Toyota Town Ace ("Toyota Town Ice"): description, photo, specifications

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

Toyota Town Ice is more than just a family of minivans. This "short man" has its own rich history and is, in fact, a whole transport system. It is designed for many occasions: from passenger transportation and long-distance travel with the whole family to small cargo transportation and much more. But in fact - this is a full-size minivan class car, created on a frame structure and produced in Japan for the domestic market from the late 70s to the mid-90s of the last century.

History of the appearance of the model

Toyota first showed the public "Town Ice" in October 1976. Two years later, a more modern and comfortable version of the seven-seater minivan was released. The additional word "Ace" (Ace in English) in the name of the car inherited from a compact truck produced in the 50s and 60s of the last century. The truck was called ToyoAce.

A distinctive feature of "ToyoIce" was high reliability and good cross-country ability, which were also inherited by the minivan.

First changes

The first restyling of "Town Ice" was made in 1985. Then the light saw a new body model CR30. But in this version, the carit was produced only until 1993, when restyling was again made.

The new body model received the CR31 index. This variation lived even less - only 3 years, after which it was discontinued. The good old Ice was replaced by Toyota Town Ice Noah and Toyota Voxy.

Features of the structure of the minivan

The car is distinguished by the fact that its design features are similar to those of a large number of SUVs. The basis for the car was the frame, which was integrated directly into the body. Type of frame used - ladder.

This design has a lot of advantages: this is the stiffening of the body, and an increased level of safety in an accident, and the weighting of the structure as a whole to give a low center of gravity. The latter advantage allowed not only to increase the cross-country ability, but also to improve the control when cornering. It is also worth noting that there were two versions of the car - rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive.

Engine

Another feature of the structure was the location of the engine. "Town Ice" was produced exclusively with a mid-engine layout, which made it a little more difficult to access the engine. In order to serve it, it was necessary to open a special hatch, which was located in the cabin under the front passenger seat. A small minus was also the fact that, due to the limited space under the body, it was not possible to place a large and, accordingly, more powerful unit.

But this did not stop the matter, because the entire line of engines perfectly allowed to cope with absolutely any task: from fairly fast trips on well-paved roads to those moments when you had to wade through any difficult terrain. "Town Ice" was equipped with two lines of engines (gasoline and diesel) with volumes from 1.8 to 2.2 liters. Diesel engines, in turn, could have a turbocharger to improve efficiency.

Transmission

Regardless of what engine the car was equipped with, it was possible to meet a five-speed manual or automatic transmission. It was the all-wheel drive versions of the minivan that were especially popular among the people, since the system used in it, which allows distributing torque between the axles, does not differ at all from that used in “real” SUVs, such as Suzuki Escudo and Isazu Truper.

The all-wheel drive modification is equipped with a transfer case, which allowed the Town Ice front axle to be connected part-time, which meant that there was no center differential in the low gear transfer case. Thanks to this system, you can drive on flat roads on a rear-wheel drive, and connect the full drive only in areas with difficult traffic and use it at a speed of no more than 50 km / h on those surfaces that allow wheel slip. Therefore, in order to save fuel, there were so-called "hubs" on the hubs of the front wheels, that is, couplingsfree running. To turn on 4WD, it was necessary to manually turn the "hubs" into a special position, and then select the appropriate mode of operation of the transfer case.

Car comfort

The minivan was produced in cargo and passenger configurations. The latter had a well-appointed interior and a wide range of options that were intended to provide a comfortable environment for passengers. In "Town Ice" (later in "Town Ice Noah") there was a transforming salon with seats arranged in three rows, and a dual-circuit air conditioner, paired with two heaters, which made it possible to use them separately for the cabin and for the cabin. In various configurations, there were several variations of hatches: from 2 Moon Roof in a row to 6 of the complex SkyRoof system.

Also, the interior of the minivan was equipped with curtains with manual or electric drives, and with this device it was possible to separate the middle part of the cabin from the back for the convenience of passengers. With an insignificant surcharge, it was possible to install a refrigerator in the front of the cabin, which was built directly into the car's air conditioning system.

Car suspension

In addition to the interior, it was possible to take care of general comfort. For example, special shock absorbers with variable stiffness, which were electronically regulated, were manufactured and installed on order. This system existed in two variations: with a cheaper modification, it automatically adjusted the stiffness of the shock absorbers based on a number of parameters, but in a more expensiveconfiguration, it was possible to adjust the stiffness manually from the cab.

The undoubted advantage of Town Ice, whose photos are still circulating on the Internet in large quantities, was relatively low fuel consumption due to the small engine size and special systems that made it possible to reduce consumption. Averages ranged from 8 to 11 liters per "hundred" even in versions with gasoline engines. Of course, there is no need to talk about high dynamics, since the maximum speed of the “baby” is only 135 km / h, but at the same time he feels very confident on the road at 100-105 km / h.

Of course, there were some minor flaws: despite the focus on comfort, it is quite noisy in the cabin when driving at high speeds. It is also worth noting that in variations with a diesel engine, in the absence of load on the rear axle, the latter is prone to loss of grip on wet surfaces and, as a result, to skidding. Many drivers complained about uncomfortable seats and poor posture, which reduced visibility directly in front of the car's bumper, making it difficult to park. But all these shortcomings were simply not noticed against the background of the advantages of Town Ice. Individual copies of the car still faithfully continue to serve their owners.