There is no doubt that Toyota is one of the greatest car brands to ever exist. The Japanese company has excelled in every segment from sports cars to pickup trucks, SUVs, family sedans, and even hydrogen cars. They have produced millions and millions of vehicles for export all over the world, and are one of the biggest car brands in the United States as well as their native Japan. Toyota knows exactly what they are doing.
And along with making some of the world's best-selling models, Toyota has also given birth to plenty of downright unusual cars. Some might even say crazy. Crazy in different ways. They could be fast, they could be highly exclusive, or they could just be the weirdest looking thing you have ever seen.
This list contains some of the most surprising cars that Toyota has produced over the years, ranging from the crazy good to the downright crazy weird. But even though some of these are weird, being a Toyota, they are still actually pretty good.
9 Toyota 2000GT
The Toyota 2000GT could be called Toyota’s answer to the Aston Martin DB5. It was a highly exclusive sports car produced in the late 1960s and powered by either a 2.0 or 2.3-liter inline-six engine.
The most famous example was the one-off open-top version that was used in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Toyota 2000GT has gone for as much as $1.2 million at auctions.
8 Toyota Sera
The Sera is clearly one of the more unusual cars to come from the Japanese company. It’s a small hatchback with a flat-four engine. Sounds normal so far.
Add in the glass roof and the butterfly doors, that when opened took the roof with them, then you get a weird car. The eye-catching metallic colors the car was available in made it quite attractive-looking.
7 Toyota Mega Cruiser
The Mega Cruiser was developed for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and it is an absolute monster. It went on sale for public use in 1996 and is 5 meters long, and was intended to be used by the military.
The Mega Cruiser is powered by a 4.1-liter, four-cylinder direct-injection turbo-diesel engine mated to a four-speed manual transmission that sends power to all four wheels.
6 Toyota Mirai
The Mirai certainly looks a bit crazy, but what really makes the car so crazy is that it is hydrogen-powered, when so many cars now are heading towards electric power. Its hydrogen fuel-cell packs 182 hp, with a one-speed direct-drive transmission channeling that hydrogen power.
It's an impressive, comfortable, and very efficient car offering 402 miles of range on a full tank. Hydrogen really should be the future.
5 Toyota Classic
It might not seem that crazy, but the Toyota Classic is definitely wacky. It went on sale in 1996 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the inauguration of Toyota.
It clearly looked to the past, styled like the Toyoda Model AA and based upon the chassis of a Toyota Hilux pickup truck. Only 100 of these were ever made, all powered by a small 97-hp four-cylinder engine.
4 Toyota Origin
The Toyota Origin is one hell of a cool-looking car. It was built to celebrate Toyota vehicle production reaching the 100 million mark, and the Origin was specially hand-crafted for the occasion.
The crafting was done at the Kanto Auto Works and had Rolls-Royce style rear-hinged doors, woodgrain and leather interior, and a very 1950s level of styling. Those in the know have probably deduced that it was based upon the 1955 Toyota Crown.
3 Toyota Crown Majesta
The Crown Majesta is hardly the prettiest-looking car on this list. It’s a full-size, luxury sedan that has been built by the Japanese company since 1991, although only for the Asian market.
It closely resembles the Lexus GS, even being powered by the same 4.6-liter V8 engine but the Majesta is solely an all-wheel-drive car. Not the prettiest car, but those looks are certainly a bit wild.
2 Toyota Supra Mark IV
The Mark IV Supra has to go down as one of the definitive versions of the Supra. Offered with either a 3.0-liter 2JZ straight-six with 220 hp or a 2JZ 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine with 320 hp, the upgraded turbo version was incredibly desirable.
Plus, the styling of the car soon became an all-time classic look, and the Mark IV was much lighter than its predecessor.
1 Toyota Will Vi
This is probably the weirdest looking car on this list. The Wii Vi is the result of a joint effort between Toyota and Matsushita Electric Industrial, the company now known as Panasonic. It was a youth-oriented car, aimed at 20-30-year-olds.
The Vi was the first of three Will cars launched in 2000, and safe to say it probably didn’t really capture the ‘youth movement’. Still, it was a great idea and had some comfortable bench seating.
Sources: Car Throttle, Wikipedia, Fuel Cell Works, Petrol Blog, Motor Authority, Toyota, Top Gear