Rusty But Trusty

Toyota’s Celica was one of the first steps in its intermittent relationship with sports cars. Although their history includes some prominent cars like the 2000GT and Sports 800, it must be hard for this manufacturer of automotive appliances to understand why people would want their cars to have more style, better handling, and more soul than the average family sedan. It’s the same as Frigidaire or Maytag trying to make a more engaging washing machine or refrigerator – their core virtue is reliability and getting the job done without requiring much attention. Making those things interesting would be like creating a phone that people would want to interact with all day long without ever putting it down. But sometimes a rogue engineer or marketer at Toyota gets their idea into production, and that’s how we got this 1972 Toyota Celica ST for sale for $4000 in San Mateo, CA.

(more…)

The Celica nameplate was derived from the Latin word for heavenly, or celestial, and apparently the 1970s Japanese vision of heaven involved a lot of vinyl and plastic. Forty years on, though, these cars are getting plenty of recognition for their combination of style and durability, and some of their more illustrious cousins sold outside the North American market. Those include twin cam engines that should give the best European names a run for their money. As with the European makes, rust has disappeared many of these cars, and the remainders are now hotly fought over by Japanese classic car nuts. However, there are still survivors popping up here and there – check out this 1971 Toyota Celica for sale for C$3889 ($3556 today) in Kelowna, BC.

(more…)