(first posted 12/26/2012) Discovering the RWD Toyota Avanza in Mexico recently made me consider how relatively long Toyota hung on to RWD in their small cars. The last such car was the Starlet, which wasn’t replaced by a FWD version until 1985. They’re not exactly common on the streets anymore, but that has nothing to do with their reliability–which was legendary, thanks to their well-proven and simple drive train. And they’ve become cult-mobiles in the eyes of their loving owners for the obvious reason of their “right-wheel-drive”.
Honda redefined the mini-hatchback market (in both the U.S. and Japan) in 1973 with their seminal Civic. Toyota’s first major foray into FWD was the Tercel, in 1978. But the even smaller Starlet hung in there with its old-school RWD and leaf-sprung rear axle, the same underpinnings that Toyotas had worn when they were known as Toyopets.
Why? It’s likely Toyota was just being cautious, not wanting to repeat GM’s mistakes in that company’s rush to embrace FWD. The FWD Tercel was born a paragon of reliability, and the first FWD Corolla in 1983 was equally bulletproof from day one. The Starlet could wait. And it did.
The Starlet, slotted below the FWD Gen-1 Tercel, played an outsider’s role during its U.S. sales run of only a few years, and its successor, the FWD Starlet 70 Series, never was offered here. Maybe the Starlet was intended to be the Tercel’s backstop in case the latter had teething issues.
I know a guy who picked up a Starlet over twenty years ago and still uses it as his daily driver. Even after well over 300,000 miles, it’s never had a significant mechanical issue. It’s the only one in Eugene that I know of (I shot this fine little yellow one in Portland).
The Starlet developed a cult following very quickly. Not everyone was overjoyed by the switch to FWD, and the Starlet was the last connection to old-school RWD–a tossable mini-AE-86, if you will. I’m not sure exactly what “Starlet Unlimited” is, but I’m guessing it’s some sort of enthusiast’s entity. Indeed, from very early on, there was plenty of enthusiasm about the Starlet’s racing, rallying, and drifting potential.
YouTube has many tributes to the Starlet’s prowess in all manner of speed thrills. One could hop up its little push-rod four (available in 993, 1,166, and 1,290 cc versions), or drop in one of the bigger Toyota DOHC fours, a process as easy and common as dropping a big-block Chevy into a ’57. Or for that matter, almost any other engine that pointed rearward. The sky’s the limit. Well, maybe the rear tires were.
I’m not exactly suggesting that the Starlet was a drifter in the form that it left the showroom of your friendly Toyota dealership. The U.S.-spec 4K 1,290cc four was rated at either 58 or 62 hp–but the curb weight was all of about 1,600lbs. Keep the engine on the boil with the slick-shifting four- or five-speed, and it all worked reasonably well for the times. And keep in mind that a contemporary VW Rabbit/Golf had about 70 hp and weighed a fair amount more.
It’s a bit ironic: In the seventies FWD was the hot new thing, with the Golf and Civic as its new standard bearers. But for a certain contingent, the loss of small, RWD cars was lamentable, and for a few more years Toyota gave them a chance to enjoy one before the inevitable switch–or to buy one durable enough to still be on the road thirty years later, as this one is.
I convinced my Dad to purchase a Starlet instead of a Tercel, because it was RWD and thus it would be cheaper to keep for the long run. That proved itself out as my now wife had a Tercel when we met. Dad’s Starlet got 50MPG pretty much identical to my GF’s Tercel but the Starlet didn’t need the drive axles nor front wheel bearings replaced which was not cheap. Even if the Starlet would have needed a driveshaft or front wheel bearings they would have cost a fraction of the price to replace.
I suspect the Starlet was a victim of the voluntary import restraint quotas. Profit per unit took on a new importance, so higher margin products were given precedence.
Good point, and it really was too close to the Tercel to bother with, at least in the US.
I am not sure about down your way but these things, and all Toyotas in general, were so hot in Canuckistan that dealers were routinely adding upwards of $3000 on the MSRP and not even batting an eyelash about it. Then you’d get an extra $2000 of Polygycoat and the Racing Stripe dealer option.
Most of these Toyota buyers at the time had been burned by American stuff in the early 1980’s and were willing to fork over the extra dineros that these things cost at the time and then drive the car into the ground. This group was much like Volvo owners. They have money and maintain their cars reasonably well so the cars last for years. Even now, there are loads of 25+ year old Toyotas around here.
These cars vanished from Irish roads very quickly, due to rust issues. The Starlet may have been locally assembled, to satisfy import restrictions, which would inevitably mean poor paintwork quality. Either way, I think Toyota bought a lot of them back and crushed them, to preserve their reputation. The only RWD Sarlets we see these days are special-stage rally cars, with non-Starlet engines.
Ah, Starlet, such a forgettable car that I had forgotten it. These things sold well in Victoria BC where our repair shop/tire store was. Mostly it was retired school-marm types that owned them. On the other end of the spectrum, quite a few young, female teachers drove them, too.
There were good reasons for this: the Starlet was too small for anyone above 5’7″ or about 150 lbs maximum, as this was a very small car. I could never get comfortable in a Starlet but as a car type person, I could only admire its beautiful quality. Everything on a Toyota of the generation was superbly well made and intelligently thought out.
So why so popular with new and old teachers? Well, these teeny like appliances were not, ahem, cheap. This was the height of import restrictions and dealers routinely marked them up. Kind of like the Yaris now, a Corolla was only a little more, like fifty bucks, more money and was larger, more versatile car. You’d need a good salary to float a loan for one of these in these high rate times.
Paul, perhaps I can add a little perspective on the Toyota Way. They strive to find the best balance of quality and price and of course profitability. The cars of the Starlet era were produced all over the world and were immensely popular due to their reliability and simplicity. The longer Toyota makes a platform the cheaper it gets. The present day Corolla goes back to 2004 and a new one is like $17k. In Today’s money, a rather basic Starlet was upwards of $22k. Toyota hangs on to designs as long as it can to squeeze more profit, much of which is reinvested in the company.
These were good little cars but they were cheap. Sure, Toyota hahha-ed all the way to the bank when they had to fend off buyers who stampeded to the dealerships to buy their product. A Starlet was pretty much done after fifteen years on the coast, much less anywhere there is salt on the roads.
Today we get way better safety, power and mpg at lower prices than 25 years ago. I love competition. When the Starlet was sold, Toyota and Honda basically had no competition. Both companies are what they are today because of cars like the Starlet, good designs sold at outrageous profits.
http://www.toyoland.com/cars/starlet.html
I’d have to disagree with the statement that the Starlet was too small for people over 5’7″ of 150lbs. I am over 6′ and more than 150lbs and did not find my Dad’s Starlet particularly uncomfortable, in fact I liked its driving position better than my girl friend’s Tercel of the same year.
One of the few Toyota models I’ve never owned. They still pop up on craigslist from time to time…
The Starlet was basically the rear wheel drive and hatchback variation version of the Tercel. Today’s Toyota Yaris are basically spiritual successors to both the Toyota Tercel and Starlet.
I wouldn’t exactly say that. The Starlet and Tercel were completely different cars in almost every respect, except for both having hatchbacks. The Tercel was designed around its FWD drive train, had a much longer wheelbase, much more rear seat room, different engine, suspension, etc…
The Tercel wasn’t designed around its FWD drivetrain, it followed the same basic layout as the Starlet and Corolla, with its N-S engine layout, with a transmission behind it in a conventional transmission tunnel.
Of course it was. The Tercel was a completely new design, period, regardless of its engine orientation. There’s much more to a car then the orientation of its engine. If you’re suggesting the Tercel was a Starlet or Corolla converted to FWD, you’re wrong. Its basic architecture, its body structure, the relative location of its axles, and the whole car in just about every respect was a clean-sheet design. Just because it had a N-S engine doesn’t mean otherwise.It was designed for and around its N-S FWD drivetrain, which is hardly the same as the Starlet’s RWD and solid rear axle.
I defy you to show me any considerable similarity in the actual structural design, hard points, etc.. between the Tercel and Starlet. The similarity of engine orientation isn’t nearly enough for you to negate my point that the Tercel was a totally new car.
I didn’t say it wasn’t a new car nor a converted Starlet or Corolla, just that it wasn’t a 100% clean sheet design. However the Tercel does share a lot of the basic architecture of the Starlet under the hood and does share some basic parts with the Corolla. The 4wd Wagon did use the Corolla rear suspension as is.
Which one is which.
And the other. Note the very similar forward mounted firewall that the hood extends past.
Then there is this from http://www.toyoland.com/cars/tercel.html
First generation Toyota Corolla Tercel cars (1978-82)
The Toyota Tercel was originally named the Corolla Tercel, but as Toyota’s first front wheel drive car, it had little relation to its more sophisticated, pricier, rear wheel drive relative. High in quality but affordable and comfortable, the Tercel was sold in the United States a mere two years after its 1978 introduction in Japan, and remained in the US for over a decade as Toyota’s base model. The Tercel was built on the same platform as the Starlet, and many have done engine swaps with sportier and heavier cars (like the MR2) to make the light Tercel a speed demon.
Which is not the only reference on the web that says the Tercel was based on the Starlet platform.
The 1985 fwd 70 Series Starlet (not sold in the US) did share a shortened platform with the Tercel, but not with the old RWD Starlet. Unfortunately, your quote does not clarify that; hence your confusion.
From wikipedia (FWIW): The Tercel was the first front-wheel-drive vehicle ever produced by Toyota, establishing a layout and frame that was later used in popular Toyota models. For example, Toyota Corolla E80’s frame is almost similar to AL20 Tercel’s frame.
The two pictures you showed? Sure they’re familiar, in the original meaning of the word, “of the same family”.
I’m hardly surprised that Toyota used a similar design for the firewall area; manufacturers tend to repeat patterns that are familiar for them. But any resemblance ends there. The key tip-off is that the shock towers in the Starlet are substantially further forward in relation to the firewall, which is typical for a RWD car. I’m sure I could dig up similar pictures of certain GM cars that or on totally different platforms/bodies, yet share certain under hood similarities.
The Tercel is a significantly larger vehicle than the Starlet, and if you’ve ever sat in both, that would be instantly obvious. The Tercel’s wheelbase was 8″ longer, front and rear track (a good tip-off for platform sharing) was 2″ wider, overall length was almost a foot longer. The Tercel weighed 20% more. etc. etc….
In the picture below, the distinctly different relationships of both axles lines in relation tho the basic body structure is quite apparent. The relative size difference is a bit harder to make out from a picture. And of course, there are certain stylistic similarities, to maintain the “Toyota” family look.
Eric; I really have better things to do than debate this rather silly point. The Tercel was Toyota’s first all-new FWD car; the Starlet was an old design. Every dimension in these cars is different, as is every hard point. The engine was new, the suspension was new, the transmission was new, the interior dimensions are substantially different, (the Tercel was vastly roomier). IT WAS A NEW CAR, Period. Did they share a few nuts and bolts; undoubtedly. Do certain under-hood details look “familiar”?. Undoubtedly.
If you don’t believe me, go find two of them, and start looking at them really closely, with a tape measure. Toyota wasn’t exactly starved for development money in the late seventies: when they set out to design their very critical-for-the-future first FWD car, they didn’t do it by hacking up an old RWD Starlet.
We now return to our regular programming….
That family of “K” engines are incredible.Surely one major reason Toyota took off in this country. My brother had a 3K-C in his ’70 Corolla Sprinter (find one for a CC, please!) Absolute anvil of a tiny engine, maybe even more durable than the “R” series engine. Would love to find the twin carb 3K-B, just for my engine collection! Would look great next to my 18R-G Twin Cam
These 2T and 3K engines were two the best best four bangers ever made and both technically interesting.
The 2T was a pushrod hemi engine. All the materials were top grade and the size of the important stuff, like bearings, was much larger than needed. The cam and crankshafts were forged, for example. You couldn’t kill it. When my Corolla finally gave up the ghost at 250,000 miles, the drivetrain was still perfect; it had never had a part replaced. Not even an alternator or starter were ever replaced on that car.
The 3K motors were also interesting: they were a slant four design, with a semi-hemi head, flat pistons and the same fantastic quality Toyota of the time was famous for. Even the 1200 in the Corolla was no slouch as the car was so light. These motors soldiered on to the 7K which still powers Toyota vans all over the developing world. Production was finally stopped in 2007 after 41 years. It had gone from one litre to 1.8. This has to be the longest made engine in history or one of them.
Now, let’s compare to the four bangers coming out of Detroit:
The Vega 2300 overheating, oil guzzling, clattery gutless wonder.
The Lima 2300, underpowered for its displacement, at least fairly reliable.
Mitsubishi stuff. The small stuff was okay but the 2.6 was a disaster.
Any wonder the “Big 3” lost so much to the Japanese makers, like half their market share?
250K without replacing an alternator is pretty amazing!
The only problem we ever had with that car the whole time we had it was the main fuse popped for reasons unknown. I jumped it to get to the parts store and replaced it. I cost like five bucks and it never failed again.
I had a canoe on top of mine and I towed a soft top tent trailer up the Rocky Mountains with the 2T-C, pedal to the metal in second gear for extended periods didn’t even phase it. In fact, this durability caused me to blow up a couple of vehicles in the future!
The little 1100cc I had in my ’69 Corolla loved to rev, 6500rpm was nothing for it. Never did anything but basic maintenance on it.
I remember being aware of the Starlet back in the ’80s, but being confused as to exactly what purpose it served in Toyota’s (U.S.) model lineup, and why it was dropped (from the U.S.) after only a couple of years. I don’t think these were very common sights even when they were new.
My wife’s first car was a Starlet … it came and went before I met her. I showed her this CC and her first comment was that she didn’t particularly like the car. Her second comment was to ask why I was reading about Starlets, at which point our teenage daughter chimed in that it wasn’t healthy to spend so much time on the Internet reading about cars I didn’t want to own.
GM compact car with leaf springs and RWD in the 80’s-Deadly Sin
Toyota compact car with leaf springs and RWD in the 80’s-All Good.
Just sayin…
We never got a replacement for the Starlet, it was odd that this car even lasted as long as it did here, we already had the Tercel. The Starlets that have survived were fitted with rotaries and turned into drag racers.
Except, Carmine, that GM compact car would have shaken itself to pieces in five years or less.
The only thing GM had to compete with at this time was the hoary Chevette, which only sold because it was cheap.
Are you suggesting I called the Chevette a DS? Far from it:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1980-chevette-scooter-a-new-category-of-vehicle/
The Chevette had a number of redeeming qualities, one of the key ones being its RWD.
Except that the Starlet has a 4 link and coil rear suspension, not leafs.
The Chevette had coils and a torque arm….. Which compact GM are you talking about that still employed leafs in the early ’80s? the 80-81 F-body? The Nova X-car that died in ’79.
I seem to recall all GM passenger cars having rear coils of some sort, and a variation of a solid rear axle-powered or not.
Actually the Tercel was introduced in 1979 as a 1980 model, not 1978 at least in the US
A friend has an ’83 Starlet as his first car back in the mid 90s. He successfully destroyed it in an at-fault crash by t-boning the trailer of a turning vehicle. The top front quarter of the engine’s head was shorn off in the crash, but I’m certain the longitudinal engine and driveshaft helped save his life by helping absorb the crash forces. He was shaken but uninjured. The day before he an I had installed a loud new stereo in it (as young men are wont to do), it took 2 hours to install the head unit neatly (including bolting it to the cross-car dash support beam). Took 5 seconds for it to end up in the back seat when the engine came through the firewall!
In an interesting aside, I was wandering through the net yesterday, and randomly discovered that Toyota did a Starlet station wagon. And quite a good looking wee thing it was too:
Not bad! …although the wheels probably help the aesthetics on this one 🙂
Hi,
this is my wagon. Extremely rare here in Germany.
my wagon 🙂
The Starlets left here in Puerto Rico have, at least most of them, long ago been fitted with rotaries or 3TC engines and modified and boosted to rip the drag strip in 10 seconds. Good luck trying to find one in good condition for less than 3000, 4000 dollars. The same thing goes for 1980 to 83 Corollas with 3TC engines and 84 to 87 ones, even if they are not GT-S with the twin cam engine. For many persons here, those cars where God gift to humanity. PR may be a US territory but car prices and tastes are more like those of Canadians. At least, that’s what I get from the comments of the Canadian posters.
Back in the late 80s/early 90s street racing scene we’d call these PR Dragsters. They were made insanely fast and extremely loud.
I wouldn’t mind finding one and building the heck out of it but like you say, prices on clean ones are outrageous.
I remember this car as a rental back in early 1983, which my parent’s had arranged for me through Hertz. What stood out was that it was very inexpensive to rent (I think it was less than $99 for the week back then) and that it came with a manual transmission…up till then I’d never rented a car that didn’t have an automatic. I don’t know if the Starlet even had the automatic as an option, but I was happy that it was a manual, especially with the small engine.
I don’t remember where I read this but for years I have thought there was a daihatsu involvement in the starlet. I guess that nobody else ever heard that because I was set straight the first time I brought it up. Can say that I am one of those who did not want rwd to go away. Cheaper to fix and lasted a long time.
I live in texas and think I can tell you why we don’t have many of these or 70s-80s or 90s japanese cars or pickups here in the US. There is a steady stream of them going south on US59 (now I 69 in some places). I believe most of them are going south of Mexico but they are certainly crossing our border. The most common sight is a japanese pickup or japanese or american minivan flat towing a pickup or minivan. Sometimes you essentially see them in a caravan.
I expect most of them from points east and north funnel through Houston. Maybe I’ll see it again with a camera in hand.
NZ is littered with Starlets of all models popular with the boyracer set most have been modded to death. FWD wasnt seen as a good thing here for decades, the BMC experience put a bad taste in buyers mouths, until Honda proved a cheap little shitter like the Civic could last a while without grenading.
Reading these comments, I am glad I have hung onto the Starlet I found 10 years ago- a 1981- needs manifold studs- some other restorative stuff,too; but an amazing little thing and I fit just fine and I am 6 foot 5 -no console in the way- I think I’ll keep making it lighter,but I’m going to KEEP IT! And if I see any others I’m bringing them home too!
Those Starlets have got to be one of the awesomest looking cars ever made. Boy, I wish I had lived back in those days to have a new one. I’m sure a real nice one would bring big $$$$ at an auction today. Toyota is the greatest car company in the world.
I owned an ’81 Starlet from 1985 to 1995. Had 81,000 miles when I bought it and 181,000 when I let ‘er go. Great car – fun to drive, dependable and very capacious with the back seat folded down. 5-speed stick and AC. I added slightly wider radials, an upgraded stereo, snazzy gold alloy-style wheel covers and very nice seat covers. My longest trip was from my home in Santa Barbara CA to Vancouver BC for Expo ’86, performing flawlessly.
The car ran great when I replaced it with a new Lexus in ’95, although I had lost 5th gear not long before retirement (figured it was time). Actually the one car I wish I had kept.
My brother in law had one of these Starlets, and it was one of the most reliable cars that he ever owner. Great transportation point A to B whenever needed, no matter rain, sleet, or snow.
Back in 1990 I bought a 1982 Toyota Starlet, 1.3 Litre engine and 5 speed with 42,000 miles. I still have the car today in 2017 with 240,000 miles on it. Original engine, transmission, original paint and ulphostery. I hope that it will be with me forever 🙂
My brother in law Pat had a Starlet, he claimed it was the best car he ever owned. His COAL list included a 70 Buick GS, a Vegastre, an International scout or something like that, a maiaise era Cutlass, an early vintage Civic, an 88 Aries, and many other varieties of what turned out to be disposable vehicles. Personally, I loved the GS in his COAL stable, but reliability is what did it in. He got lots of miles (kms) out of most (but not all) of these cars, but that Starlet took him everywhere, including a jaunt from Burlington ON to New Brunswick and back)
Nice rerun, I don’t think I’d seen this one before. One of my uncles had a Starlet in the 80s, it replaced a RWD Corolla so being a single guy and not having a family to cart around it was the natural thing to do.
I never drove it, but rode in it plenty and I recall it being a fun little car, although I always laughed at that huge rear bumper that could practically host a picnic.
Uncle’s Starlet was done in by a falling tree I think, and he replaced it with a Solara which was later done in by hail. Bad luck with things falling from the sky.
Very definitely for Toyota fans.
There is a man who lives a few blocks from here, and I would say that he likes Starlets. I believe he has three of them – that’s how many I’ve seen parked there at once – each with at least one Pep Boys chrome gewgaw adorning some part of it, and each painted a different bright color: very red, screaming yellow and a blue that will make your eyes bleed. I haven’t been by to check on him lately, so I suppose I should, especially since I believe he’s even older than I am and ya never know …
This and the original Mazda GLC were on my Want List when I could barely afford gas, and seemed to disappear from the streets of Nashville almost instantly just as they were on the verge of becoming Old and Affordable. Story of my life.
The Starlet was an awesome car. I bought one used in the late 80s and drove it for ten years racking up over 200K trouble free miles. That’s a feat no American car could live up to.
A most unfortunate fate occurred when I sold my dear Starlet to a neighbor who gave the Starlet to his young (dumb) teenage son who promptly totaled the Starlet hitting a tree head on. The kid survived but the Starlet was done.
I think back now how foolish I was to sell my Starlet since these cars are now highly sought after and appreciated collectibles.
I’ve thrashed, trashed and scrapped two of these tin can cars. Very proud of myself.
Here’s my baby, a 1983 Starlet Sprint. Assembled in Thames, New Zealand. Completely original; 130,000km and runs beautifully.
We used to own a kp60 78 bug eye version in the 80s until early 90s. After my dad bought one again in sweden in 92-94 a same 2 door version. Today i just bought one in nz ( built in thames) a 81 built to collect back piece of memory. Very hard to find decent one these days as most are ruined by boyracers. One i bought today owned by mother and son since new so will restore to factory. Do plan to keep it.
Jalopnik’s tribute to the Daihatsu Applause today got me thinking about the 1981 Starlet I owned from 85 until 2003…
My first car was an 81 GLC Sport, bought new. When I moved abroad in 84, I sold the GLC. I moved back to the US a year later, and decided a used car would do fine. I found and bought an 81 Starlet with 60k freeway miles, and kept it until it finally broke down 18 years later.
The Starlet was reliable; fun to drive, especially tossing it in the esses; and great for parking in tight spaces passed up by everyone else (priceless in the SF Bay Area!)
Like the Santa Barbara poster above, my Starlet also visited Expo 86 in Vancouver – the longest trip I personally made. However, without me, the Starlet made two tours of the western US – once in winter when I loaned it to friends visiting from Germany, and once in summer when I rented it to a couple visiting from Slovenia. The car never had a mechanical issue on any of these extended trips.
The last couple slapped a Slovenian country of registration sticker on the rear – SLO.
It was so appropriate, I left it on.
The Starlet finally gave up the ghost in 2003 – it had gradually been relegated to mostly short distance commutes which barely got the engine warm. I was about to turn it in for the $500 bounty the California DMV was offering to take older vehicles off the road, when some random person offered me $450 for it. I took the $450 in hopes that the buyer would fix the car up and give it new life.
As it happened, shortly before the Starlet broke down, I saw a first gen BMW Mini Cooper S for the first time, and fell in love. It was everything I wanted in an enhanced replacement for the Starlet – actually fractionally shorter, but with real performance, style, modern safety systems, conveniences – so that became my new forever ride.