Toyota Is Bringing Its Version Of Rolls-Royce To The United States

For decades, Toyota has sold a car that’s even more premium and distinguished than even the nicest Lexus sedan. The Century has long represented the pinnacle of Toyota luxury, comfort, and status. It even housed Toyota’s only passenger-car V12 engine. Yet, America was never good enough to have them until they were 25 years old. Reportedly, Toyota is finally changing that, as America is about to officially experience Japan’s Rolls-Royce.

Toyota has spent the past several years nurturing the Century into something even bigger than it already was. By 2023, the Century was no longer just a single flagship car, but its lineup had a Century-branded SUV to go with the sedan. Then, Toyota spun the whole thing off as its own independent brand, one that Toyota said was “global” and meant to challenge Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

In October 2025, as Century became its own thing, Automotive News confirmed that Toyota had finally decided to bring the Century to America. However, details were scarce, and expectations were that we’d see the cars “within the next several years.” Today, Automotive News has moved up that timeline. Toyota is bringing the Century here in 2028, and when it arrives, it’ll be the flagship that Lexus has been desperately wanting for a while now.

Why Enthusiasts Love The Century

If you have no idea why some folks feel all warm and fuzzy about the Century, there’s no shame in that! While Toyota has imported a handful of Century sedans for its top brass in America to use, Americans have never been able to buy one new.

The original Toyota Century launched in 1967, approximately 100 years after the start of Japan’s Meiji period, and the 100th anniversary of Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda’s birth.

Toyota notes that, before the Century, if you were a member of Japan’s elite, you were chauffeured around in a car from a Western luxury brand because Japan didn’t have a vehicle on the same level. The best Toyota had was the Crown Eight. So, the Century wasn’t just going to be the pride of Japan, but proof that Japan could do luxury just as well, if not better, than the West.

The original Century was a success, as CEOs and other officials scooped up the sedan to slink into the car’s practical thrones. The Century was conservative on purpose. It wasn’t about showboating, but about being a dignified ride for a prominent person. The original Century stayed on sale for 30 years, receiving only light changes along the way. All of them had V8 engines.

Then came the 1997 Century, when Toyota took its attention to detail to the next level. Here’s just a snippet from Toyota:

Exterior Styling
1) The distinctive front-end design centers around the unique Phoenix mark, made with a hand-carved mold, which perches on a refined, grid-shaped front grille and classic headlamp units with built-in fog lamps.
2) The bumpers consist of superb, hand-finished steel components and shock-absorbing resin parts.
3) The body emphasizes horizontal flows, while the cabin is balanced with the front and the rear, creating a firm and distinguished profile. As with the previous model, the new Century utilizes aluminum door frames.
4) The serene and refined rear view consists of combination lamps arranged along a horizontal line, set with an aluminum center ornament.
5) The full, rich paint tone is achieved by polishing the entirety of the exterior sheet metal and applying up to seven coats of paint.

Interior Design
1) Several pieces of wood paneling are fashioned from the same piece of wood to maintain a continuous grain pattern.
2) Only the highest quality materials, such as crystal glass for the dashboard clock, are used for the Century.
3) Refined Jacquard woolen fabric and the finest leather are used for the seat covers.

The second-generation Century offered dual-zone automatic climate control, pillows built into the C-pillar, soft-close doors, power curtains, GPS voice navigation system, CD player, TV, FM multiplex text broadcasting, and countless other features. Perhaps the wildest part about that Century was its V12. It was Toyota’s first and still only V12 for a passenger vehicle, and per Toyota, the entire reason for its existence was the V12’s low vibration and smooth power delivery, not actual power output.

Each of these cars, Toyota said, was hand-built in a factory that had no assembly line or robots, only craftsmen. This is why enthusiasts love the Century so much. It’s not just opulent; Toyota was weirdly obsessed with making what it thought was the best luxury car in the world. Now, America will finally get to experience them.

America Finally Gets The Century

Details are thin right now, but the Century will be even more exclusive than Toyota’s GR GT and GT3 models. Per Automotive News, which spoke to DeJuan Ross, group vice president and general manager of Lexus, “about 100” select Lexus dealers will be selling the GR GT and the GT3 supercar in late 2027. Toyota’s expecting to move up to about 300 of these in the first year of sales.

Toyota says it will launch Century sales in America in 2028, and they will be sold at far fewer dealerships than the GR GT and the GT3. The Lexus dealers lucky enough to sell a Century will be required to invest in upgrading their facilities and training their staff.

Toyota has not yet revealed which Century vehicles will be making it to our shores. However, Akio Toyoda did bring a Century GRMN to Detroit for his Automotive Hall of Fame induction late last month.

As it currently stands, the Century brand has two vehicles. There’s the Century sedan, which has been in its third generation since 2018, and the Century SUV, which has been in production since 2023. There is also the Century coupe, which hasn’t yet been revealed to have gone beyond its 2025 concept. As of publication, the Century SUV costs more than $170,000 in Japan. For comparison, a Bentley Bentayga costs over $200,000 in America.

Here’s what Thomas said of the SUV, which has weird sliding rear doors:

Under the hood sits a 3.5-liter 2GR-FXS quad-cam V6 engine mated to a plug-in hybrid system. There’s an eCVT consisting of two motor-generator units up front, and another electric motor out back for electric all-wheel-drive. Combined output? A respectable 406 horsepower. It’s essentially the same powertrain offered in the Lexus TX 550h+, so once these things turn 25, some level of parts support in America should exist.

Of course, given that this is still a Century, it’s mildly insane in its pursuit of luxury. For instance, Toyota also unveiled a GR-badged Century with completely different rear doors from the standard model. While the regular doors open to an impressive 75 degrees, the GR version features sliding doors with hidden tracks. While you can argue among yourselves how this might make it the world’s most expensive minivan, the choose-your-own-door adventure is certainly a Shyamalan twist. Toyota also claims that the new Century SUV is the quietest car it’s ever produced, an impressive feat considering the Century sedan is renowned for its serenity. Partially-responsible is the sealed luggage compartment separated from the passenger area by laminated glass. It’s a trick previously used by Volvo on the XC90 Excellence, seeing as open cargo areas act as resonance chambers.

In addition, the two individual rear seats recline nigh-on horizontal to let passengers truly relax, while the rear passenger compartment is festooned in luxury gadgets and gizmos. There are two detachable touchscreen tablets in the rear center console for controlling various interior functions, a proper fridge tucked in between the seats, automatic seat heating and ventilation, a rear seat analog clock, and plenty of aluminum-inlaid wood.

The sedan is built to a similarly obsessive level. The current model doesn’t have a V12, but it does have a 2UR-FSE 5.0-liter V8 and a hybrid system good for a combined output of 425 HP.

It’s presently unclear if the American Century will be badged as a Lexus or a Century. There is precedent for the former, as Toyota didn’t give the Crown its unique badge when it came to America. Still, either the sedan or the SUV, or even that coupe, if it goes into production, would put Toyota against the Bentleys and the Rolls-Royces that it wants to take a bite out of.

Normally, I’d probably feel a bit jaded by news like this. America’s getting another luxury car that many of us won’t be able to afford and probably won’t see outside of the richest postcodes in the country. Yet, I’m actually sort of pumped. Enthusiasts have been asking for the Century for years, and now it’s finally coming. It’s going to be so neat to see the Toyota interpretation of ultra-luxury. Let’s hope Toyota can actually stick the landing.

Top graphic image: Toyota