Posts Tagged ‘toyota’

Heavenly RA42 – 1978 Toyota Celica GT Liftback

November 10, 2015

Here’s a car from the “wow, that still exists?” files. Many low and middle specification Japanese cars only lasted as long as their bodies, or in low-moisture/salt states, as long as their drivetrains would go on. And while the drivetrains kept going, the paint faded, the upholstery tore, and the interior plastics decayed, the dashboards forming their own miniature Hayward, San Andreas, and Cascade faults – hit that railroad crossing fast enough and the whole thing might come apart! Inexplicably, lone automatic examples of these cars seem to pop up every so often, just waiting for someone to pick them up, polish them, and photograph them with good lighting and a high-resolution camera before flipping at an exorbitant price through an online auction. Here’s a prime candidate for that treatment – this 1978 Toyota Celica GT Liftback for sale for $4000 in Longview, WA.

1978 Toyota Celica GT left front

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4AGE Makes it Better – 1986 Toyota Tercel Wagon

May 27, 2015

Toyota’s mid-1980s Tercel wagon has evolved into something of a cult car. Likely pulled up by the rising tide of the competing Civic Wagovan, this oddball Japanese wagon with its funky high-roof styling and pseudo-off-road cues can’t be getting popular because of the driving experience, though – with a meager 63hp to motivate a 2100-lb. wagon (not very porcine, but overwhelming for a 1.5), it’s not going anywhere fast. That said, with an improvement in power-to-weight, owning one of these quirky j-boxes might be a little more fun. Fortunately, someone already came to that conclusion and grabbed a 4AGE from a Corolla FX16 or MR2 and dropped it in an unsuspecting 2wd wagon. Check out this 1986 Toyota Tercel 4AGE wagon for sale for $2000 in Vancouver, WA.

1986 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4AGE right front

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Slant Nose 1-Tail – 1972 Toyota Celica ST

October 15, 2014

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.

1972 Toyota Celica right rear

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