Photo: Gateway Classic Cars
Toyota is such a huge and old carmaker that there are more defunct models in its past than new ones on the roads. At the top of the industry in terms of new car sales for years, the Japanese brand is, however, not a preferred choice on the pre-owned market, and even less so on the custom one.
Save for the Land Cruiser and Supra, which often get tampered with, there are not that many other Toyotas out there worth a closer look. However, we occasionally stumble upon some of the others, and for one reason or another, we do get the urge to waste a few minutes of our lives (and yours) talking about them, especially given how March is Toyota Month here at autoevolution.
So is the case with the 1982 Tercel in DX trim we found sitting on the lot of a dealer called Gateway Classic Cars. We're talking about an almost-original gem from the Toyota past most people have forgotten today.
The Tercel was a subcompact produced by the Japanese between 1978 and 1999 and sold globally under various names, including Corsa, Corolla, Corolla Tercel, or Soluna. It wasn’t a spectacular car back then, and it isn’t one now, but there’s something about this particular one that caught our eye.
Perhaps it’s the fact that this is a matching numbers machine. It packs the original working drivetrain, comprising a 1.5-liter engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. The engine was rebuilt sometime either 20,000 or 30,000 miles ago (32,000/48,000 km, the ad is a bit ambiguous), and work on it was topped with the reupholstering of the interior.
The yellow over tan two-door machine, which could turn into an incredible custom project in the right hands, is for sale for peanuts. The asking price is $8,000, and for that, on top of all of the above, you also get air conditioning and a cassette player you probably have no way of using.
So is the case with the 1982 Tercel in DX trim we found sitting on the lot of a dealer called Gateway Classic Cars. We're talking about an almost-original gem from the Toyota past most people have forgotten today.
The Tercel was a subcompact produced by the Japanese between 1978 and 1999 and sold globally under various names, including Corsa, Corolla, Corolla Tercel, or Soluna. It wasn’t a spectacular car back then, and it isn’t one now, but there’s something about this particular one that caught our eye.
Perhaps it’s the fact that this is a matching numbers machine. It packs the original working drivetrain, comprising a 1.5-liter engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. The engine was rebuilt sometime either 20,000 or 30,000 miles ago (32,000/48,000 km, the ad is a bit ambiguous), and work on it was topped with the reupholstering of the interior.
The yellow over tan two-door machine, which could turn into an incredible custom project in the right hands, is for sale for peanuts. The asking price is $8,000, and for that, on top of all of the above, you also get air conditioning and a cassette player you probably have no way of using.
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