(first posted 8/22/2013) How exactly did Toyota come to be so dominant, mostly at GM’s expense? One little well-built coffin nail at a time. We will forever hear explanations as to why GM stumbled and flubbed so many new car, engine, and other technology introductions in the late seventies and eighties: The need to downsize rapidly, the switch to FWD, oil prices, CAFE, EPA regs, etc.. The 1980 X-cars are the poster boys; all new, FWD, and highly flawed. Well, the Tercel was all-new too, Toyota’s first FWD car. Yet they managed to nail it, right out of the box. Or right into it.
Like GM, Toyota had been building a large range of rather conventional and conservative RWD cars, from their little Starlet (above) (CC here), to their biggest Crowns. Toyota really was the GM of Japan, but the world was changing, and quickly. Europe had already embraced the FWD revolution, and in the US, the 1975 VW Rabbit/Golf really forced the issue. The RWD Starlet and Corolla were kept around for a few more years, but the all-new FWD Tercel was going to become one of Toyota’s most important cars ever, in the then-crucial sub-compact segment.
The Tercel arrived in the US in 1980, and rather oddly, called the Corolla Tercel. Now that was taking a page out of GM’s playbook, like the Cutlass Ciera. Oh wait; that came some years later. So did GM get that idea from Toyota? To borrow the name of a well-established RWD model to bolster a brand new FWD one? Well, Toyota needn’t have bothered, because the Tercel arrived rock-solid, despite its rather unusual engine-transmission configuration.
image: Murilee Martin/TTAC
Toyota really bucked the sweeping transverse engine trend in FWD configuration with the Tercel, choosing instead a longitudinal engine, with the transmission below/along-side, and the differential just ahead of it.
This junkyard shot (also by MM) shows this even better. It’s similar to the Saab 99/900, and even to GM’s original FWD Toronado set0up, although there are some key differences too. In any case, it was unusual to see a new small car an engine going against the grain. But it worked perfectly, and both the engine and drive-train of these Tercels have achieved legendary status.
I’ve often pondered as to why Toyota went this way. It wasn’t to take advantage of any pre-existing manufacturing efficiencies, such as the theory that the Tercel was essentially a FWD conversion of the RWD Starlet. They are completely unique and different cars, in every dimension and aspect, despite some familial styling similarities. The Tercel had very stretched-out look, in front because the wheels are mostly ahead of the engine, and in the rear, for more passenger room. Which the Tercel had, to an unusual extent, given its very compact exterior dimensions.
The other theory was that Toyota had it in mind all along to turn the Tercels’ north-south drive train into a 4WD configuration, without having to add a complicated ninety-degree take-off on the transmission. True enough, and starting with the gen2 Tercel, the 4WD wagon became a popular addition to the line. But I have some doubts that Toyota was already thinking 4WD in the mid-seventies, when they designed the Tercel. The Subaru 4WD wagon only arrived in 1975, and it took a few years to really make much of an impression. Will we ever know?
What I do know is that the Tercel was a very competent car on snow and ice, even without 4WD. On January 13, 1982, the same afternoon of the the tragic Air Florida Flight 90 crash into the icy Potomac River, we arrived at the Baltimore Airport expecting my parents to pick us up. They weren’t there, and the weather outside was a mixture of ice rain and snow.
I called them up from a pay phone (remember those), and they said it was impossible for them to come, as ice rain followed by snow had closed the streets and even the Beltway. You’re on your own. What to do? Check out all the rental car counters and hope to find a FWD car, not a given in 1982 (certainly no AWD vehicles then at a rental company). There was only one, a blue Tercel SR5 hatchback, exactly like this one. And what a drive it took us on. Or I took it on.
It took us almost four hours to get to Towson, for what usually took barely 30 minutes. I had to wend myself through the city, mostly on obscure side streets, as the police had shut down most major arterials due to ice-rink conditions. I also had to consider geography, and constantly avoid anything that looked remotely like it was going to head uphill. At one point, I drove down several blocks the wrong way on a one-way street, as it was the only way of another closed-off street, or un-navigable. All this without a map, and in parts of the city I didn’t at all know, except in a very general way.
It was very intense; I’ve never had a more demanding drive in my life, and keeping the Tercel from sliding into parked cars and moving forward took every last bit of concentration. I slammed into one curb with locked wheels pretty hard, and the Tercel bounced right up over it, fortunately without any damage. We pushed it back into the pavement and kept on slipping and sliding.
Our two-year old daughter slept through it all in the back seat, except for the crash over the curb. I love intense drives in bad conditions, but this one was almost a bit too much. But it makes for a great memory now.
Yes, the Tercel was narrow, but pretty roomy in length, which made for adequate rear seat and luggage space. And the hatchback had the usual convenience of flexible load space.
The Tercel’s 1452 cc 1A-C engine made all of 60 hp, which wasn’t all that bad for the time, especially considering the Tercel’s light weight . It certainly wasn’t as brisk as the Rabbit/Golf, which had fuel injection and more power. But then the Tercel was never positioned as a sporty car, despite the SR-5 version’s external stripes and cues to the contrary. And on ice and snow, more power was the last thing I was wanting.
There’s a goodly number of gen1 Tercels still on the road here, although this one has obviously been collecting a bit of moss and lichen.
I stopped shooting them a while back, but I was sure I had a four door in the collection. Not so, and this one is from Europe, which its smaller bumper give away. This was right about the time that Toyota and the Japanese started to get serious about their European Invasion, hoping to replicate the American one. That didn’t quite turn out as well as hoped for, though. But the Tercel and Starlet did rank extremely high in the German ADAC “Pannenstatistik”; in fact the Starlet unseated the Mercedes W123 in that coveted spot at the top of that-then very important list.
Was the Tercel perfect? What car ever is? But for the times, it was just about as perfect as it got, in terms of trouble-free low-cost driving. And that really stood out back then, given the travails of the Big Three’s many prematurely born cars during the eighties. Most of those became reasonably reliable enough after a few years of further development, but Americans were tiring of being GM’s beta-testers. And cars like the Tercel made them increasingly aware that it wasn’t a necessary condition. Nailing it right out of the gate; what a novel idea! Not anymore.
Other than the 4×4 wagons I never gave Tercels much thought until I bought my 83 hatchback three years ago. Probably the simplest and most reliable of all my Toyotas, and that’s saying something. Not to mention occasionally getting 40mpg highway, even pretty full.
Something is seriously wrong with that car if you are only getting 40mpg on the hwy. My now wife had an 82 and it regularly would get 50 mpg or more on the freeway and 40 something in mixed driving.
The Tercel was not sold in Australia apart from the AWD wagon which had the Corolla Tercel label (followed by the Corolla AE95 awd wagon), but I did not realize it had a different transmission layout from normal.
Paul, you’ve finally done it: you’ve shown me photos of a car I had no idea existed! I’ve never seen a gen1 Tercel hatchback before in my life! Sure, I’ve seen photos of the 2 and 4 door sedans before, but never ever the hatchback. Its proportions don’t work for me (back axle seems too far back), but the rear photo is interesting with those little round lights and the roof-mounted wiper.
Pretty sure we never got them new here, and I think they were too old to come in when our seas of used JDM imports began in the mid-late 80s. We did get the gen 2 both new (in 4wd wagon form only) and as a used import though.
Anyway, congrats Paul! 🙂
I wasn’t exactly expecting that, but thanks. And I wouldn’t have guessed that the Liftback wasn’t sold there.
Yes, the hatchback’s proportions are a bit funny, due to the Tercel’s long and narrow body. But that was kind of the fashion then, in that way, it’s a bit similar to the Corolla Liftback I showed you the other day.
The 3-door hatch was really cool to me as a car guy, I liked the glass and buggy taillamps. It’s the model I think of when I think Tercel.
But I will tell you this. Because of their high sales numbers the gen 1 and 2 Tercels, maybe more than any other car, helped define the term “econo-box” for most folks.
That “basic” imagine for Toyota didn’t really go away until the Oh what a feeling campaign and supporting models like the gen 2 Supra, Celica, Corolla GTS, MR2, 4-Runner, 4WD SR5 trucks, etc., etc.
It’s rather ironic that the most boring company in the industry today built its foundation on excitement and not just quality.
My first car was a silver 82 Tercel SR5 2door liftback sport with the bottom racing stripes. I put 285,000 on it in 4 years delivering pizza’s. The car was unstoppable running in conditions no other car could handle, I even off roared it and keep up with the big trucks no problem. I loved this car so much that my 2nd car was a blue 82 Tercel 4door sedan 4speed. Best cars I’ve ever owned!
My friend Paul in Florida had the SR5 hatch as his long-distance commuter car to his job as environmental engineer at a mill in south Georgia in the late 90’s. Fun to visit him at the plant, the little car hidden among all the other staff full-sized pickups. He was devoted to it like I had only seen previously with people and their Volkswagen Beetles, finding ingenious ways to keep it running (the stick to prop open the hatch after the struts failed, shoe glue to re-seal the sunroof, etc.) until something too expensive finally gave out with the mileage approaching 300,000. He sadly nursed it to the junkyard and, I believe, kept the stick as a memento. It was followed by a Saturn, and now a Subaru Forester. Another reason why Toyota should have kept making the 4WD wagon, they had another winner there. Thanks for the 4-door picture, I really like that one!
A 81 sedan in dark blue was my very first vehicle purchase wah back when I was 15. A friend had a fondness for this generation of tercel and owned every body style. Bqck then if the body was still mostly all their toyota would replace the whole rear beam suspension on recall. Even with all of 60 hp these things where fun little cars that handled decently in the hands of a competant driver. My friend was that driver and could place that car(just like the blue hatch above but in much better shape) anyway he wanted on any surface. He could even get the front hides boiling well into third gear which was not an easy task with said 60 hp. RIP eddi
The only time I ever drove the Hana Road on Maui (Nov. 1982) – to the end and back, with a stop at the Hana Maui hotel – was in a first-generation Tercel four-door rental. It acquitted itself very well and likely was the first FWD car I’d ever driven.
my first new car! and first of many toyotas…all the others, trucks. I wish I had kept them all!
Nice writeup on these. I’ve never experienced these, other than a few times in an ’88 Tercel wagon that a former friend had and this being around 1999 while she ran for a position on the Seattle City Counsel that fall.
How I managed that, I don’t know, I guess I just don’t know many people driving ‘yotas in my life. I take that back, my best friend and his wife have an ’01 Sienna van, but they are an exception to that rule, and he briefly had an ’02 Tundra (used at the same time as the Sienna van) with the third door. Now he drives an ’01 Ford F150 crew with 4×4, Lariat edition, though bought used.
Anyway, a small quibble here, I think we got the Rabbit (Golf to you Europeans) as early as ’74, as I think VW brought them out all over that year. I know they were introduced that year, and Honda initially brought out the Civic in ’73, though we officially got the 74’s, and both were transverse FWD, as was the Fiat 128 when it made its debut in 1969/70 depending upon the market. So yeah, Europe, and in at least one case, Japan was moving towards FWD en mass.
However, a surprising car in the snow was my old truck! Yeah, that ’92 Ranger with a fiberglass canopy on the bed made a pretty decent snow vehicle, albeit going at it VEEEERRRRY GENTLY, but it’ll do it pretty well with just standard, run of the mill all seasons on it.
It helped that the canopy added the weight that a basic 2WD truck would need to do OK in the snow.
I got to drive it in the snowacopolise of 2008, and again with the big snow/freezing rain/ice storm of 2012, just before its downfall with throttle issues, and other issues, which brought about a trade and a little black Mazda into my life.
US Rabbit’s first MY was 1975.
The CC Effect is in effect y’all. Just spotted this gem at red apple. Spoke to the owner and told him about the site. Maybe he’ll show up and tell its story.
hmmm. can’t post a pic on mobile. its a 82 Corolla Tercel 4 door in good nick. I’ll post it from home tomorrow.
The Tercel was always a rarity here, mainly because it was butt-ugly.
Either a small~compact hatchback or a real sedan, but not this creature.
That said, the more successful Starlet, Corolla and Carina were Land Cruisers in disguise when it came to durability and reliability. And during the eighties the rust proofing got better and better.
At the time I thought the hatchback was the most incompetently styled car ever. Also not very comfortable, and Japanese cars back then had minimal wheel travel. And talk about liftover….
But other than rust in salty states (or by the Pacific) they lasted. That was really the key to their success, something whatever Chrysler is called now and LR/Jag somehow still haven’t gotten.
In the late 70s and early 80s, a friend and I would visit car dealers when they were closed on Sundays to look. We used to pay attention to build quality, looking for paint runs, badly aligned panels and trim pieces, and other assembly “issues” that were once quite common on new cars in a lot. I still remember going to a Toyota dealer for the first time. We walked around and around a particular Tercel, marveling at how perfect the body panels, trim and paint were done on even the least expensive car on the lot. Those differences between the best Japanese cars and US stuff have largely disappeared, but 30 years ago, the difference was huge. At that moment, I understood the attraction of Toyota.
The panel gaps were so bad on some cars back then that they were visible in the factory promotion pictures. No joke.
Panel gaps were far wider back then to make sure that they fit and doors, hood and trunk worked, given the approximate assembly and lack of quality standards for the parts. The Japanese showed the rest of the world that it was possible to put a car of any price together correctly, from parts made precisely and the gaps shrunk. It’s a long story involving Japanese culture and American industrial guru Deming.
When these came out, I actually liked the rear styling of the hatchback with its Saabesque taillights. Unique.
A friend in high school had a first-gen Tercel hatchback. He used it to transport his double bass. I have no idea how he managed it, but there you go.
This is one example of an Asian model that has had name changes over the years, usually not common. Should have kept Tercel name, instead of trying to be ‘hip’ with Echo for the ‘Echo Boomer’ generation tag, which has fallen off the charts.
Tercel > Echo > Yaris.
Paul this brings back memories. My folks had a 1980 Tercel coupe in silver. It had a totally black interior with vinyl seats and no AC(it was not a car that my younger brothers and I looked forward to being inside in the summer) It was bought by my dad to use as commuter car for work and had a 4 speed manual trans. It was bought new and quite the contrast to my mom’s car(a 1976 Mercury Monarch). I loved the quirks the car had. The massive front and back rubber bumpers(I swear they added a foot or so to the length of the car) were distinctive(though I don’t see why they could not have used the Euro front bumper(as shown by Paul’s pic) because the front bumper on the Euro Tercel looks close enough to the 1980’s Chevette front bumper) The other interesting things that I discovered was that to lock the drivers side door when you were leaving the car you had to hold in the door handle or it would not lock(to keep you from locking your keys in) and the trunk lock had the option to select it to lock it(need the key to open it again) or just close it(so to open it you turned the lock latch instead of using the key)
I remember sitting in the Tercel with my brothers waiting for my folks to drop off our then new 1986 Aries wagon back in late 1986. The dealer was Laurel Dodge in Laurel Maryland (now this dealership seems to be a repository for old Mopars(see a previous post https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-sightings-chrysler-cordoba-ls-and-other-mopar-goodies/) )
I wanted to see what would happen if I disengaged the parking brake(it was parked at the south side of the dealer and on an incline) no sooner did the P brake get disengaged then the car started rolling back. I quickly pulled the brake back up. It scared the shit out of all of us. I was 8 years old at the time and i should have known better.
It was kept until my Grandfather downsized his “fleet” and gave us his backup car(a 1980 Malibu) in 1990 and my dad jumped on it because it was a bigger car. Big mistake as that malibu was a big POS and had always been one since new. It had the 3.8l Buick V6 but was gutless and had that Turbocrapamatic THM-200C that was replace twice over the 10 year it was owned. When that car got dumped, it was about to go on its 3rd replacement trans. My folks always took excellent care of their cars. But the Bu was made in GM’s crap car era.
The contrast between the 1980 Tercel and the 1980 Malibu was very glaring. In the 10 years of ownership the Tercel had 150,000+ miles put in it and needed nothing but regular services and batteries(hell the car still had its original clutch). The Malibu was also owned for 10 years and it ate transmissions and alternators
My best friend had a 1982 Tercel hatchback, an automatic, bought very well used about 1995. This gentleman is the hardest driver I have ever seen, he literally beats cars as hard as he can. That Tercel lasted, get this, 650,000 km. In the time he owned it, all it ever need was brakes and exhaust. The brakes he did himself and exhaust he bodged.
In 2008, it failed Aircare for the first time. The local government gave him $750 to scrap it and by a newer car. He was tickled pink since all he paid for it was $500! With the $750, he bought a 2008 Fit, which he continues to flog without mercy.
One last try.
I have a 5th (last generation) version of this car in my carport. A 1996 Tercel purchased for my then girlfriend and now wife in 2000. Only 36k miles back then, over 310k miles now. Original engine, transmission replaced at around 250k miles with a used one from the junkyard. It’s ugly as hell but it can still go anywhere. My wife loves that car and that’s why we still have it. It was my daily driver for my 100 miles round trip to work until a few months ago, but the engine is showing signs that it will need a new head gasket soon so I stopped using it. It’s still used for local trips. We are planning to purchase another car soon, and we are still deciding if we are going to finally get rid of the Tercel or not. My father in law and brother in law are mechanics so we only pay for parts for our cars, but the Tercel is old and it needs other things repaired besides the head gasket; no A/C, suspension work, new catalytic converter because the original one was stolen so it got a straight pipe soldered in place and paint among those things. We also have a Mazda Tribute with 270k miles and a Pathfinder with almost 200k. So lets see what we ultimately decide to do and which one of the cars go.
My very first NEW car was a 1980 Toyota Tercel 2-door sedan. I thought the hatch was ugly, but what I really wanted was the deluxe 2-door sedan with five speed. Unfortunately, being SERVCO Pacific (Hawaii), that model was n/a in the Aloha State. If you wanted a Tercel, it was the 2 door base sedan (fixed rear windows, color keyed rubber floormat, 4 speed or 3 speed automatic).
Being August, 1980, all small cars were in high demand. I sold my Courier (avatar picture) and put the proceeds of that as a down payment for the Tercel (Service Motor Co., Wahiawa – which then sold Chevy, Toyota and Suzuki FJ-410 trucks and 4×4’s). I was told if I wanted the sedan/4 speed, I’d have to wait a month for the next shipment and they’d only have one in cream or blue with manual (I wanted light green).
The car did not disappoint except for one major item. With the 4 speed, I averaged 42mpg real driving on Oahu. Was transferred to Virginia and had the car shipped to Oakland and drove it coast-to-coast by way of Dallas to visit a buddy of mine and Missouri to visit relatives. Car had no a/c. 60mph in 4th gear rendered 45mpg cross country.
By the time I reached Tidewater, the Tercel by then had 42K on the clock and the CV joints were shot. I felt a little ratcheting getting on an on ramp onto I-40 in Barstow, but by the time I was in the Old Dominion, the ratcheting feeling and noise increased around every turn.
$425.00 (1982 dollars) later, with two new half shafts (Checkered Flag Toyota claimed the CV joints and half shafts were one unit), it was as good as new. I traded it for an ’82 Camaro which turned out to be a real POS. Decision I later regretted big time.
Had the Starlet been available in the late summer of 1981, I think I would’ve preferred that. Also, the 1980 model Tercels on the U.S. mainland had badges that read “Corolla Tercel.” Not so with those sold by SERVCO in Hawaii in 1980 – they were just “Tercel”.
Here’s the car, Honolulu, 1981.
This picture looks like San Francisco International Airport, across from the United Airlines (domestic) terminal.
We know what consumers thought about those wonderfully-built and reliable little furrin’ cars. But what did Detroit think? I’ve always heard the Big 3 buy samples of competitive makes and tear them apart. Have any insiders violated their non-disclosure agreements and revealed the Detroiters’ reactions. It should have been amazement, envy and feelings of shame for the crap they foisted on buyers. I fear the actual reaction was apathy, indifference and CYA. It certainly took a long time for Detroit to care how well their products are made.
Or were American engineers of that generation simply incompetent? There’s plenty of evidence for that (e.g., the X-cars awful brakes).
I have had something like 120 cars in my life thus far, and let me start off by saying that I like the first gen Tercel (but very few if any other Toyotas), and other imports (mostly from Honda, Mazda, and the smaller Japanese brands like Isuzu, Mitsubishi, etc.).
But, I mostly drive American cars, and mostly Fords at that. I have had a lot of 1970s/1980s/1990s Ford and Mercury cars (also GM and Chrysler products) and a healthy majority of them were pretty good cars.
The Fox bodies I had were light weight, relatively fuel efficient, comfortable enough for four adults (or 6 people total in a pinch) to ride in, with enough power and reliability (inline 6 engines) to keep them on my radar in the future. I was forced to get rid of my two Fox bodies (both Mercurys), but it was not by choice, I can assure you.
I have also had a lot of early Big 3 FWD cars like Escort, Tempo, Taurus, K car, J car, and so forth. All had their good and bad points. Naturally, I mostly prefer Fords of this era in design as well. I’ve had an early carbed Tempo (1984 only in the US) and several CFI Tempo and Escorts. Of course, the later MPFI versions were much better, but I got plenty of good service out of my CFI Fords. They are reliable, easy to work on, start easily in cold weather, and are cheap to repair and maintain.
By contrast, my 1983 Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD wagon I had in High School (late 1990s) was a terrible car. It had transmission problems (6spd manual), rust problems (and was not from nor was being used in the rust belt), reliability problems, on and on. I spent a lot of money nursing that ugly, slow little thing throughout high school, until one day the 4WD system locked up on me while I was going down a narrow road at about 35 MPH. I almost lost control and hit a Plymouth Laser head on, but managed to steer it into a small cove on the side of the road first, where I collided with a large rock. I sold the car (which still ran, but was hardly drivable) for $250 and moved on to a 1994 Ford Tempo that I loved.
My point is in all this is that no, US Engineers were not incompetent. US-based manufacturers were not incapable of building good cars, be them RWD or FWD. Yes, they produced a lot of turkeys, too, don’t get me wrong (GM X-cars, J cars, Chrysler K cars), but not ALL of them were as terrible as people like you make them seem.
My pic is of my 1983 Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD wagon, shown in the late 1990s a few months before the “incident”.
The Chrysler K cars were crude little boxes, but they were generally liked by the public.
I beseech (condemn) you for condemning one the best cars ever made – your Tercel! I have the same car but an 87 and it’s a very reliable car. Better than your piece of crap Taurus and Tempo, that’s for sure!
At the supermarket where I work there’s a regular customer who has a mint ’82 bright red 4 door. It is impressive it’s still around, considering I’m in western Massachusetts, where rust is an issue.
I just saw this car!
I live in San Diego and was visiting in Longmeadow, MA. Saw him at the Big Y grocery store. I wanted to buy it from him. It was mint. No deal.
How funny.
I remember when these came out and I wondered if the FWD silliness would last. Gulp.
Although I thought it was cheap and ugly back then, I’m loving the black bumper/strip/steelies look more and more. Toyota and Honda started that trend…I remember thinking “Why would an Accord DX have black bumpers if it’s supposed to be deluxe?”.
Found your site through google as I was curious about these little cars. A really nice first generation hatchback has popped up on Craigslist in western mass.
http://westernmass.craigslist.org/ctd/4173416208.html
I still have my very first real car a 1981 Toyota Tercel hatchback, it has taken me from New York to Florida and to the Canadian border. From San Francisco to Mexico border and many trips to Yosemite in blizzards and heavy snow both on the East and West coast. It is now almost restored except for the rear hatch carpets and the plastic inside trim and the door panels. Recently I replaced the struts and the shocks, replaced the muffler and the catalytic converter and did a complete engine tuneup, now the car runs smooth, just like when I bought it in 1981 in New York, it is now a California car since 1983.
I remember seeing these and the wagon version well into the late 90s.
“How exactly did Toyota come to be so dominant, mostly at GM’s expense?”
Win the c. 1980 youngsters over in the penalty box war, then move on to compete at higher levels. The first victory is the 1982 30 year old entry-level buyer choosing between this and the Chevette, with an already maligned reputation. He either pays the extra money and buys the Toyota, or does what my parents did, bought the Chevette, rued that day for the next 4 years, and went to Honda and Toyota thereafter. Sure, they’re both small, uncomfortable cars, but one at least doesn’t blow through 3 transmissions in 75K miles (at which point it dies).
But the real key is: when entry-level buyers like my parents were ready to move up from Civic-Corolla status c. 1990-95, they didn’t go back to GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The positive Japanese impression was already made on the small car front. They bought a Camry. Then a Prius. When they considered getting a big car, they thought about an Avalon or a Lexus. I don’t think they’ve even glanced at the Cadillac or Buick dealerships since Reagan’s second term. c. 1990 is right about when the models they’d have turned to in the past upon making more money, the Olds, Buick, and Mercury, really speeded up on their track to becoming cars for people 50 and over, because the next decade of 40 somethings didn’t give them a second look. I think that’s because of those buyers’ impressions already being formed by the small cars they bought as their first new cars a decade before.
“they didn’t go back to GM, Ford and Chrysler”
Really? You might want to look up the sales figures for the era in which you’re speaking of. American compacts were very high on the charts then. Ford Escort, Ford Tempo, and Chevy Cavalier were often at the top or near the top of the sales charts (both in their classes and in the class of cars as a whole) for a lot of the 1980s and 1990s.
I know Escort was the top selling car in the world during (1988 3-door hatch shown below) a lot of that time, and America’s best seller for several years. Accord placed in first a few times, but then came Ford’s Taurus that knocked it out of the running from the late ’80s on through the mid to late ’90s when Ford decided to neglect the Taurus instead of continuously improving it like they had before. They had the market, they didn’t lose it, they walked away.
GM’s J car was highly successful for them, they should’ve kept it going (updating the design, keeping it competitive) instead of neglecting it and letting it rot on the vine as Ford did with the Taurus.
Same with Chrysler’s K cars. They later made valiant efforts with the Neon, cloud cars (Stratus, Cirrus, Breeze), and LH cars (Concorde, Intrepid, etc.) but their poor quality and long term dependability snuffed out the moderate successes these cars were for the company. The engines were terrible (head gaskets to oil problems), their automatic transmissions were terrible (any one you want to name from this era), and their initial build quality was fair at best. Smart styling, good interior room, decent handling with a good entry level price were not enough to overcome the weaknesses listed above. The only vehicle they did constantly refine and develop was the minivans, and surprise, they’re still around and still doing OK given the level of attention they receive these days.
In the mid 90s, Taurus was still considered a valuable product in the line. Ford threw the kitchen sink at the new 1996 Taurus.
Also, without American cars, or more accurately, without Ford, you wouldn’t have the bigger Japanese cars to choose from such as Avalon. Even Camry and Accord would still be quite small and not as popular were it not for the efforts of American manufacturers.
How do I know this? Because I know the history of the Ford Taurus. When development began in 1979 and continued through 1985, what was Honda and Toyota selling? Toyota was selling a bunch of stodgy RWD small-to-medium cars, and Honda was selling a plethora of small FWD cars. Toyota later came out with the FWD Tercel, Corolla and Camry, but they were still quite small and exclusively 4cyl powered. They got decent mileage but were slow, noisy, and uncomfortable. I know, I’ve had several of these cars.
Then came the Ford Taurus. It was larger than just about anything Japan was offering at the time. Honda’s biggest car was the also-new-for-’86 Honda (Acura) Legend, but it was smaller than Taurus. Toyota had nothing to compete with Taurus. The Camry was too small, and the Cressida was more like a Japanese LTD than anything else, just as conservative and stodgy.
It was because of Taurus’ size that Camry and Accord quickly grew in the 1980s and 1990s. It was because of Ford’s amazing (for the time) 3.0L Vulcan V-6 that Camry and Accord later added V-6 versions. Ford’s 3.0L V-6, while purely American in its design (cast iron heads/block, timing chain instead of belt, OHV instead of OHC), rivaled larger engines for it’s power out put (more HP than a Cadillac V-8 at the time) and rivaled smaller engines for MPG. Case in point, compare a 1995 Ford Taurus 3.0L/4-speed automatic with a 1995 Toyota Camry 4cyl/4-speed automatic. The Taurus gets the same combined number, with a slight advantage in highway MPG. That’s from a larger car with a larger (all American) engine.
If you want to thank somebody for cars like the modern (i.e. large) Camry, Accord, Avalon, etc., you can thank the designers of the Ford Taurus. They are who forced the Japanese to step up or step out. Before Taurus, there was nowhere for buyers of small Japanese cars to go for a car that is larger and suits their needs better, yet was well designed, FWD, modern, efficient, clever, stylish, etc. like the Japanese small cars were.
Below is a picture of one of my current cars, a 1995 Ford Taurus 3.0L (I also have a 2012 Taurus SEL).
Hmmmmm, opinions vary…..I’ve driven two of the early FWD Tercels, both base models, one four speed manual, one three speed automatic.
The 4 speed model had a gearbox that was as sloppy and vague as a late 1970’s Suburu; finding first and thrid gear on the first try was an act of faith. That fwd transmission was no where near the “snick-snick” quality of the rear wheel drive Corollas and Celicas of that time period.
The 3 speed automatic was pleasant enough; but blog s-l-o-w.
I recall the base models as lacking sound deadening and inusulation with thinly padded seats.
The Tercel made a FWD Honda Civic quite the bargain, quite the more desirable car.
The fact that I purchased 3 Hondas in a row during the mid to late 1980’s has not influenced my thoughts here. Yeh. Rite!
Just MY two cents.
Thank you for being honest, it’s a breath of fresh air. Although I DO like the first-gen Tercel, I was beginning to wonder (reading these comments) if anybody was going to have an objective opinion, or if anybody had anything negative to say about the car at all. I owned an ’83 Tercel, and have driven several 1st gens, and although they were decent, they were far from automotive perfection incarnate.
I just bought a 1980 tercel in mint condition with only 28000 kilometers on it…It is so much fun to drive around, and is darn peppy for 34 years old. I have to get used to the carburetor, but if I follow the directions in the manual, it starts every time. I like reading articles like this! Didn’t know what a gem I had. Those are some nice cars folks!
That Tercel looks great! If you ever want to sell that beautiful Tercel, just let me know!
Agreed, if I were in Canada, where she must be from since its in KMs. I used to buy cars in Canada before 9/11 screwed everything up. Only got stopped once, but that was before pass ports were required and I was leaving the country with a car with a tag that had not legally entered with that tag before.
*Edit to clarify, the car, a 1994 Kia Sephia LS, entered with Arizona plates. In 1994, Kia’s were not certified in Canada because they didn’t have DTRL (required at that point). So, the owner, unable to register it, sold it to me. I had her send the title, I registered it in my home state, then flew to Buffalo, NY and crossed the border in a rental. Picked up the Kia, put my plate on it, and drove it home. Got stopped at the border, they checked everything out, it was legit, just threw a red flag since it had a different plate.
Back to the Tercel: It looks great as a coupe, doesn’t it? I found an SR5 2-door Liftback in Western Washington for $500 (non running, but non-rusty, too). I’m on the opposite side of the US, though. Shown below.
I owned a 1980 Tercel AND a 1982 Tercel that I bought because I LOVED my 1980. They both looked kind of like frogs from the back. My 1980 was my 1st car. i didnt have a choice, it was cheap and available. It didnt look great, really banged up, but boy did that baby run.Anybody who drove it, ended up with a hole in the left side of their jeans. I am in colorado and when those cold days hit and nobody elses car wouldnt start, mine always did, and drove pretty darn good in the snow too!
I traded in my 1980 because of the front end finally going KAPUT. YEARS later I saw the 1982, again looked like a frog, for dirt cheap. I bought it, and again it ran and ran and ran. I finally decided that it was time to “grow up”. The car dealership was going to give me $50 for her. I sold her to my sister for $50 and she proceeded to drive her from Denver to Marshalltown, Iowa 13 times!! She finally got totalled in a wreck.
Most people still remember me because of that “stupid” looking car.
I LOVED both of them that i owned. And would probably buy another one if it crossed my path!
The attached picture is a picture off the internet, not mine. But thats the “frog” look that i loved on both of them!
I have this one for sale with zero rust and completely unrestored everything is original even the tan Factory paint and everything works only 117,000 original miles on a very clean title and it’s the 1980 two door Deluxe sedan with lift back 3 speed automatic with a C
Solo vino032081 at gmail
Is the car still available? More pictures please. Where is it? How much?
I miss my 1980 Tercel, too. I drove it for 24 years and 272,000 miles and then gave it away to a desperate fellow whose truck fell apart on him. He got another year out of it. It was the perfect car for me.
Does anybody know of a car out there now that comes anywhere close to what it was?
We bought the 1980 Corrolla Tercel hatchback when I was in Kindergarten. My mom drove it for years, eventually passing it to my dad. At sixteen, it was my first car and was passed on to my younger brother before he finally did it in. It wasn’t perfect, but it was durable for a good 16 or 17 years. In an era when the joke was your car expired with the warranty, this one kept on ticking. Metallic orange, no a/c, 5 speed, 62 hp it wasn’t a popular car, but got me everywhere I needed to go. Hard to say I miss it, but got a lot of fond memories made in the decade and a half with that car.
Behold the Toyota Tercel. I was working for a systems integration company in Lafayette, Louisiana throughout the 1990s, and they had a 1986 Tercel as a “salesman’s car” (as in, we’re such a poor company, look at what we give our top people to drive…). The car subsequently had been totaled__twice by the same software programmer, about six (6) months apart__but since it was a leased vehicle, either the bank, the lessor or the insurance company didn’t recognize a “total” (Napoleonic Law, remember) and hence the rebuilds.
Some years later, it was passed down to me to use as a service vehicle (rather than continuing to reimburse mileage on my own car’s use) and I will credit the Tercel with teaching me the art of strategic driving, particularly when passing on 2-lane roads!
After a couple of years, I just couldn’t drive it anymore, and reverted back to taking my 74-1/2 MGBGT on plant start-ups and trouble-calls. It was far, far more credible and respected vehicle by my peers (who mostly drove Chevrolet and Ford 3/4 and 1-ton pickups).
After I refused to drive it, the poor decrepit thing was passed onto a new programmer that was hired (this is around 1998 now, and the Tercel was an ’86 model) Once he noticed it starting to “shimmy” on I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, he took it to his personal mechanic. Said mechanic condemned it on the stop and forbade him to drive it (the programmer was putting the mechanic’s kids through school with repairs to his other cars, so the mechanic didn’t want him killed). During one/both of the “total” rebuilds, a front half of the shell was grafted to the original back half, and as a result of little or no rust-proofing measures, was reverting back into its original halves again. When the seams started to split through the rockers, was when the shimmying started.
I just told him that the Tercel was merely one factor of the company’s exit interview process…
Great article, Paul. What I love about CC is that I’ll read some articles on cars that I have never had any previous interest in, and learn some things. A longitudinal FWD is an interesting design……I had no idea that there were still non-transverse FWD’s made. I’m sure there are others (I’m not an expert on the subject) but thought that it was cool that there were some exceptions to the rule.
Cool article. My driving instructor taught me in a Gen-1 Tercel (I think ’80) and then during my brief stint as an instructor I had a ’83 hatchback. Nothing special, but just rock solid mechanically – never missed a lesson. Too bad the sheet metal wasn’t quite up to handling the great salted North.
I still havent seen a hatch version since this item was first published, I lived in OZ during the 80s/90s and in their severely restricted market only the 4wd wagon appeared, NZ always had many makes and models denied to Australians but since returning I still not seen this one, it seems early FWD cars tried all kinds of layouts before adopting the east west gearbox behind engine layout used today.
In that 3/4 rear view the Tercel hatchback looks like a modern interpretation of a Saab 96.
This is a car I’ve come to appreciate through articles like this. I bought my ’81 Corolla Hardtop around the same time these debuted; I wanted something a little ‘nicer’ but I bet the Tercel had more room inside than my Corolla did.
My college roommate bought a ’90 Tercel as his commuter; it was finally retired 5 years ago with nearly 400k miles on it. These things were bulletproof and certainly one of the many steps to Toyota market and reliability domination….
For completeness, we should some remember some other front wheel drive designs which pre-date the Tercel, and had similar layouts. ie A longitudinal engine, and the transmission components (clutch, gearbox, and diff) arranged in various ways, to put the axis of the driveshafts underneath the engine, about halfway along the cylinder block.
These include the Triumph 1300 (launched in 1965), the Saab 99, (1968), and the NSU/VW K70 (1969) . There’s a good discussion around those cars, and their possible influences on the Tercel’s designers, at Driven To Write, here, https://driventowrite.com/2016/04/05/toyota-tercel-triumph-1300/
As an old car guy (is that a redundant term) I remember someone asking me way back when these first came out if they should buy one. I distinctly remember telling them that front wheel drive was still rather experimental and that this was the first such vehicle from Toyota so I would avoid it like the plague.
Well a creamy yellow Tercel was their first Toyota and that’s all they’ve ever had ever since. The only reason that little thing isn’t still jumping puddles is that an Oldsmobile wagon with the clamshell doors took it out in the late 1980s. What must have felt like a speed bump to that heavily intoxicated Oldsmobile driver was the family car to the Toyota’s owners but they bought another and another and keep that tradition alive to this day.
I love my 83 Toyota Tercel SR5 4wd wagon 😉☺
Articles when these were introduced said that the longitudinal engine orientation was to retain the ease of maintenance and engine servicing accessibility associated with rear-wheel-drive economy cars.
Interestingly, the stripper Corolla Tercel was the price leader even after the Starlet arrived on the US market for 1981. The seemingly cheaper Starlet was only available in a fairly well-equipped trim level, while there was still a listed austere Corolla Tercel, although you’d have been at the mercy of your regional distributor to ever see one. The Starlet was intentionally expensive, as it arrived when Toyota was seeking to make more money off of the same number of cars rather than continuing their sales growth.
Great period shot from the summer of 1980. The long gone Maple Leaf Hotel, at the southeast corner of Montreal Road and St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa.
However much I admired the Tercel at the time, I’d like that Dodge Diplomat wagon today. Likely had a 360. Impressive, a Vega was still on the road, as 1970s Ottawa winters were frigid and harsh.
I’ve been waiting to read an article on the Tercel for a long time. I bought a new four door four speed from Toyota of Columbus in July 1982. Stripper with sole options being FM radio and cold kit. I think it was $6,000 out the door including tax and a $500 ADM.
Owned for about a year, then sold to free up funds for grad school
Fast forward 40 years. Bought a new “base” Chevy Spark for about $12,000, as a knockabout for our vacation place in the Poconos. Compared to the Tercel: 20 more horsepower; wheel covers; backup camera; air conditioning; cloth seats; right hand mirror; five speed manual. All at a much lower price, after adjusting for inflation.
I recall the reason for the Triumph 1300-copy Tercel was the sheer conservatism of Toyota and its buyers back then; the RWD-esque boxy proportions and inline engine didn’t frighten people. That the hatchback end looked like an equally-1965 Autobianchi Primula struck me as quaint a decade on.
Ford gave its FWD Escort a bustle and a short wheelbase so as not to frighten its buyers in 1980, so Toyota was not alone in its concerns.
Actually, the transmission is sort-of between a 1300 and an NSU K70 and not as individual as the SAAB layout. Closest to the K70, in fact.
The Acura Vigor and current Audis evolved the layout still further and more logically, so it’s not without its merits.
That the Tercel was so well-received encouraged Toyota to go full transverse end-on forthwith.
I drove a Tercel around LA for two weeks in 1980, on a work trip. Very dependable, economical car, Very well put together.
I found myself driving downtown late one night, and the gas gauge was just about on E. No gas stations were open, so just kept driving around on fumes until a station was finally located. My first experience with range anxiety.