I drove my mum's Toyota Lexcen and the muffler fell off

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 11/10/2015 at 18:28 • Filed to: TOYOTALEXCEN

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I had some furniture to move, and my mother is still rocking the same old wagon she had when I was in primary school, so I borrowed it. The plan was to hitch up a trailer, but it turns out the car’s so damn big we didn’t even need to.

And it really is big. The thing feels like a bus. Every glance in the mirror reminds you, the back window feels like it’s a kilometer away. Reversing it feels like an ordeal. But in reality, it’s exactly what so many Australians drive every day.

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The car is a Toyota Lexcen !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . VXi is the top Lexcen trim (hence the “wood trim” in the interior). The Holden badge on the boot lid is from a truck rear-ending the car when it was parked. Guess the only replacement boot door they could find was a Holden one and they couldn’t be arsed rebadging it. This is also why the paint on the back of the car is much better than anywhere else.

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The car is getting pretty rough. The cruise control no longer works, the digital display for the trip meter is missing some features. The paint is cracked, the interior is peeling. The car’s seen some shit, it’s got 434,000kms. The moon is 384,000km away.

And yes, the muffler fell off. I was carrying some furniture and a big mirror in the back so I was taking it pretty easy, but the silly thing just couldn’t hang on any longer. One of the rubber hangars let go and the whole thing dragged on the road for a while before coming off completely. I thought I’d lost a tyre or something before I saw it, could be worse. Unfortunately it now sounds horrible, as the remains of the exhaust are now rattling against part of the chassis.

Those dope as rims have been on it since we got it around 2000.

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I’ve driven this car a bunch when I was learning to drive, but doing it now is a whole different thing. Compared to my MR2 and my girlfriend’s Lancer, both relatively light and responsive, it just feels soggy. It’s sluggish despite having a bigger engine than even my Z (ecotec 3.8) and it feels like all the controls have a couple of seconds delay before they do anything. Except the steering which is overassisted to the point of ridiculousness. Accelerating out of a roundabout involves pressing your right foot, which elicits a loud and tired drone from the engine, and just waiting until the car to reach speed so you can silence the noise. A far cry from the series of brisk shifts I’m used to.

On the far side of the dash there’s a little TOYOTA logo. I love how keen they are to remind you that this is a Toyota product...even though it isn’t.

Edit: I was helping some friends working on the Holden equivalent of this, a VS Commodore, and I discovered the purpose of that boastful Toyota badge. On the Holden it says “Commodore”! It wasn’t Toyota bragging, it was Holden’s bragging that left Toyota with a hole in the dash to fill. The more you know.

Other than this the Commodore is eerily similar. There are some really weird differences though, like how this has its fancy-pants climate control system which means you get blanked-out buttons where the Holden’s HVAC used to be. Great job on that one Toyota.

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Nauraushaun 11/10/2015 at 19:32

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That’s actually really interesting, that Toyota would rebadge a GM vehicle (did GM own Holden yet?)! Here in the states, GM rebadged Corollas for a while, but we never had a rebadge go the other way...

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 11/10/2015 at 21:04

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As tired and sloppy as this thing might be, I can’t overlook the cool factor of having all that space in a car that’s not a crossover or minivan...wagons like this were gone by the time this thing was being sold, and the looks are kind of Toyota Camry-wagon esque in a good way...it seems it would be a likely candidate for long distance highway cruising because of the space and lazy controls, though not having cruise control would be a bit bothersome. Thanks for the write up, it was really interesting to get some more knowledge of these behemoths that we never got in the states!

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Nauraushaun 11/10/2015 at 21:19

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Those are indeed some pretty dope wheels.

Nauraushaun > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 11/10/2015 at 21:41

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What are they, 16s? 15s? I hope they’re 14s, that’d be lol

Nauraushaun > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/10/2015 at 21:43

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Yeah GM always owned Holden. It is pretty weird for it to go both ways like that. If you have a read of the post I linked (or indeed any of the recent Ridiculous Rebadges) you’ll learn a bit more about it.

It’s probably a better solution to filling a void in your line-up: borrowing good cars from other companies rather than building crappy cars. But Australians don’t seem to have taken on too much.

Nauraushaun > Amoore100 11/10/2015 at 21:46

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Yeah it is pretty cool. Like those sedans that are so popular, but more useful! There’s a reason Australians have always loved them so much. Good for long distance cruising yes, back when I learned with it the cruise control worked and it was splendid. I don’t think my mother ever figured it out.

You’re saying wagons were gone in America even in the mid-90s? Interesting. Ford and Holden have still been doing it successfully recently. Holden still do (not sure about Ford), but it’s a bit of a shorter sportier thing:

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Nauraushaun 11/10/2015 at 21:51

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Nah, we still had some wagons in the US in the nineties... Camry included. Probably the best was the Buick Roadmaster, an 18-foot-long, 8-passenger behemoth with a 260 HP V8 that made 320 lb-ft at 2400 RPM (!). It was powerful, fast, extremely roomy and comfy, and the last body-on-frame, RWD American station wagon. In case you can’t tell, I want one.

That Holden looks sick, I’m jealous.

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Nauraushaun 11/10/2015 at 21:55

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Oh, and that’s a neat article! I dig this Corolla hatch... the US never got it. I’d never even seen one until I read you article:

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 11/11/2015 at 00:50

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Well big, comfortable RWD wagons basically had their dying gasp in the nineties with these behemoths, the fourth generation B-body GM Caprice/Roadmaster twins.

After this FWD family wagons (e.g. Taurus, Accord) came into their own for a few years...

Then German-style sports wagons became all the rage in the early 2000s...

Before all the stupid crossovers and lifted wagons we have today.

So while the wagon didn’t really die in the 90’s, the classic American tradition of a big comfy five door cruiser basically did. Yeah, that Holden is similar to the Dodge Magnum we had here a few years back but again it falls more into the “sporty” category than anything else...

Edit: I tried to add more pictures but Kinja was hungry so I guess you’ll have to use Google...

Nauraushaun > Amoore100 11/11/2015 at 01:11

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Yeah I get what you mean. I think the American ones were just too big. The whole concept of “full size” became a bit dated, and it seems to me it was always faintly ridiculous.

Nauraushaun > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/11/2015 at 01:12

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You never got it!? I had no idea. We never got the Camry coupe, that was something I never realized until I saw it on here.

My girlfriend’s parents have a hatch just like that one. Popular cars in their day.

Thanks :)

Nauraushaun > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/11/2015 at 01:13

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You’re putting a very positive spin on it, but I think those things became a bit big to be practical in today’s world. Maybe it’s a little sad, I’m sure they were extremely practical cars.

I think that one has a ‘Vette engine as well. Quick ;)

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 11/11/2015 at 01:30

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Well here in the “land of the free” gas is pretty cheap and there are enough long distances that having something huge and akin to a gigantic sofa is nice even if you only use it for long trips...I know because we used to have an old Caprice (same as the wagon, just sedan variant) that we left parked unless we needed to drive to LA (about 7-8 hour drive) in which case it became our adventure mobile...

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun 11/11/2015 at 02:38

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definitely 15” minimum , 14s don’t fit

Nauraushaun > pip bip - choose Corrour 11/11/2015 at 17:45

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Sounds like you’ve done skids in commies before ;)

Nauraushaun > Amoore100 11/11/2015 at 17:46

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That sort of makes sense. Depends where you live I guess. If you’re far enough out of a city that you’re not usually driving there, having a bigger car makes sense. Australia is similar in ways, we have huge distances that some people drive regularly. Those people have little need for a Mirage hatch.

Nauraushaun > Nauraushaun 11/11/2015 at 17:46

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But I’ll add that our “gas” isn’t as cheap as yours by a long shot

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 11/11/2015 at 21:48

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Exactly. We live in kind of a suburban area where the houses are somewhat spaced apart and everyone has pretty big driveways, so parking isn’t really a concern, and with fuel prices getting pretty low lately something like that isn’t really much of a financial burden either. Even when we go to SF our Honda Odyssey (which is pretty big) is easy enough to park, so I guess it’s also a shift in philosophy even in urban environments...

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun 11/12/2015 at 03:27

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;)

maybe.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/20/2015 at 23:44

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You sure about that?

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 11/21/2015 at 00:06

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Was it sold in the US? I was speaking of cars in the US.

I’m also shocked that they tried to do that. The Cavalier was a piece of crap.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/21/2015 at 00:42

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Well, Mazda did sell a rebadge Explorer about 20 years ago in the US, and for a number of years the Mazda pickup was a slightly modified Ranger.

And yes, the Cavalier was complete crap, so it shouldn’t be any great mystery why it didn’t sell in great numbers in Japan. It was probably part of some embarrassing trade deal that Toyota reluctantly accepted, knowing full well that they were only going to sell a few to the Japanese equivalent of hipsters.

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 11/21/2015 at 09:31

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Yeah, I’m aware of the Mazda rebadges and also the Rodeo/Trooper rebadge... I just can’t think of a GM rebadged as a Toyota and sold in the states.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zyrtec just kicked in, yo 11/21/2015 at 10:56

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No chance of that ever happening. Toyota worked too hard on their reputation in this country to have it ruined by attaching it to a GM product.

Zyrtec just kicked in, yo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 11/21/2015 at 11:36

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That’s what I figured. I just find it interesting that they would have done it in Australia, especially since they had a similar wagon (Camry) that they could have also sold.