James Ruppert
A Toyota Century is a fine luxobarge buy but others do exist
The long and short of luxobargery
A 2003 Century cost £85k back in the day but is now £12k
Iseldom get very excited by the launch of a new car, but what I really want right now is a Toyota Century. The problem is that the very latest Century, like all the previous incarnations, is disappointingly a Japan-market-only phenomenon.
So what could we get as an alternative luxobarge? Reassuringly, there is no reason at all to spend anywhere near the £120,000 that a Century is going to set you back in the Orient.
Great big saloons may be going out of fashion, but they still make a huge amount of sense if you want a safe, comfy, long-distance-journey crusher. Getting more rare by the week is the Honda Legend. There are never many around and it is ginormously dull to look at but fairly effortless to own and drive. You can find earlier models for a few hundred pounds, but best not to really. Instead, £2990 will get you inside a 2007 model, which even has radar cruise control.
Luxobargery throws up some wonderful oddities. A Hyundai Grandeur promises a lot but only really delivers a posher Elantra. However, a 2011 one with just over 40,000 miles, a petrol V6 and such trimmings as an electric rear window blind is £5500. It is either cheap compared with a Lexus or still far too pricey. At least, it isn’t diesel.
We seem to have stayed on the Far Eastern side of the globe. There is a reason for this and maybe a pattern is emerging, although the long-inthe-tooth Vauxhall Senator would qualify. There are plenty of long-lost models from manufacturers that don’t bother with this end of the market, most notably the Nissan Maxima. Great name, another ordinary offering, though, and nowhere near as impressive as a Century. However, a tidy 2002 2.0-litre example, which was all I could find (no V6), was £1450 with a full service history.
I think I’m losing my way here because I’ve even started to consider the long-forgotten Hyundai XG350 but, like the Maxima V6, it only seems to be a thing in the US.
The thing is it is possible to buy a pukka Century. It will be an import, of course, but it will have a V12 engine and curtains. We found a 2003 car at a dealer and it looks pretty much like the latest one. Apparently, it cost £85,000 back in the day and is now a very reasonable £12,000. The even more breeze-block-shaped model from 1993 is fresh off the boat and £8995. Sadly, I don’t have a space in my life large enough for one of these, but for a hand-built icon that isn’t a Land Rover Defender, look no further.