(first posted 9/23/2015) While it may have earned the reputation as the poster child of boring, the Toyota Corolla has nonetheless earned somewhat of a cult following among non-enthusiast drivers as a rock-solid dependable and economical mode of transportation. While the same can largely be said for its larger sibling, the Camry, the Corolla’s smaller siblings, known by various names such as Tercel, Paseo, Echo, Yaris, and Prius C, have oddly never gained the same praise, sales figures, and following as their larger siblings.
Maybe it’s because of the always slim price difference between Toyota’s subcompact offering and the Corolla. When one can have a larger, better equipped, and more prestigious (if you can really call it that) Corolla for less than fifteen percent more, the value proposition presented by the lesser vehicle declines significantly.
Many, however, still did buy sub-Corolla subcompacts over the years, and although they were just as well-screwed together, cars like this 1991 Tercel are far rarer sights than similar-vintage Corollas today. Typical of most inexpensive cars, the average Tercel likely saw more abuse in its earlier years than its larger, costlier siblings. Cars such as these tended to be popular “first cars” for many, and were subject to all the stigmas that come along with that. Subcompacts like the Tercel were also commonly bought by commuters looking for economical, fuel-sipping transportation for high-mileage commutes. In short time Tercels also became popular pizza delivery cars.
Despite this, some Tercels were bought by caring owners looking for humble and reliable transportation. Growing up, my elderly neighbor, Mrs. Sheptyck, owned an sea green fifth-generation Tercel for many years before she finally gave up driving in the mid-2000s (and as far as I’m aware, she’s still vibrant at the age of 92). It was owners like Mrs. Sheptyck that allowed Tercels like this 1991 to go un-abused for many years, and thus remain in service a quarter-century later.
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Seems like Mrs Sheptyk kept it long enough to see GM to steal that rear end styling to put on the refreshed Catera.
The only reason I can see to buy a conventional B-segment Japanese anymore is perceived quality, since you can get better economy from a more expensive hybrid or Diesel, and a better price for most foreign & domestic alternatives like the Koreans & Ford/Chevy. Note that VW has never played in this field here, while they do in Mexico.
My daughter just bought a Prius C (~$21K out the door) as her 1st new car, & she loves it. I was surprised, it was better than I expected on the test drive, with better rear headroom (if not legroom) than the Prius hatch.
I owned a ’95 Tercel in that green, solid as a rock but incredibly compromised in the name of styling for such a bland-looking car. Replaced with a new ’08 Yaris – they tried to upsell me to a Corolla as they were closing out the 9th gen at the time but experience with the Tercel put me off non-hatchbacks. Would’ve gone for a Honda Fit if they had any supply at all (I was quoted a two-month wait for a base manual); Fiesta and Sonic weren’t on the market yet.
Too bad about the Fit, I like it too, aside from its increasingly bizarre restyles. I don’t know why Toyota renamed its B-segment model. They make a point of retaining the Corolla & Camry, & while the Tercel was never glamorous (after its initial ugliness), it was no Vega.
One of the reported downsides of the Fit was it got kind of buzzy at highway speeds due to the gearing. The previous generation had a 5-speed, and the latest now has a six. However, it appears that sixth gear is exactly the same as the old fifth, so the highway ‘buzziness’ remains. It was a very strange thing for Honda to not have used the old car’s 1-5 gear ratios and lowered sixth gear to smooth it out, but they just lowered them all. Too bad because, otherwise, the Fit is the leader in that class of car, with the disappearing, fold-flat rear seat a big factor. If someone is in the market, they owe it to themselves to check out the amazing amount of room in the Fit’s cargo area with the rear seat folded.
The Fit is too noisy for Oregon and Washington highways with their studded tire damage. I test drove one and couldn’t even understand the salesman.
This is my longstanding complaint with Honda — unless something’s specifically pitched as an economy model, when they add more gears, they just stack them closer together. My Prelude had that problem as well. (“I like this car in a lot of ways, but 19 mph/1,000 rpm in fifth is just silly.”)
I can confirm, along with journalists, that Hondas aren’t known for road isolation; some coarse Tucson pavements produce much noise in my Civic. It’s great on [Sunbelt] Interstates, though.
What they need is a guy as good at body NVH as they are at engine NVH.
BTW, the Yaris was dinged badly for handling but it’s transformed by 44 PSI front, 40 rear.
I drive my 93 Corolla DX every single day with 265000 miles. Just refreshed the front suspension and put new calipers on it along with a few small bits like motor mounts and it’s ready to go! Cold AC and 33 mpg. Best car I’ve ever had, hands down. Dead reliable 1.8L with the 4 speed auto, love it! Next car will most certainly be a newer corolla or a Toyota product of some kind.
The previous model Tercel was popular in the mid to late 80s. You saw them everywhere. I remember going with a friend to a Toyota tent sale to pick up a Tercel EZ hatchback (stripper model). In 1990, the car without any options was just under $6,000.
Toyota actively marketed the car while I don’t recall a lot of advertising for this model. Among my friends (Gen X), the 2 door coupe versions of the Tercel, Mazda 323 and Nissan Sentra were very popular. They were reasonably stylish and cheap. These cars hit a price point that was friendly to a new college graduate.
I wonder if that illustrates the difference between car prices/recent grad earnings potential in your era versus in mine. By the time I graduated college (2002), out of my entire friend group, only two people got new cars within a year of graduation, and one of those two was a graduation gift from her parents. Everyone else continued driving the cars they had in college, or upgraded from a crappy old car to a slightly less crappy, somewhat newer car.
Ugly, ugly little car that was a really poor sister to the not-as-ugly refreshed Corolla.
The shape of that rear side window annoyed the daylights out of me for some reason, and that sealed my feelings for this car, no matter if it was reliable or not.
I think Toyota took a page from the GM playbook with their sub-Corolla cars in that they make them as unappealing as possible, simply so a lot of customers can be up-sold into a Corolla for a few shekels more per month. They’re the equivalent of the old, strippo, full-size two-door sedans from the sixties that came with a six-cylinder and 3-on-the-tree. IOW, a modern day 1957 Studebaker Scotsman, a class which lives on in cars like the bottom-feeder Mitsubishi Mirage.
Imo the Tercels biggest purpose was to sell more Corollas, you went in because Toyota had a really cheap car, but then you paid the extra for a Corolla.
I have been saying this for years! Toyota apes the old GM in this regard, the smaller cars were awful so you would buy a bigger one.
Back when I was selling Toyotas, there were only three models you really needed to be concerned about: The Corolla, Camry and the Pick up which is now the Tacoma. Everything else was tangential, and you really only made money pushing those three.
Actually Toyota owes quite a bit of its ideas to GM:
First Gen Camry = Chevy Citation
Camry second gen = GM A-Body
Toyota MR2 = Pontiac Fiero (both Porsche 914 Fiat X1/9 competitors)
Toyota Starlet/Tercel (different cars I know) = Chevy Chevette
Honda CRX = Chevy Cavalier Hatchback (just though I’d put this here)
Lexus ES250 = Cadillac Cimarron
I will say owning a Tercel made me wish I had gone for a Corolla, or Camry, anything ever so slightly better.
Why didn’t Toyota settle on a name for the Tercel/Echo/Yaris and stay with it? Corolla and Camry have name recognition going back decades. It’s just as jarring as Chevrolet’s name changing for the Cavalier/Cobalt/Cruze.
I think when they made the Yaris they wanted to “rejuvenate” whatever excitement they had lost with a decade of bland Tercel sedans, so they changed the name to something more trendy for an intended younger audience.
Back when the Yaris was new you’d see TV shows plug it and pronounce it “Yayris”.
I thought Scion was supposed to bring in the youth crowd. But I think the Japanese are fighting a losing battle for the entry-level car buyer with their former colony, Korea.
Japan’s fall from dominance is still hard for me to believe; everyone was scared of Japan Inc. during the ’70s & ’80s.
I think that both were attempts to pull in the young crowd.
Back in the 70’s Japanese cars were mostly perceived as cheap and disposable, only in the mid-80’s-mid-90’s were they a force to fear, even then they were expensive and offered fairly crude V6’s compared to Detroits attempts.
Nissan and Mazda had to be brought out to survive, Toyota dominated with Honda barely hanging on, both got big, expensive, dated, and couldnt be bothered to keep while the competition evolved (in the late 90s you could still get a Corolla with a 3-speed, btw).
I rather thought Detroit’s V6s have been crude until the last decade or so, developing less power per liter than Japan’s. In the ’80s Toyota had their twincam six for the Cressida & Supra, nothing from Detroit was like it. And compare their early SOHC 3VZ-E V6 with Buick’s or Ford’s.
Compare the ’96 Accords 25mpg V6, or Toyotas revvy headgasket eating Camry, to GMs sturdy 3800 31mpg workhorse.
The Twin-Cam was moreso a luxo-sports car thing, I doubt it ever showed up in the Camry.
Ryoku75 is incorrect — the 1VZ-FE, 2VZ-FE, and 3VZ-FE V-6s were DOHC 24V and they were definitely available in the Camry.
The Mark II/Cressida/Supra/Soarer/Crown M-series inline six was available in a bunch of different forms, some SOHC, some DOHC; the DOHC versions were 5M-GE/6M-GE/7M-GE.
I think you may have nailed it. Back when these Tercels were new, buying a Hyundai or a Kia was a dicey proposition. Some banks wouldn’t even finance them. And if you were able to make the purchase, there was a good chance your neighbors would point and snicker when you pulled up in it.
The other thing that did not help these Tercels was the amazing Insta-Fade paint. Especially the green ones.
In other markets, the car known as the Echo was called the Yaris….it was only called the Echo in North America (I think).
IMHO, Toyota should have gone with something that looks less like a small Camry and more like….well, like a car someone younger than your grandparents would proudly own.
It was also called Echo in Australia. I used to say that with styling like that, it should’ve been Yeccho.
Re: Tercel/Echo/Yaris versus Cavalier/Cobalt/Cruze, you probably answered your own question. Maybe GM’s (and, by default, Toyota’s) market research has shown that at the lowest price point, model name recognition means little to nothing and a new name will draw in more of that demographic than re-using a well-known model name. Maybe re-using a name puts what are likely many first-time buyers off because they think something well-known will cost more, while they might get a bargain with a new name.
That’s the only conclusion I can come up with since Toyota stays solidly with Corolla and Camry, while Chevrolet clings to Malibu and Impala.
The Yaris was the second -is Toyota. The first was the 1997 Avensis (below), then the Yaris in 1999, and the Auris in 2007.
Toyota’s B-, C- and D-segment cars in Europe. The names haven’t changed since the first generations were introduced.
I had an ’89 Tercel, the generation before this. It was the same basic car underneath but with better if still awfully bland styling, at least you could get this gen as a hatchback or a wagon.
The only good thing about the car was the reliability (once I removed battery zapping aftermarket speakers from the PO), punishing under-powered car otherwise with its 3-speed auto. Given that a lot of Corollas from that time have 3-speeders, I view Tercels and Rollas as one the same. Both equally boring, tinny, rust-prone, but at least parts for the Rolla are easier to find.
The car did need some work when I brought it, new front wheel bearings, exhaust work, typical older Toyota bits. After that it only needed basic maintenance, PO had chucked the stupid venturi carburetor in favor of a standard weber.
After the Tercel I grabbed a Volvo 240, I could be slow but at least then I’d have decent sheet-metal around me and easier parts.
“I view Tercels and Rollas as one in the same.”
Well that certainly explains why you decided to chastise the person upthread who spoke of theirs.
Good point, but I didnt mean to “chastise” as much as “joke”.
That said, be mindful of what you say. You may see it as an innocent joke, but it’s clear that others see it as a disrespectful comment. Especially when it doesn’t add anything to the conversation, I’d keep these “jokes” to yourself. It ends up coming back on you and discrediting your other comments that are actually insightful.
This was the college commuter car for my girlfriend (now wife). I think it was a DX like this one, and it was definitely a 5-speed. In fact, it was the car in which I learned to drive a stick.
Economical and indestructible. Perfect at that time of our lives. Plus, it was easy to park in the city, and the 5-speed made it reasonable on the highway. I sure wouldn’t want to be driving it today, but I respect it more than any other car we’ve owned: it executed its mission perfectly.
Somehow, I always liked the aesthetics of the 1991-94 Tercel: These cars were neat and stylish, especially the two-doors. But dynamically, they seemed like utter penalty boxes compared to the Corolla…a throwback to the 1970s days when people bought Japanese cars because they were cheap and thrifty, not because they were well-equipped or refined. The lack of a hatchback meant that this generation wasn’t all that practical either, and I don’t think there was one with a vinyl interior that didn’t totally disintegrate in five years.
The related Paseo model was even more questionable. No one was going to think that a Tercel with slightly snazzier styling was going to be a sports car. And the styling looked so similar to the Tercel that I have to wonder why anyone would have seen the benefit of the Paseo premium at all.
“… I always liked the aesthetics of the 1991-94 Tercel: These cars were neat and stylish, especially the two-doors.”
I almost spit out my coffee after reading that! At least you have a great sense of humor, giving me a hearty laugh so early in the morning (7:16 am, EDT). Thanks!
That all-numbers green Massachusetts plate is quite a rare sight these days; although the green plates were issued from 1977 until 1994-ish and are still valid (though no longer common), the all-numbers version was only issued for a few years in the mid-1980s, as far as I know.
I seriously thought about buying a Tercel, a 94 diesel manual, yes they exist I was saved from because it sold before I got to the dealer who was offering it so I cant say how well it drove or how good a survivor it was. I’m not sure they sold here new but many have emigrated as ex JDM used cars.
Oh, the Tercel, the hair shirt car, the antithesis to the previously featured Cadillac, the car guaranteed to give you a bad case of Broughamfever.
FYI Tercel actually means the male of certain species of hawks.
In ’89 Ma needed another car after totalling her previous hair shirt car, an ’86 Sentra. We went to look at the ’89 Tercels, which I think in their stripperiest form went for about $7000. They were more expensive, slightly, than her $5995 Sentra. Remember at this time the Aries/Reliant America could be had for about $7000.
We went to Atlanta Toyota, and they made copies of her and Dad’s license. She was interested in the Tercel because, Toyota! And this was the cheapest Toyota. Of course, this being Toyota at the time, they didn’t dicker on the price. Then they wanted to add an extended warranty (which misses the whole point of a Toyota) and polyglycoat and I don’t know what all, and the sum would have been something like 12 grand. Which would have bought a fairly plushy car in ’89. Ma decides against the Tercel, or against that one, and we want to leave, at which time . . . they still have Ma and Dad’s licenses and stall, and delay, and harangue to try to sell the car.
That purchase was not made.
If you ever wonder, how did GM keep the Cavalier consistently in the top 10 sellers well into the ’90’s, this car was it. With a few options, it could easily hit the price of a larger, roomier, more powerful, nicer finished Cavalier, once the Chevy dealer would generally cut you a good deal. Not everyone who bought a Cavalier was Hertz.
It came close to a Corolla in price but I think these things topped out at around 12K and the Corolla started around 14, and in those days, Toyota dealers didn’t dicker.
This is the kind of car that gives gray vinyl a bad name.
Please, I’ll take two of the Coupe de Villes.
“their stripperiest form went for about $7000. Remember at this time the Aries/Reliant America could be had for about $7000.”
My ’89 Tercel made me miss my ’90 Horizon, as dated as the L-K-Car was at that time its easier to live with on a daily basis, than a Tercel.
I had an ’88 Horizon and it was a far nicer small car than Tercels and a lot of others of that period. Plus, 2.2 litres worth of the engine Chrysler put in every single vehicle it made.
88 was a good Horizon Omni year, 90 got you a nasty grey dash with a bulky Caravan sourced steering wheel. Either way you got fuel injection which was still an option on the Tercel.
You gotta go Canry to get a real 2 litre
Great comparison between Tercels and Cavaliers.
During my time as a car sales person, I sold both cars new as part of the same dealer group. I mostly worked out of the Newnan GA, Toyota store, but occasionally filled in at the Chevy/Plymouth store across the freeway (which was owned by the same guy).
I remember the 91 Tercel going OTD at about $8K pretty commonly, but we could get folks into a Cavalier VR(I think it was called that?) for under $7K (just barely). We had our “value” shoppers (mostly Indians and Jamaicans) who came down from Atlanta to Newnan to buy strippo Reliant and Sundance Americas for $6-ish.
Fun times…
How much was a comparable Corolla back then?
You made some interesting points on Ter-Rollas back in this article:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule-toyota-echo-the-yaris-gets-hit-with-the-ugly-stick/
These didn’t seem to have the solid reliability that the 3A – engined ones did. The last generation, however boring they may be, are still around here in Nova Scotia. There’s still a few for sale on Kijiji, even one like the one pictured above.
The Toyota Starlet was sold in the US 1981-84. Why would one choose it over the Tercel, or vice versa? I wonder if the Starlet was discontinued because Toyota realized that selling it alongside the Tercel was redundant.
The Starlet continued on until the 00s it must sell to a different demographic than the Tercel.
The Starlet would’ve been a bit redundant with its basic platform was used for FWD Tercel.
The Starlet was originally a very different car than the Tercel, retained as a stopgap when the first FWD Tercel was introduced, but I think eventually became a dealer twin for different sales networks — there were several of those for this platform.
I had a 96 2 door Tercel, and it was the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned, even more so than the 2003 Honda Civic I own now. I could get over 40mpg hwy consistently . Put 160.000 miles on it with no major problems. I liked the looks of that Tercel, much better than the brand new Toyotas seen now.
I have to agree that these Tercels, as basic and cheap as they look, at least do the “boring but sturdy” look pretty well, todays Toyotas look like they’re missing pieces.
What happened to make your Civic less reliable? ‘Tis the more complex car.
I’ve already had to replace the AC condenser and blower on the 03 Civic . Last week had to replace a crank shaft seal that was causing a bad oil leak. 132,700 miles. Only thing that failed on the Tercel, oddly enough, was the wiper motor. Maybe because I live in a rainy climate.
Based on my research it seems somewhat common for Civics to have their AC units fail, and thats not going into brakes, suspension, flimsy bodies…
The Tercels dull, but its reliably dull. Maybe that was Toyotas secret to making them so reliable?
It was a painful and bitter sweet moment in August when my dad traded in our green ’97 Tercel sedan that has been with us for over 7 years. When the dealer started it up he even said “no lights” referring to the dash before he drove off into his yard and mentioning calling a tow truck to haul it away. By now the rocker panels had started to rust and the engine was leaking a lot of oil.
I had taken it to a mechanic during the end of last year hoping to replace the timing belt, but instead he told me to get a new car. So I put a set of used tires last January to get through the “last” Winter, got the oil changed with a brake service and it was driven into August. The oil leak kept getting worse and the muffler had even rusted and got patched up.
It was purchased as a 10 year old car when our beloved GM Pontiac Grand Am sedan was a victim of a hit and run. In over seven years and the additional 130,000kms we had put on this car (banking a grand total of 260,000kms), it was quite a ride with many memories. 93hp was slow and it was small, basic with an automatic transmission and lacked A/C. Despite being seen as a joke to some people, it was very economical and reliable like what a real Japanese Toyota should be. I still see a few running around and slightly miss ours. Boring is okay with me as long as it’s also predictable that it will start every time and solid enough not to fall apart or make funny noises.
I bought a 1992 model brand new. $7600, which was for the most stripped down model. Two doors, four speeds and no radio. Gray vinyl seats, black plastic everything else. For about $350 I got a Blaupunkt cassette deck and got the thing wired for four speakers. But couldn’t afford more than two speakers, so the back deck never got them.
The BLS CPI calculator tells me that the equivalent money today would be right around $12,900. That’s really only Chevrolet Spark territory on the new side, but the difference in specs are amazing. That money will get you air conditioning, power windows, cloth seats, a fifth gear, two more doors and a buncha airbags. Also (in the case of the Spark) it gets only two more horsepower for an extra 500 pounds of curb weight. Toyota doesn’t make anything quite like this anymore, the new Scions come closest.
Well these Tercels are hohum, but I like the 1980s wagons.
I like to think the late 80s Tercel wagon was a Scion Xb prototype.
My sister’s family got great service from two Tercels, one an early-90’s green Jello-mold of a car that would probably still be running if son# 2 had not wrecked it. The second was a maroon 96 model, four-speed with air, bought for #1 son’s engineering placement in Tampa. It went through her family and then my other sister’s sons till at 265,000 was sold locally to someone else with a high school kid. Engine and transmission were still strong, though everything else was getting a little loose and threadbare. Next was an early Echo, which my brother-in-law commuted in an hour each way till somewhere in the 100,000’s he was cut off in traffic by a little old lady who may still be arguing with the attending police that she had used her turn signal. So, he bought a 2010 Yaris which of all is the family favorite-sister and bro-in-law prefer it to their Corolla on trips as it has more front seat room, rides nicer, and get 40+mpg on the road. This summer I bought my own 2010 Yaris manual, which happened to come with +1 tire sizing. I added a TRD rear sway bar, and when I keep the tires up to pressure it reminds me a little of my old Rabbit-I sneak up on other people on the corners, unwittingly, and then fall back a little on the straights. At 40+mpg on the highway, 35 at the worst if I drive it in stolen mode. Driving position is wonky, unless you are short like me-it really, really needs a telescoping steering column. Center gauges are not an issue-tachometer is just on top of my right hand. Fun car, much more than one would expect from the reviews, and it’s so nice to know you are always going to get there.
My 24-year old son, a 1LT pilot in the Air Force still drives his 1997 Tercel (now with 215k miles on it) and refuses to part with it. We bought it used in 2007 with 120k on it. My sister drove it for a while, then I took it over until my son was a senior in high school. His first year at the AF Academy, he wasn’t allowed to have a car, so I kept it and then had it trucked to him when he could keep his own car out there. He is now in OK and will be going to Dover in January. Yep, he plans on driving that very same Tercel across the country! She still has the original clutch, tranny and engine and has had virtually zero repairs. He gets kidded a lot as most of his pilot-friends have new Mustangs, Camaros and such. But he is perfectly content with a long-paid for car that gets around 40 MPG and is stone reliable. In comparison, I think his 18 year old car is built to a higher quality standard than his mother’s (and my wife’s) 2011 Scion tC. I’ve (not jokingly) told him that I’d love to take the Tercel back if he ever decides to part with it. Just a solid, honest little car.
A friend in college had a ’91 Tercel DX. Not the worst-looking car, in its roundy-roundness (though I think the ones with the sealed-beam lamps were exceptionally ugly–hers had the composites). But it was definitely on the penalty box side of things–slow, noisy, cramped, industrial-looking seat fabrics, a drab dash, and seemingly no sound insulation.
Sadly hers also didn’t have the fabled Toyota reliability, or at least not enough to overcome a lack of maintenance by previous owners. She acquired the car in 2002, and within a year, it developed an absolutely horrendous clatter one day. Took it to a mechanic who diagnosed it as a broken wrist pin which caused a piston to come unmoored. The car needed a new engine with less than 80K miles on it. The mechanic also noted that,in his estimation, the original owner (who had the car for 8 years) may have never once changed the oil.
She actually got a replacement engine (retired JDM unit shipped here) and kept the car for a few more years, but it was never held in very high regard.
We had a sub Corolla model here in Canada, called the Starlet. it was a subcompact hatchback. It seemed a very flimsy car to me, however someone I knew took it on a 2500 mile round trip over the course of about a week, and it held up well. Not sure if I can say the same about the occupants. They got something, er, bigger next time. An Aries, an Aerostar, a Cutlass, some others. The Starlet had replaced a 1970 Buick Skylark, which always seemed strange to me.
I drove a Tercel rental car, for two weeks around LA and down to San Diego and back. I recall it got amazing mileage, but for some reason the fuel level indicator moved awfully quickly on that last quarter tank and I had to hustle to find a gas station.
There is one more name, Corsa. That’s why there is also the Opel Vita.
We had a 1991 Tercel Hatchback that we acquired used with some 12,000 miles on it in 1992 from National Rental Car; we bought it for my wife to drive to her office. Although the car was fundamentally sound, I guess, I never liked it at all. It had an automatic, A/C and cloth seats, but that was where any illusion that it wasn’t a penalty box stopped. At the time, I suspected that the car was built to some special cheapo rental car spec; i.e. the brakes, tires, and battery were only intended to last for the year that National kept it before dumping it on the used car market. I came to believe this because I replaced all those ‘wear items’ before it had 20,000 miles on it.
It was carbureted, and it never really idled right. I took it to a mechanic, and learned that there were no plugs on the carb adjustment screws….because there weren’t any screws to adjust. The only option was to buy another carb and hope it was built a little closer to spec, and it wasn’t worth the gamble. So, we lived with that annoyance.It did have good A/C though, and after I replaced the speakers the radio was okay – or at least able to drown out engine noise. My wife was fine with the car though as she didn’t drive very far to work and she’s a classic Toyota target IMHO, as she cares much more about her shoes than her cars. We took it on one trip through the West Virginia mountains and she got a little seasick – which didn’t happen in my Integra.
I can’t complain about the fundamental sturdiness of the car but I was glad to see it gone after a year. Life is too short. I haven’t considered a Toyota since, although there are several Camrys and an older Avalon in the family circle and everyone is happy with them.
In Quebec small cars are more popular than in the rest of Canada (more European). Once the Renault R5 was no longer available the small Toyotas became a popular choice. My nephew had an Echo for many years followed by a Yaris and my sister-in-law had a 2 door Tercel like this one. It was the DX, the most basic model. Her criteria was what is the cheapest new Toyota you could buy. It did have a radio but not much else. It survived a lack of maintenance but eventually succumbed to rust. It was a decent little car and it did survive a return trip to the west coast.
30 years ago, I rented one when I took a pleasure trip to Oregon (my last one there). I’d been there on business a few years prior and wanted to look around. I remember the Clarence Thomas nomination Senate hearings were all over the TV, funny what sticks out in your mind.
The car was fine, unobtrusive. Not as manuverable as the ’86 Golf GTi I owned at the time, but reliable. I think my “middle” (now youngest, as my actual youngest sister has passed) sister might have owned a ’87 Tercel about that time. We’re more a Nissan (even Datsun) family, same sister has owned qty-2 240SX (the ’97 she bought new she still owns) and actual youngest sister had a 200SX and a 240SX herself, plus I had a Datsun 710 while an undergraduate. Since 40 years ago, I’ve been exclusively a VW guy (all watercooled). My sister’s ’87 Tercel was similar, it was nicely finished but plain, but it had a defect that caused her to keep it a short time, the carpet actually caught on fire and melted, maybe due to missing or misplaced heat shield on catalytic converter (not sure, it shouldn’t have been contacting the chassis in the first place, don’t recall the details) but it was otherwise fine. Back then I was still helping both my younger sisters to find cars to buy, it is a bit funny, but other than price, it would be easier nowdays, except they were pretty picky, they needed an automatic but wanted a sporty car, but not a hatchback, rather a notchback. I first picked out a ’86 Escort for her after her undergraduate days (she was only one of us to stay on campus so didn’t really need a car until she graduated; we would pick her up and drop her off on campus as we live in same city as the school(s) she attended), then she had the Tercel, then the Nissans.
The ’91 rental was fine, I drove down the coast, briefly into Northern California, then back along the Rogue River along a narrow road (had to stop to let some trailers go the other way in places, the road was too narrow for large vehicle even with my small Tercel to go side by side)…down to Ashland, then Eugene and back to Portland where I started.
One of our co-ops had this same car at the time, it seemed OK, but I liked VWs, especially since they came as hatchbacks, which had become uncommon with Toyota. Maybe that’s why I’ve never owned one….I’m not an SUV fan, but as cars disappear they seem to be the only option, but I prefer simplicity of a car, with a bit better space utilization and maybe a bit better ride….my priorities have changed as I’ve aged away from stiff ride of my GTi and Scirocco. A Toyota would be fine with me, but they also direct buyers toward SUV (though they still have a few sedans) if you want some modest cargo flexibility.