one.

Toyota rolled out a brand-new Century at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show. Like the return of Halley’s Comet or a continent-spanning solar eclipse, the debut of a new Century is a momentous occasion -- in part because it just doesn't happen very often. Consequently, I’m thinking more about the model than I normally do.

What is it about the Century that is so endlessly fascinating? A lot of times, car geeks get attached to vehicles because they’re not sold in our home markets. Admittedly, that’s part of what drew me to the Century in the first place. I also happen to love its looks, which are a sort of case study in what happens when you freeze a design language moments after the first car rolls down the line and then slightly defrost it for minor modifications, rarely, over the next fifty years. You might not understand why anyone would buy something that looks vaguely like a pre-oil crisis Lincoln product. I can't get enough of it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree here; in any case, the style question doesn’t really invalidate my argument: When it comes to luxury cars, other manufacturers have a lot to learn from the Century’s effortless confidence.

You may not know much about the Toyota Century; unless you’ve lived in Japan, there’s almost no reason for you to even realize the Toyota Century exists. Launched in 1967, the hand-built flagship sedan/limousine has only ever been sold in its home market, and even there, it’s a sort of an anti-halo car. Istead of showing them off, using them to highlight the level of craftsmanship Toyota’s builders are capable of achieving, Toyota relegates them to special dealerships. You have to be invited to buy one, and the process isn’t exactly linked to your social media following: It’s popular with businessmen possessed of extremely conservative taste and nothing to prove. The Emperor is driven in one.

Toyota rolled out a brand-new Century at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show. Like the return of Halley’s Comet or a continent-spanning solar eclipse, the debut of a new Century is a momentous occasion -- in part because it just doesn't happen very often. Consequently, I’m thinking more about the model than I normally do.

What is it about the Century that is so endlessly fascinating? A lot of times, car geeks get attached to vehicles because they’re not sold in our home markets. Admittedly, that’s part of what drew me to the Century in the first place. I also happen to love its looks, which are a sort of case study in what happens when you freeze a design language moments after the first car rolls down the line and then slightly defrost it for minor modifications, rarely, over the next fifty years. You might not understand why anyone would buy something that looks vaguely like a pre-oil crisis Lincoln product. I can't get enough of it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree here; in any case, the style question doesn’t really invalidate my argument: When it comes to luxury cars, other manufacturers have a lot to learn from the Century’s effortless confidence.