Car that served Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong over two decades brought to state funeral

At the Tran Thanh Tong National Funeral Home in Hanoi on Thursday, the car made its appearance in the mourning ceremony for the state funeral of Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong, who passed away on July 19.

Nguyen Duc Ha, former head of the Party Grassroot Department under the Organization Commission of the Central Party Committee, said the car had been provided to the office of the National Assembly chairman since 1998. In 2006, Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong became the new National Assembly chairman and began to use the vehicle, which had already been in use for eight years beforehand.

In 2011, when Nguyen Phu Trong became the Party leader, the Crown had already been in use for 13 years.

Ha said the office of the Central Party Committee once proposed to change the Toyota Crown to another one as it was already too old. But Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong refused, saying that the car was still good, that there was already a seven-seat car for faraway trips, and the Crown was only used to travel around Hanoi, so there was no need to change.

“Changing the car would incur more cost and more money from the people,” Ha cited what Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong had said.

The Crown is considered to be a legendary car lineage of Toyota. It came to be in 1955, and is now available in around 40 markets around the world. In Vietnam, the Crown became popular from the 1990s to the early 2000s, mostly imported from either Japan or the U.S.

The Crown that Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong used spans 4,960 mm in length and 1,695 mm in width.