Home » Ever Wonder Who Or What The Cressida Was Named For?: Cold Start

Ever Wonder Who Or What The Cressida Was Named For?: Cold Start

Cs Cressida
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Remember the Toyota Cressida? This 1978 one (the name lasted until 1992) is an attractive coupé, looking a lot like a similarly pillar-less Mercedes-Benz 280CE, but maybe even arguably a touch more stylish. I mean, the ad does say you can display your “good taste and personal prestige” in one of these, even if it looks a bit like a Mustang II to me now that I look at it again. I still kinda like it. What’s really unusual about these, though, I think is their name.

Cs Cressida Rear

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

You see, Cressida is a woman’s name, which would certainly not be unusual in itself for a car name, especially a Japanese car of roughly this era, which included such cars as the Gloria or the Silvia. What makes is odd is that the name Cressida is most commonly associated with a woman who lived during the Trojan War, and her story involves her declaring her love for a Trojan prince, but then ending up with a Greek warrior, and as a result she’s become sort of a symbol for a disloyal lover.

Not really what you’d think a carmaker would want to name a car after, but who am I to judge?

Cressida

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It’s also worth noting that Cressida is one of the leads in what’s generally considered one of Shakespeare’s crappier plays,Trolius and Cressida

Huh. Who knew?

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Chris Lewis
Chris Lewis
1 year ago

I’d always assumed the Cressida was the butt of the old Simpsons line, “People don’t want cars named after hungry Greek broads!”

Harmon20
Harmon20
1 year ago

I always thought it was a reference to salad micro-greens. Wh? Because Japan.

Harmon20
Harmon20
1 year ago
Reply to  Harmon20

My kingdom for an Edit button.

Iwannadrive637
Iwannadrive637
1 year ago

Looks like she could grip a steering wheel with those toes.

Anthony Henderson
Anthony Henderson
1 year ago
Reply to  Iwannadrive637

First thing I noticed, too, embarrassed to say.

Lew Schiller
Lew Schiller
1 year ago

As if on cue this supre cleam 78 just popped up on Obscure Cars
https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/465828792234728?media_id=2&ref=share_attachment

$6,000

Lew Schiller
Lew Schiller
1 year ago
Reply to  Lew Schiller

Super Clean…for God’s Sake can we get an edit function?

Irv Warden
Irv Warden
1 year ago

“You see, Cressida is a woman’s name, which would certainly not be unusual in itself for a car name, especially a Japanese car of roughly this era, which included such cars as the Gloria or the Silvia. ”

Mercedes is, perhaps, the best known woman’s name used for an automobile.

Gubbin
Gubbin
1 year ago
Reply to  Irv Warden

Though Portia is also well-known.

Lumpy Tapioca
Lumpy Tapioca
1 year ago

A reader mail comment on Car and Driver that I’ve long remembered:

I write the songs and I name the Toyotas.
– Berry Manilow

FlyingMonstera
FlyingMonstera
1 year ago

“It’s named after the Shakespeare play, of course” because that’s what my Japanese mum told me 8 year old me. Strange spec – no wing mirrors so not JDM, no door mirror so not Euro.

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
1 year ago
Reply to  FlyingMonstera

Might be a catalog used globally, so therefore no mirrors at all so as to not cause confusion. Or they were shot early, before Toyota had had time to develop the door mirrors. But I speculate.

Lew Schiller
Lew Schiller
1 year ago

What I noticed is her toes in the painting. The long second toe is a genetic trait also found in athletes.
https://atlasbiomed.com/blog/can-foot-shape-ancestry-reveal-anything-about-your-origins/

CatMan
CatMan
1 year ago
Reply to  Lew Schiller

I saw that too! To me it looks like the artist did not know how to draw feet so he gave them more hands

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
1 year ago
Reply to  CatMan

That’s a painting of Uma Thurman! I’d recognize those toes anywhere.

https://www.google.com/search?q=uma+thurman+toes&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS770US770&oq=uma+thurman+toes

SLIDTossedPissedinto BleuCHSaladwCroutons
SLIDTossedPissedinto BleuCHSaladwCroutons
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

I dont even WANT to know how… you managed to do that.

CRX89
CRX89
1 year ago
Reply to  Lew Schiller

The Royal Toe, a sign of beauty, dominance and intelligence. The greeks believed it came from the gods. Associated with RH- blood.

Thomas Metcalf
Thomas Metcalf
1 year ago

Maybe they were trying to corner the hoplite demographic.

kingRidiculous
kingRidiculous
1 year ago

This makes me mourn the loss of the upscale coupe as a car product category. Now everything is a 4-door CUV/SUV shaped like a lozenge (in grey, black, white or silver.)

Nic Periton
Nic Periton
1 year ago

Unfortunately the name has gained an extra level of notoriety in recent months. Cressida Dick (her actual surname) was the recently deposed head of London’s Metropolitan Police. She was described as presiding over a culture of corruption, incompetence and cover up by an independent report. Despite being supported by 70% of officers and the home secretary ( a woman who would have deported her own parents) she was deemed a liability by none other than Boris Johnson.

MATTinMKE
MATTinMKE
1 year ago
Reply to  Nic Periton

I’m not up on my British politics, but if Boris thinks you’re a liability…

Mr. Frick
Mr. Frick
1 year ago

Love the look of those steelies without trim rings. They are the epitome of “good taste and personal prestige”.

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
1 year ago

Interesting comparison with the Benz; I think it’s how the rear deck seems disproportionately long, but somehow just works. But my first thought was the Mustang II. This is if Ford had gotten it right.

MATTinMKE
MATTinMKE
1 year ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

I see the Mustang II as well. The Benz is just classier, IMHO.

Citrus
Citrus
1 year ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

Yeah this is kind of a perfected 1970s Ford and honestly I appreciate that.

Aaron Headly
Aaron Headly
1 year ago

The second pic (“cs_cressida_-rear.jpg”) shows what appears to be damage to the rear wheel arch. I’d bet Toyota’s California folks made this brochure using shipped vehicles, and the red one had a ding.

(My family has experience with Toyota’s delivery skills circa 1976-1981, and they were not great.)

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron Headly

This isn’t a US-spec car; it has the slimmer international bumpers and the Cressida hardtop coupe wasn’t sold here, just the 4-door sedan and the wagon, and I’ve never seen a US-spec wagon of this generation without woodgrain.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
1 year ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

Since the pictures seem to be from a brochure with the text in English, would this car have been Canadian spec? As for the ding, could be that it’s just a crinkle in the brochure itself. Otherwise, that’d be some Ford-level attention (or lack thereof) to detail which would be pretty apropos in light of the frequent comparisons of the Celica to the Mustang & now this comparison of the Cressida to the Mustang II (lolsob.)

Beached Wail
Beached Wail
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron Headly

I have a brochure for the 1970 Dodge Colt (US version of the Mitsubishi Colt) in which one of the photo cars has an obvious ding in a door.

Hey Jason (waves hand): how many car brochures are you aware of that feature obviously damaged vehicles?

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