NC250 iR Version

STORY

The Progres arrived on 14 May 1998 as a small luxury car for Japan, a 4,500 mm three-box saloon on the platform of the second Aristo and tenth Crown, 300 mm shorter than a Crown yet on a 2,780 mm wheelbase. Motomachi built it, and Toyopet Store dealers sold it, with Osaka Toyota handling the Osaka area. At launch the longitudinal straight sixes were the 2,491 cc 1JZ-GE at 200 PS as JCG10 and the 2,997 cc 2JZ-GE at 215 PS as JCG11, with double wishbones at all four corners; curtain shield airbags and the Navi AI-Shift were new to Japan on it. Rear drive was the launch layout, and i-Four electronic full-time four-wheel drive, which varied the centre differential between 30:70 and 50:50 front to rear, joined the 2.5 on 3 December 1999. Both engines later gave way to direct-injection versions, the 1JZ-FSE and 2JZ-FSE. The last update came on 6 December 2005 and production ended in June 2007.