It’s always a learning experience to be CC hunting in Japan. I’m still baffled by the amount of variants that Toyota used to have of the same thing, with names I do not readily recognize. For instance, “Vista” is not a nameplate I would have associated with Toyota – more with Oldsmobile, if anything.
How crassly ignorant of me. The 1986-90 Toyota Vista V20 is, as I’m sure many of you know, a Camry V20-based faux-hardtop sedan, confusingly also called Camry Prominent on the JDM. These were also rebadged and mildly facelifted as the first generation Lexus ES (1989-91), which I’m pretty sure were only for North American consumption. The Vista name disappeared in 1998, so there are still a few about, but it took this older model to bring it to my attention.
When we moved to the US in 1987, the first car we had there, for over a month, was a rental Camry. So I remember that era of Camrys pretty well – or at least, the US market version, with those dreadful automatic seatbelts. The Camry genes on this Vista were less visible for the outside, but on the inside, things looked a bit more familiar. The seat fabric in this one though – wow!
I never knew that these Camrys were available with AWD, but then I never thought much about these in general. Apparently, the AWD badge means that this Vista is necessarily powered by just the 2-litre DOHC 4-cyl. producing 120hp in JDM-spec. None of the various flavours of 4-cyl., V6 or Diesel available on the FWD Camry/Vista could be had with the AWD drivetrain.
This Vista is a lot more attractive than the V20 Camry saloon I remember from my youth. The airier greenhouse, the slimmer bumpers and that red velvet upholstery are quite fetching. Still, this does not really get my juices flowing – it’s all a bit too late ‘80s for me. But it’s the missing link that ties the Lexus ES and the Camry together, so it’s worthy of some CC exposure, if only from a genealogical perspective.
That velour looks stunning, I’d drape myself in that (if it were socially acceptable).
As a fan of the ES250 styling when compared to the concurrent Camry, this find speaks to me, and in AWD form, even better. I don’t know if I ever knew of the Vista itself (I always think of the Dodge Colt Vista with that name), but prime Toyota years right there.
“That velour looks stunning, I’d drape myself in that (if it were socially acceptable)”
It’s a material truly fit for royalty, Jim, and in this year of working from home and sheltering in place, if you want to wear a robe of it around the house and call yourself King Klein, you should go for it! I personally think it should be part of an official CC uniform for use during your test drives.
My ’87 Camry LE wagon had that same red velour. It wore (and hid dirt) well. X2 on those ridiculous motorized seatbelts.
2nd Gen AWD Camrys were plentiful in Colorado back in the day. Mine was 2WD but waiting in line at the emissions testing facility, an employee would always walk out to tell me that I had to get in the AWD line with its special, two-drum dynamometer.
Here’s an ad for an ’87 Camry with the red interior. Very, very red.
Lighting. In reality it was more of a burgundy:
Thanks. That looks a lot more subtle. I’m still trying to figure out if it’s the same color as in the featured Vista here… hard to tell.
From memory, it looks identical. Mine was built in Japan so both cars probably used the same upholstery vendor.
The dark red/medium metallic gray on my wagon was a good combo.
That looks like a very high-quality interior. It´s busier than a Mercedes but looks as well assembled. I reall underestimated these cars in the 1980s.
Vista is appropriate, look at that greenhouse.
This generation of Camry didn’t look as modern as the 1990+ Accord, but it demonstrated the dead seriousness of Toyota in taking marketshare here in the states. They were very well built, the interiors were solidly constructed of nice materials, the powertrains were modern, and they were a distinct stepping stone from the 82-86 V10 to the tour-de-force V20 1992.
These are much smaller and lighter than a modern midsizer and I remember that 155hp little 2.5L V6 being rather peppy with the standard 5-speed manual.
The Vista name lasted until 2003, but the final gen V50 wasn’t a “hardtop” (so the Vista hardtop sedan lineage did end in 1998), it was an oddly proportioned narrow and tall sedan and wagon.
And yes, that seat fabric. It’s the sort of stuff you just have to touch! Probably a pain to keep that clean and rich I’d imagine, doesn’t look worn at all so can’t be high mileage.
Now that Toyota has unified it’s JDM dealer channels and trimmed the siblings from its lineup, they’re much less interesting and weird than they were. Probably the only downside of globalised ranges.
Yes, the Vista did not end in 1998. The next generation V50 was the second that ushered in Toyota’s new FWD platform, MC (the JDM ‘97 Prius was first).
Had a co-worker that had that velvet-like red interior in a ‘89 V6 Camry that was old as dirt then, and she was a young woman who beat on that car. The interior was still immaculate. The material wore like iron. We chose her car to drive to a Christmas party one year because that car was comfy AF.
These were (and still sort of are) thick on the ground in Russia East of the Urals. A vast majority are white like this one. The AWD and decent ground clearance are a boon over there. Many are finally succumbing to the harsh climate and brutal roads and bad drivers, but their resilience is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Does anyone know what the chrome bumps are at the front of the fender? I’ve seen them in pictures over the years and never knew what they were for.
Turn signal indicators, just like the old Chrysler Co. style ones.
Good catch. It seems to have been fairly routine to produce upmarket “hardtop” versions of regular saloons for domestic consumption, Toyota were not alone.
I’ve never heard of the Vista before either — very interesting to see this permutation.
Even though the ES250 was an obviously badge-engineered Camry, I still liked the styling… very classy and subdued. And I think this Vista’s front end is an even better match for the car’s design that was the ES’s.
This generation “Camry” had 4 distinct versions. The Camry we all know, this Vista faux hardtop, then a model called Camry Prominent that shared the Vista style hardtop, and then the Lexus ES250 we got here in the US with a unique dash and engine compared to the Prominent upon it was based.
Camry was sedan only, no V6 in Japan.
Vista was BOTH hardtop and sedan, no V6.
Prominent was hardtop only, only a 2.0 V6
ES250 was unique interior, and 2.5 V6 hardtop
Got it?
Yes, I have to agree. The red velour is really lush. I think the habit of hating it is a learned tic. I know someone who has learned to pull a disgust face when tasting most alcoholic drinks. It raises a laugh and is now not evidence of disgust but a learned trait. The same goes for red velour. People learned it was easy enough to get a grin if you refer to bordellos and kitsch. There are some pseudo velours which aren´t that nice (hello, GM circa 1980-something). This one looks really high quality and coupled with dark bordeaux interior trim looks warm and rich.
We won´t see this material again, alas. We seem to be stuck with dark grey forever.
The one and only ES250 I remember seeing in person was a decently clean, but rusty-around-the-edges one in a local junkyard in NE PA. It was dark blue over dark blue, with that same crushed velour cloth (no leather!). In spite of its location in a junkyard, and being at the end of its life, the cloth was fabulously supple and in great shape, and the interior as a whole was obviously of high quality. I definitely will remember sitting in that car (along with a Renault Fuego, 2 Yugo GVs, and an equally Japanese velour-tastic interior-ed 1992 Nissan Axxess all in the same yard at the same time) for a good long time. I wonder if the Camry had slightly lower quality velour. It seems to me that ES and the similar vintage Cressida had a slightly deeper pile to their seat material.
Not a CAMRY!!! its a RWD Crown derivative,
The Vista did switch to a FWD platform (Camry?) sometime in the 90’s can’t be bothered checking Wikipedia.
Checked wikipedia, I’m wrong, LOOKS exactly like Toyota Cresta X80 with very similar dash, exact taillights.