Toyota Town Ice is more than just a family of minivans. This "shorty" has a 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 freight and much more. But in fact - this is a full-size minivan class car, created on a frame structure and manufactured in Japan for the domestic market from the late 70s to the mid 90s of the last century.
The history of the appearance of the model
Toyota first showed the Town Ice to the public in October 1976. Two years later, a more modern and comfortable version of a seven-seater minivan was released. The additional word "Ice" (Ace in English) in the name of the car inherited from a compact truck, produced in the 50-60s of the last century. The truck was called ToyoAce.
A distinctive feature of ToyoAys was its high reliability and good traffic, which were also inherited by a 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 car 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 The good old Ice has been replaced by Toyota Town Ice Noah and Toyota Voxy.
Features of the structure of the minivan
The car stands out in that its design features are similar to the designs of a large number of SUVs. The basis for the car was the frame, which was integrated directly into the body. The type of frame used is a staircase.
This design has a lot of advantages: it gives rigidity to the body, and an increased level of safety in road accidents, and weighting the structure as a whole to give a low center of gravity. The latter advantage allowed not only to increase cross-country ability, but also to improve 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 place where the engine is located. “Town Ice” was produced exclusively with mid-engine layout, which slightly complicated access to the engine. In order to service 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 hurt, because the entire line of engines perfectly allowed to cope with absolutely any task: from fairly quick trips on well-paved roads to those moments when you had to wade through any hard-to-pass soil. “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 increase efficiency.
Transmission
Regardless of which engine the car was equipped with, one could meet a five-speed manual or automatic transmission. All-wheel drive versions of the minivan were especially popular among the people, since the system used to distribute torque between the axles was not at all different from that used in "real" SUVs such as the Suzuki Escudo and Isazu Trooper.
All-wheel drive modification is equipped with a transfer gearbox, which allows connecting the front axle “Town Ice” as part-time, which meant the absence of an interaxle differential in the transfer case with a lower gear. Thanks to this system, on smooth roads, you can drive on the rear wheel drive, and connect the full one only in areas with difficult passability and use it at a speed of not more than 50 km / h on those surfaces that allow wheel slippage. Therefore, in order to save fuel, there were so-called “hubs” on the hubs of the front wheels, that is, freewheels. To enable 4WD, it was necessary to manually turn the “hubs” into a special position, and then select the appropriate transfer box operation mode.
Car comfort
The minivan was produced in cargo and passenger configurations. The latter included a well-arranged interior and a large set of options that were intended to provide comfortable conditions for passengers. In “Town Ice” (later in “Town Ice Noah”) there was a transformer lounge with seats arranged in three rows, and a dual-circuit air conditioner, paired with two heaters, which allowed them to be used separately for the cabin and for the passenger compartment. In various configurations there were several variations of hatches: from 2 in a row “Moon Rufus” to 6 complex system “SkyRuf”.
Also, the interior of the minivan was equipped with blinds with manual or electric drives, and with this device it was possible to separate the middle part of the cabin from the rear for the convenience of passengers. With an insignificant surcharge in the front of the cabin, it was possible to install a refrigerator, which was built directly into the car's air conditioning system.
Car suspension
In addition to the salon, you could take care of the general comfort. For example, special shock absorbers of variable stiffness, which were regulated by electronics, were made and installed to 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 expensive configuration it was possible to manually adjust the stiffness from the cab.
The undoubted advantage of “Town Ice”, whose photo still walks around the Internet in large quantities, was its relatively low fuel consumption due to its small engine size and special systems that made it possible to reduce consumption. The average performance 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 when there is no load on the rear axle, the latter is prone to loss of adhesion on wet surfaces and, as a result, to skid. Many drivers complained of uncomfortable seats and an improper fit, impairing visibility directly in front of the car's bumper, which made parking difficult. But all these shortcomings were simply not noticed against the background of the advantages of Town Ice. Separate copies of the car still faithfully continue to serve their masters.