A lot of us could agree that accessories can sometimes make or break the look of a car. This vision in milk chocolate brown appeared one December morning in 2013, maybe three blocks east of Wrigley Field. I could have done the “Toyota jump” when I saw it approaching. This Celica is identifiable as a ’76 (or ’77) model by the the flattened front fascia versus the original shovel-nose design. I’m arbitrarily going with model year 1976 only because it was the first year of this restyle, but I’ll be glad to make the correction to this post if a few experts on the subject can verify this is a ’77.
I’ve been feeling the Celica Love lately after reading several other recent CC posts about the sporty Toyota for the masses. I can’t remember the last time I had seen a first-generation Celica on the street prior to this one. There weren’t a whole lot of them in Flint, Michigan when I was a kid growing up there in the 1980’s. However, it always seemed to me that the Celica was one of few non-captive imports that it was okay to like in our GM town, I theorize, for a couple of reasons: a.) yes, they were cool; and b.) no iteration of the Celica seemed to pose any serious threat to the sales dominance of the Chevrolet Camaro / Pontiac Firebird siblings in the sporty car market segment.
Comparing the lines and style of this bonsai-ponycar to those of other similar notchback coupes of the time, notably the Chevrolet Monza Towne Coupe and Ford Mustang II, the Celica holds its own, with its first-generation Dodge Challenger-esque rear quarter panel hips, its true hardtop roofline (which, by itself, was becoming a rarity by ’76), and other sporty touches like the placement of the fuel filler on the C-pillar.
This car was already a head-turner in 2013 for its good looks, relative rarity and outstanding condition, but it was the suction-cup Garfield in the rear quarter window that really made my day. This period-correct detail made it seem almost as if this car had magically transported itself from a Meijer’s Thrifty Acres parking lot in Michigan from 1981, and plopped down in the land of the Chicago Cubs some thirty-plus years later.
It’s possible that it may not have seemed like the most patriotic thing to buy an import back in the U.S.’s Bicentennial Year, but this car looks darned good to me today, the more I look at it. Accompanying notchback Celicas in Toyota showrooms for ’76 was a new body style – the perky, ’69 Mustang fastback-inspired Liftback, which was Motor Trend’s “Import Car Of The Year”. With Celicas generally being assembled with better care than the domestics (Monza, Mustang II), costing a little less than the German imports (Ford’s Capri II, VW Scirocco), and also being great on gas, I can see their value proposition from a ’70s perspective. I’m glad that someone preserved this Celica long enough for time to further enhance the looks of this vintage, Japanese mini-ponycar. Oh, what a feeling!
Wrigleyville, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1974 Toyota Celica Coupe – Betting on The Wrong Pony
CC Outtake: 1973 Toyota Celica ST – Welcome To The Neighborhood
Automotive History: The Toyota 5 Speed Transmission Takes Over the World
Curbside Classic: 1997 Toyota Celica GT – The Beginning Of The End
With your last comment, I was just transported DIRECTLY back to the Muskegon MI Meiers Thrifty Acres parking lot in 1981—-walking in to get the latest, greatest plastic model kit car after riding a bike down from my cousin’s house. Good times….
Meijer seemed like such an amazing store when I was a kid. I bought many toys there, including Revell 1:24 scale car models. It was kind of like what Walmart is today – Mom could grocery-shop while the kids could beeline to the toy section or to the Purple Cow for a cone. I try to make it a point to go back to Meijer when I make it back to Flint, but it’s not quite the same place as it was. A lot of the whimsy is gone.
At least the pony ride is still a penny 🙂 Every time I go grocery shopping I end up with the Bonanza theme music stuck in my head.
Did they have the enclosed play area in the middle of the store when you were a kid? I’m not sure which is more amazing today, that they would give up that much sales floor, or that parents would just drop us off unsupervised while they shopped?
I don’t remember a lot of Toyotas in Lansing either. I think Honda was more common, probably because they were sold by Bud Kouts Chevrolet.
Sandy does still cost a penny, having defied inflation – always makes me happy to walk through the doors and see her there.
We did have that enclosed play area! through about maybe ’84. It had green, shag carpeting, animal statues we could play on, a few toys, and a bunch of TV’s. (Why was it that watching TV in a place outside your own house somehow made it cooler?) I do remember the way the carpet smelled – not great.
Even nowadays in Flint, on any of the expressways (I-69, I-75, I-475, US23), you can count maybe 10-15 imports on the road in the span of ten minutes. No exaggeration!
Every once in a while I will count 100 cars in a parking lot or on the highway. So far anywhere in lower Michigan or northern Indiana/Ohio the split is remarkably consistent at about 80 domestic & 20 imports.
I’d be interested to hear what results you’d get in Chicago.
The problem with the TVs at Meijer is that I remember several times watching part of a movie or show and having to leave before it was over.
Dan, based on my observations, I’d say the ratio of imports to domestics (thinking both downtown and in my neighborhood, Edgewater) is closer, maybe 70/30 – still a little depressing for this GM factory town guy.
Ah, yes! The frustration of leaving the Meijer play area right when the movie gets to the good part. I remember it well.
What a sweet find! Be willing to bet the guy driving it bought it new.
I recall these earlier Celica impressed me with: Their wonderful dashboard full of gauges, the precise, slick shifting 5 speed transmission, superlative (esp for the time period!) quality control and their efficient, no-drag-on-the-engine, FREEZING cold air conditioners (SO very desirable in Hot & Humid New Orleans).
An uncle of mine had a brown ’74 notchback very similar to this in the mid-eighties. It was a stick shift and it was fun to ride in. What I remember liking also was that it had a forward opening hood that reminded me of an exotic sports car.
You could imagine how “wild” it seemed when Buick adopted forward hinged hoods on the ’85 Electras. That feature Esp. on 4 door sedans was indeed not what one expected on a “full size” car, Especially a Buick!
They always did seem exotic–associated with Jaguar and BMW particularly. On the Buick it was a very unexpected feature! Shame that it really isn’t a very user-friendly setup as far as service goes!
Forward opening bonnet/hood reminds me of the 4cyl flathead 10hp Ford Prefect sedans of the 50s, sporting not very.
If I recall correctly, our 1985 AMC/Renault Encore hatchback also had a front-hinged hood that was a detail that made the car seem like a cut above the average econobox.
Very nice captures–it looks amazing in motion! You can really see the long hood/short deck proportions, and it wears them well.
The last time that I saw one of these first generation Celicas was in the early 1980s, when a cousin owned one while in college. The driver visible in the third photo must be a serious fan of these cars, to have preserved or restored one this well.
This green one spotted on 12/14/13 in Berkeley CA is also in very good shape.
Rear view
That looks ghastly with that bumper on the rear. Silly bumper laws.
So cool!! I like that your and my examples are in very “70’s” colors. I was checking out the factory color selections of the 1971 – ’77 models on “toyotareference.com”, and there are some good ones: http://www.toyotareference.com/celica/1971-1977
Mine appears to be in Dark Brown Metallic (a ’76-only color), and your is in Light Green Metallic.
Great find! Thank you for sharing it with us.
This generation of Celica was the imitation shrunken Mustang that was better than the real shrunken Mustang.
Thanks!, and I hate to say it (because I do like the Mustang II in some iterations), but I agree with you.
Great shots! A sight that was once so common, now so rare. The hardtop roof looked just right on these.
Wow! An old Japanese car I actually remember!
I also remember reading some UK magazine like “Practical Classics” in the late 90s which featured one of these as part of an article titled “Can Japanese cars ever be considered classics?” or something like that 🙂
That Celica really does catch your eye. One thing that really sticks out is how small they are in the context of modern traffic. I spotted it this March in Edgewater, looking good as ever:
That one looks fantastic in Cherry red (Red No. 336 according to that link above)! I’m a little disturbed to see it in the snow / road salt, as I think these had a tendency to rust pretty easily / badly. I hope this one got the aftermarket Dinol Tuff-Kote treatment! (I was a block from here this past weekend.)
I wish it were red, but it’s just your old pal Garfield. The sun was intense when I took these shots, so most came out pretty bad, unfortunately…
On an unrelated note, we must be neighbors in some way. So many of your articles have shots literal blocks from either my house or work, it’s crazy… I have done double takes on more than one occasion ?
It’s so cool we’re basically neighbors.
I wonder if the owner’s first name actually is “Garfield”.
Had no use for those in my youth back in the Seventies, but now I wouldn’t mind owning one now, but I’d have to find some JDM bumpers. Good God… those bumpers!!! I’d love to b**chslap the idiots upside the head in Washington (and in quite a few insurance co. boardrooms) that thought those abortions were a good idea!
The irony here is that the 5-mph bumper rules were primarily a response to consumer pressure. Congress had gotten a lot of flack from voters saying (basically), “Hey, you guys have been passing all these safety laws for cars, so why is it that bumpers are still crap? Every time somebody so much as taps my bumper parallel parking, I end up in the body shop!” Looking at bumpers of the pre-5-mph era (e.g., the rear bumper of a boat-tail Buick Riviera), it’s not hard to see why people would get frustrated; the bumpers of a lot of cars were basically just decorative elements.
Insurance companies may have supported the rule initially, but as enacted, I don’t think it saved them any money because the standard allowed the bumper itself to take damage in absorbing the impact. I don’t know that replacing or repairing impact-absorbing bumpers was really any cheaper than straightening body dents, so in that respect it was probably a wash.
I would think the one advantage would be that you don’t have to repaint the bumper. With body damage, they either have to work to match the paint in that area, or repaint everything.
I know when my ’77 LeSabre got rear ended, the body shop straightend the inner beam part of the bumper, reused the rubber molding, and only had to replace the outer chrome part
I have to agree. They may not be the most attractive things to grace (or disgrace) the body of a car, but would think that a 5+mph bumper would reduce (if not eliminate) the chances of damage to the body of the car during parking bumps. Isn’t that why they were installed?
Not-so-fun fact regarding the 75+ JDM Celicas: The big US bumpers were popular options! This period photo only highlights the sad truth…
Oh no!
I like these. I find it interesting that the notchback was so influenced by the Camaro, and yet the liftback was a Mustang lookalike.
It’s a pillarless hardtop – what could possibly be wrong with this car, other than the fact it’s stuck in a time warp when just about every other American car was either a Colonnade or had fixed glass on coupes!
I actually liked these.
At the time, we couldn’t believe you Americans were axing your coolest bodystyle.
Neither could us Americans. There was a short period in time in America when the lightly used cars were actually more desirable than the brand new ones.
I had one of these, in this colour (but with a white vinyl top), for 3 years in the mid ’80s. And of ALL the cars I’ve had, it’s this one I wish I could get back.
If this one really is a ’76, I’d say the front fenders are new. The key difference between the ’76 and ’77: the latter had plastic inner fenders. Mine developed sizeable holes in the tops of the fenders, directly above the wheels, so that on warm sunny days in winter I would have to drive around with the wipers on due to all the spray coming out of the holes! Unlike this guy, I never had the money or talent to fix them.
Great find! As you noted, these were a great value proposition in their day. I’m glad to see a nicely preserved one still being used as a daily driver.
As I think I mentioned in a comment on a previous post, I loved them then and still do now. There was a guy at work about 10 years ago that had one identical to this. He was considering selling the car, but I was in no position to buy it. I’ve always felt that this generation of Celica was much more visually appealing than the version that followed; that car was clean but just too bland for me.
I was not a fan of foreign cars when these were new, but even then it was hard not to notice these had attractive traditional hardtop roofs when they were becoming scarce among U.S. manufacturers. I recall though, wondering if these would gone as well, just because the clean simple look could seem boring and old in light of some of the wild things that were being done at the time.
If ever something boring and old needed a comeback, it’s the hardtop.
76 Celica GT notchback…2500lbs, 95″ wheelbase, 90 horsepower 2.2L 4 cylinder
76 Mustang notchback…2700lbs, 96″ wheelbase, 115 horsepower 2.8L V6
I think we could do with a more detailed comparison here!
Agreed. That would be a fun one to write up. My ’88 Mustang had the EFI version of the 2.3L Lima four that was standard in the II, which had all of 88 horsepower. Even with a five speed and with the air off, that car was a dog. A lovable dog.
Stellar find. So good to see it rolling down the street.
Looks like this one sees regular use–very cool that one of the comments is the same car, 1.5 years later, and still looking good. It’s in great shape and seems to have avoided the rust that killed so many 70’s Toyotas; quite an achievement in the Midwest! Always really liked the shape of these though. It triggers some long-lost memory; I think I had a toy version of this generation Celica back in the 80’s but the details are super hazy. Maybe matchbox-sized, but not them or hot wheels—Yat Ming perhaps?