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Junkyard Gem: 1992 Lexus SC 400

After Toyota stunned the automotive world with the Lexus LS 400 in 1989, offering a majestically engineered luxury sedan with an all-new DOHC V8 at less than half the cost of its Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL rival, what could be done to follow that (other than a money-printing Lexus-badged Camry, that is)? Clearly, the missing piece of the Lexus branding puzzle at the time was a sports coupe, something to extract the money of car shoppers considering, say, a new Mercedes-Benz 300 CE or Acura Legend coupe. That car turned out to be the Lexus SC, styled in California and known as the third-generation Toyota Soarer in Japan. Here's one of the very first SCs sold in the United States, found in a Denver-area self-service yard last month. These cars had intimidatingly good build quality (I know, because I dismantled a '92 SC 400 down to its smallest components a while back), clearly designed to last at least a quarter-million miles with routine maintenance. This one got hit hard in the right rear, however, and it wasn't worth repairing the damage to a non-SUV pushing three decades of age. Americans could buy a six-cylinder version, the SC 300, which came standard with a five-speed manual transmission (almost all buyers "upgraded" to the automatic, of course). This car is the SC 400, which means it has the same 1UZ-FE V8 engine as the LS 400. That's 250 super-smooth horses and six-bolt main bearing caps keeping the crankshaft from going anywhere it shouldn't. The SC 400 never was available with a manual transmission, nor was its SC 430 successor. This one has the mandatory Aisin-Warner four-speed automatic. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Lexus SC400 articulated door hinge operation The complex door hinges offered good clearance in tight parking spaces. These cars were very quiet and comfortable and they could cruise all day at triple-digit speeds, but a curb weight pushing 3,600 pounds meant that the SC 400 wasn't going to beat its Porsche 928 rival on a race track. Actually, the 1992 928S4 cost more than twice as much as the 1992 Lexus SC 400 ($80,920 versus $37,500) and had both a more powerful (326hp) V8 and available manual transmission; perhaps the 1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe ($32,470, 200hp V8, automatic) was a more realistic sales rival for today's Junkyard Gem.

Question of the Day: What (non-Skyline) JDM car to import?

I have been looking into the idea of bringing a four-wheel-drive kei van over from Japan, something like a Honda Street or perhaps even a Mitsubishi Minicab Bravo Route 66, and so I have been researching the various bureaucratic hoops I must jump through in order to bring such a car into my state (Colorado). When I finally tracked down the state official who knew the answers, his very first words were "OK, so what year Skyline do you want to register here?" Yes, Nissan's not-sold-over-here factory-hot-rod of the 1980s and 1990s is what gets shipped over most often, but there are other worthy JDM vehicles. Say, for example, a stunning 1990 Mitsuoka Le Seyde (above), which was far classier than the Excalibur and based on the sporty S13 Nissan Silvia, aka 240SX. Of course, the king of JDM cars is the mighty Toyota Century, and you can get nice legal-to-import examples for reasonable prices. No, you can't get the V12 Century legally – yet; the V12-powered cars don't hit the 25-year-old mark until 2022. So, what's your choice for a 1991 or earlier Japanese-market car to import, assuming that the Skyline is off the table? Related Video: Auto News Honda Nissan Toyota Car Buying nissan skyline questions

Toyota offering $4.2 billion in stock to fund Mirai, new hybrids

Toyota president Akio Toyoda told a group of investors that the hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai is the car for the next century. To help pay for it, Toyota is courting investors who aren't only after short-term capital gains but want to help the company long term. It will offer up to 500 billion yen ($4.2 billion US) worth of special shares in Japan that cost 20-percent more than common stock and that can't be sold for five years. The upshot is that the shares will pay a higher dividend, still have voting rights, and they can be converted to common stock or sold back to Toyota at the issue price. The investors won't lose money. Called "Model AA" shares in honor of the company's first passenger car, the sale would help Toyota hold onto capital while it works on the next - expensive - developments. The sale would be broken up into tranches, with 50 million potentially on offer this year after the annual shareholder's meeting. Successive sales would take place no more than once a year. The initial dividend is set at 0.5 percent and capped at 2.5 percent, which even at its lowest rate would beat that of a standard deposit account in a Japanese bank. At the moment, sales are only planned for Japan. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2016 Toyota Mirai: LA 2014 View 19 Photos News Source: Bloomberg Earnings/Financials Green Toyota Hydrogen Cars Sedan toyota mirai stocks investing