You’ll be excused if the existence of the Toyota Carina has slipped through the cracks of your memory. The model generally sold poorly outside of its native Japan and was pretty much a footnote in the company’s history; to most. Even to those who followed Toyota’s rise, the Carina seemed a curious offering, and the reasons behind its existence were not altogether that clear.
One more compact sporty coupe in Toyota’s 1970s lineup? Didn’t buyers already have enough choices with the Corolla 1600, the Corona hardtop, the Mark II, and well, the Celica?
Of course, much of the reasoning behind the model had to do with forces in its native market. And while the Carina may be a footnote outside of Japan, it left enough of a legacy that a few survivors are found from time to time. Just a few weeks ago, this one showed up a few blocks from my home in San Salvador. Against all appearances, this barely running sample is getting some love and care. For real. And it’s a version that didn’t reach the States, a 4-door.
Coincidentally, a nice early Celica was featured on these pages just a couple of days ago; the Carina’s corporate sibling. On top of that, a Carina appeared in one of my Southern California vintage snapshots of last week. That’s one too many times in a short time, for a car that was rare in the American continent.
It’s like the little car was asking me to feature it. So, why not give a few minutes of CC attention to this lesser-known Celica sibling?
A previous CC contributor did remember the Carina and has already covered the model in detail. There’s also a good R&T vintage review of the vehicle here at CC, from its brief US foray between ’72-’74. Still, I’ll go over some of the vehicle’s background for those who aren’t into clicking old links.
So, why the Carina?
The Japanese private car market had grown exponentially throughout the ’60s, with a stream of new offerings appearing in multiple niches. The key to that growth resided in the success of the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sunny, both launched in ’66 and finding a more than receptive market with the working middle-class.
Just a few years before, Japanese carmakers had tended mainly to luxury models, fleets, and low-cost kei cars. Now, the success of the Corolla and the Sunny had proven the Japanese middle class was more than ready for car ownership. Options multiplied across the spectrum, from sporty, to pseudo-luxury, to family haulers; all based on common underpinnings.
But there was more at play than plain market forces behind these model variations. Mostly regulations (taxation, etc.) and the curious way Japanese dealers were set up after WWII (a whole long story). Under the mix of all those factors, a bewildering number of market slices existed in the Japanese market. All having dimension and powerplant variations significant in Japan, but that oftentimes would seem barely relevant in the US/elsewhere.
Filling a rising need for sportier and more ‘personal’ offerings, the Carina and the Celica appeared in 1970 sharing the same platform. The Celica was the full-on sporty model; a lifestyle statement for the young professional. As said many times before, it was Toyota’s pony car.
Meanwhile, the Carina was the sporty family sedan, with distinctive styling for the discerning buyer. A car for those who found the Celica too flashy, but still wished for higher-than-average performance. As such, the model slotted above the sporty Corollas and was offered as an alternative to sporty Coronas.
For 1970, the Carina was offered with either a 1407cc or a 1588cc OHV pushrod engine powering the rear wheels. Available transmissions were a 4-speed manual or Toyoglides with 2 or 3 speeds. Stopping power was provided by discs up front and drums at the rear. Suspension was with McPhersons up front, aided by transverse arms and an antiroll bar. At the back, a live axle with coil springs was found.
Styling-wise, the car was as adventuresome as Toyota was at the time; meaning rather conservative. It featured slightly googly-eyed headlights upfront, with an insert grille that gave it a dual-face kind of look. At the back, rather distinctive taillights were the car’s most eye-grabbing feature.
As was often the norm, in Japan the Carina was its own line of vehicles. Depending on engines, trims, and body styles, a total of 10 models were offered. The most athletic one, a neat hardtop that arrived for 1971. That same year, a hot 1600 DOHC engine –shared with the Corona 1600GT– was offered. By ’75, a station wagon became available (Van, in Japanese-car speak). Around that date, the 1.4 mill was dropped and a 1.8 was added. Meanwhile, a 5-speed manual eventually appeared. Production of the first-gen. Carina lasted from 1970 to 1977.
The Carina appeared in the US for 1972, just as Toyota’s rising fortunes seemed almost unassailable. And while the company already offered plenty of sporty compacts in the American market, I guess Toyota execs thought it was time to test how far Americans truly loved the brand.
So the model arrived carrying the 1588cc engine and a 4-speed manual, plus the Toyoglides. The 4-speed manual’s performance was more than competitive for its market segment, with a 13.5 0-60 time similar to the Datsun 510. Gas mileage was a good 26.3 MPG. With the Celica chassis and its fairly powerful and lighter engine, the Carina was considered Toyota’s best handling model by R&T’s reviewers.
Not that such praise helped much the Carina’s lackluster sales. After a brief couple of years, the model disappeared from the US lineup.
Wikipedia hints that the Carina’s failure in the US market was due to recently adopted import duties. Kind of an odd assessment, considering that otherwise, the rest of the company’s lineup did more or less fine in the meantime. Rather, the car didn’t make much sense in the US lineup and just seemed redundant. Turns out, there were limits to Toyota-love after all. (Import duties did eventually drive Toyota to start US-production, starting in 1986 at the NUMMI plant.)
Leaving aside the Carina’s fate in the States, Toyota was well aware that their future models had to be better tailored to US needs. By 1973, their new Calty Design Research facility opened in Southern California.
1987 Toyota Carina brochure excerpt.
While the nameplate was shortlived in the States, the model was quite successful in its native Japan and had a long lineage that lasted all the way to 2001. Throughout all those years, the Carina remained related to the Celica/Supra line, although occasionally mixing genes with Coronas. (Above is the ’87 Carina, covered previously by Tatra87).
Elsewhere, the model’s presence seems to have been rather spotty. As far as I know, imports of the Carina to El Salvador ceased in ’77. The nameplate never showed up again, although the Carina-related Corona of ’84-’88 did reach Central America.
But even if the nameplate is obscure, Toyotas are certainly not. And there’s a good amount of the brand’s followers over here to keep these old models running.
As mentioned early on, I believe this Carina is getting a good deal of care, even if its derelict nature suggests otherwise. On my way home, I see the car moved from spot to spot on the same street, always parked near a repair shop. A sign that a mechanic is probably trying to bring it back to life.
And I may be wrong about this, but I believe this one’s grille belongs to the ’75-’77 period. While more plasticky, it gets rid of the googly-eye face and seems more of… well, a grille.
Now, whoever is trying to rescue this one, certainly has quite a task ahead. There’s a good number of soft bits and pieces that I doubt will ever be found in this nation. At all.
On the other hand, originality is usually not an impediment around here, and plain driveability –as in; it runs– is more the key. So, some of those soft bits I’m thinking about may be fixed otherwise, or dispensed with altogether. After all, a rattling window pane hasn’t bothered most taxi drivers that I have met in San Salvador.
I never cared much for these cars when I saw them as a kid, and until now, I had never paid much attention to their styling. In this profile shot, I can now see the work Toyota put into giving the Carina the long-hood short-deck proportions of its Celica sibling. The reason behind the short dashboard and up-close windshield of the car’s interior.
Staying with my childhood thoughts, I used to think of these as the “Toyota with the weird tail lights.” To be honest, I’m still not sold on their idea after all these years, even if they add distinction to the car.
Regardless, I’ll admit it was certainly a memorable feature, as it was the only thing I recalled about the car. Back when I started submitting pictures at the Cohort, I remembered thinking; “There was that one Toyota with the weird taillights… which one was it? ”
I eventually found a truly beaten one that I uploaded at the Cohort some years ago. That’s when I searched the model more deeply and found its name: Carina.
I then proceeded to register my memory banks: “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell… at all!”
So well, the Carina moniker failed to register with my childhood self, and overall, the model doesn’t seem to be one of Toyota’s better-remembered ones. Yet, while researching, its history proves that it’s more than a footnote. So even if I’m not a fan of the model and it had completely slipped my mind, I’m glad someone is giving some care to this surviving one. After all, I’m a completist, and I like to have these forgotten chapters preserved for posterity.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Toyota Carina – My CC Holy Grail
Vintage R&T Review: 1972 Toyota Carina – Toyota’s First “Hybrid”
Chrysler Australia’s take on the taillights for the 1969-1971 (VF & VG) VIP sedans, built on the US A-Platform.
For some reason, the rear-end makes me think just a bit of an early Barracuda. And up front, some of those models, like the blue coupe towards the top, look a bit like they’re trying to channel the ’62 Plymouth standard-sized cars.
Sixth picture down, I can’t get over how the paint color on the front clip is so much darker that the rest of the body…and this on a promotional pic! Anyone else see this as odd?
I remember the name here in the States more than I remember the car itself. At the time it was a bit of a joke about what three syllable name starting with C that Toyota would come up with next, after Corolla, Corona, Celica, Carina, Cressida (a bit later). Camry broke the mold. I remember riding in several mid- and late-Nineties Carinas when I visited Taiwan frequently for work. I think in that market it was positioned between the Corolla and Camry.
Oldsmobile called. It wants its Cutlass Supreme taillights back.
Seriously, though, great article in a model I’m sure I’ve seen less than ten of in my life. I did know about its relationship to the Celica, the vastly more popular car,. It seemed the rare miss in the U.S. by ’70s Toyota. (Well, that and the Corona Mark III.)
The original Corona Mark II sold very well; those first-generation shovel nose cars sold over 210,000 during their four year run, outselling the standard Corona line from 1970-1972 and only losing out as the #1 seller in Toyota’s entire lineup those years to the Corolla.
A neat and rare find anywhere these days .
The Carina went under my radar when new, my late Friend Damien (a gifted Mechanic, car builder and SMOG Test Technician) found a white 1972 one in Colorado and dragged it back to So. Cal. scrapped the original (1,400 ?) engine and new enough about Toyota’s to bolt in some much larger, fuel injected four valve engine .
I still think the taillights looked too odd for the North American market but who knows .
A gentle reminder : please, _always_ WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT ! .
Damien was a serious track rat, I didn’t find out until after his death that he never used seat belts unless on the track .
He died when his MR2 left Mt. Emma Road going backwards in excess of 150MPH, when the car began to roll he was ejected and killed when he hit the ground .
sadly I also learned that his buddies including my son didn’t think it their place to mention to him to buckle up .
I wish I’da known he might still be alive as we used to enjoy talking shop .
I wonder where his dent & rust free original white paint Carina Coupe is now .
-Nate
(anyone who wonder about the steering wheel with wrenches shrine on Mt. Emma Road, that’s for Damien)
Never seen the 4-door before, for obvious reasons.
The gap between the Corolla and the Corona was just too small in the US. The Corolla, also available with the 1.6 that the Carina had, was seen as the obvious economy/sporty compact, given that it was available as a hardtop coupe, unlike the Carina, which only came here as a rather staid 2-door sedan. In fact, your representation of the Carina as a sporty car was belied in the US by that decision to only offer the 2-door sedan, and with the same engine as the Corolla, it was of course a tad slower too.
All in all, a very minor misstep by Toyota in the US.
I remember these because I liked the Olds Cutlass waterfall tail lamps. It made the truck look shorter, but it was memorable.
These Toyotas rusted away awfully fast. So not only have they not sold as well as the Corolla, they disappeared just as fast.
These are good cars with thin tinny bodies. Light, well engineered and dependable.
In Europe the nameplate Carina lived on in several generations, and was at times among the best selling cars in Norway together with the Corolla until the late 90s. I have found out to my confusement that they were sold as Coronas in other parts of the world.
I recall riding in a Carina on my family’s European trip in 1973. My father rented a red one in Geneva. It was peppier than the Hillman Hunter Estate we had driven around England and Scotland, and certainly quicker than the Peugeot 204 we later used in southern France. It was more than adequate for taking us up the winding roads to the base of Mont Blanc. I remember feeling confused at the time as to where this car fit into the Toyota hierarchy of models.
As a boy in the 70s I remember these strange rear lights very well. The rest of the car, not so much. I would not know if the Toyotas with these tail lights were mostly two or four door sedans, or coupes here as even then the cars themselves did not interest me at all.
Toyota saw a model gap in its’ US lineup for a 2-door bigger than a Corolla and sportier than a Corona, but still a post sedan unlike the Celica hardtop coupe. Understandable given how many 2-door 510s Datsun had sold.
It turned out not to be a big enough gap for the Carina to be a success, and in 1975 it was squeezed out between the 2-door post sedan that appeared in the Corona line for the first time (also a slow seller) and a bigger Corolla’s base 2-door sedan. As it turned out, that last was what the market segment wanted.
I purchased a used Carina for my mother years ago. She had a 1974 Dodge Monaco that was huge for just her, and drank gas like, well, a guzzler. I thought that the Carina was a great replacement as it was a two door and in her favorite blue color. She just couldn’t get used to the size, so I sold that and got her a colonnade Cutlass that was much more to her liking. I rather liked the Carina, as performance was adequate with the Toyoglide and it was nicely finished in typical Toyota fashion. Great car but i agree that there just wasn’t room in the market for something between the Corona and Corolla in the US.
A pleasantly styled but unmemorable car, but those tail lights are ghastly.
The design is for a Japanese car of the time quote clean, and yet they decided to put these US influenced lights, and it just doesn’t work.
The hardtop is far more attractive to these eyes and thankfully missed out on this “feature” .
I can now see where this model fits in the Toyota range, as soon after its release the Corona grew larger and so there was a gap between it and the Corolla.
Having said that I think Toyota Australia made the right call in not selling it as it most probably world have just cannibalised sales from either the Corona or Corolla. Maybe if the Celica was not sold here, the Carina hardtop would have worked.