Here’s a little secret: Back when I was in my second year of college, I wanted one of these and tried (in vain) to figure out a way to afford it. The one I wanted was white instead of ivory like this one and with the gray interior instead of the tan. Seeing this example in the junkyard immediately took me back to my college days, leafing through the brochure, and doing the math on the payment vs my paystubs from my sandwich delivery job at Osos Street Subs.
After all these years I still find it to be an attractive car; that character line running down the side gives it a lot more, uh, character than usual for cars of this class. And the fact that it was available as a 2-door coupe instead of just a hatchback as with the prior generation was a plus too, it gave the whole line a little more class.
I could be mistaken but I don’t think we have ever featured this generation of Tercel at CC. Plenty of Gen 1 and 2, and then the wagon is evergreen of course, and the later blobbier ones made an appearance or two as well, but not this one, at least not that I could locate.
Toyota introduced this model for the 1987 model year; this one is a second year 1988 model and is pretty much the same. The hatchback caused a minor stir among budget econo-freaks when a version was introduced as the Tercel EZ and stickered under $6,000 which was really Hyundai Excel and Yugo territory around that time.
As decontented as a Tercel in general already was, the EZ really went to town tossing anything out that could remotely cost money. A girl I was dating at the time had one, as I recall complete with very shiny and sort of sticky vinyl seating, a 4-speed instead of 5-speed and rubber flooring. I’m sure there were other indignities, but at least hers was red.
I didn’t remember that these didn’t have a rev-counter. Still, the instrumentation that is there is neatly presented, easy to read, and does the job it needs to do, I suppose. This car made it to about 219,000 miles, not bad at all but nothing overly spectacular for a Toyota.
The interior is fairly basic but attractive with its two toned theme. Besides the driver’s bolster and side of the seat, the fabric has held up quite well to 31 years in the Denver sunshine.
The door panel has held up even better. A) It’s still attached and B) It looks like it’s hardly seen any wear. A win in my book. That whole upper lighter section is all cloth, kind of a heavy tweedy sort that hides dirt and apparently resists wear, there is many a much newer car with door panels in much worse condition.
The backseat is tight but serviceable, again, almost no wear but likely wasn’t used very much at all. Looks like someone tried to get under the seat for some reason or other, and probably left the mat on it while looking for change or whatever.
Trunk space is alright, of course the hatchback would be more useful but coupe style counts for something, or did back in the day at least. A simple trunk liner, nothing on the lid, simple hinges, and it all works just fine. No rust either!
If you squint just a little bit, isn’t there just a touch of BMW 3-series in there? Maybe squint a little more? I think I probably squinted a lot in 1988 when I was looking at this.
The little 1.5liter 4-cylinder with 12 valves put out an economically respectable 78hp and 87 lb-ft of torque. That got you 31/37mpg with the overdrive 5-speed. It only had to push 2000 (yes 2000!) pounds around so that power figure is a little better than it seems at first glance. That also let it run on 155 section 13-inch tires, all in the name of economy and thriftiness of operation.
The hubcaps are an add-on, stock the Tercel didn’t have any, just little silver steelies. Do you remember those little antennas a lot of Japanese cars had just like this one at the top of the A-pillar? You could stick your hand out the window and either pull it out or retract it for a car wash or whatever.
Ah, a good ol’ J-VIN. Built in Japan in June of 1988, right as I was finishing my first year of college. The Tercel was a good seller for Toyota in the States, and lasted for several more generations before it was shuffled off after the 1999 model year in favor of the likes of the Echo and I suppose the Scion brand cars through no fault of its own. I haven’t seen one of these coupes on the road for a long time, so it was good to catch up here the other day even if the headline references the Toyota tagline that ended in 1986. By 1988 it was “Who could ask for anything more”, which I had to look up and realized I have zero recollection of. So I’ll just end here with a good feeling about this car.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Looks like the driver’s bolster has worn through the fabric, otherwise a nice interior. I’m a fan of cloth interiors, particularly if they’re in a lighter color and a nice pattern like this one. No one sells cars with anything similar to this anymore it seems.
My sister had an ’89 briefly. Hers was red and had the automatic so lack of tachometer wasn’t any problem..it was the only Toyota in our family (we’ve tended to buy Nissans, but not recent ones…same sister owns a ’97 240 SX coupe she bought new). Her and my departed youngest sister owned qty-4 200 or 240 SX models between them, all of them coupes and all automatic.
The car actually caught fire….I think there was a missing heat shield that should have been around the catalytic converter, and the carpet got hot and started a fire…that did the car in. She had a Ford Escort before the Tercel and the first of her two 240 SX’s afterward.
Looks like the driver’s bolster has worn through the fabric, otherwise a nice interior. I’m a fan of cloth interiors, particularly if they’re in a lighter color and a nice pattern like this one. No one sells cars with anything similar to this anymore it seems.
My sister had an ’89 briefly. Hers was red and had the automatic so lack of tachometer wasn’t any problem..it was the only Toyota in our family (we’ve tended to buy Nissans, but not recent ones…same sister owns a ’97 240 SX coupe she bought new). Her and my departed youngest sister owned qty-4 200 or 240 SX models between them, all of them coupes and all automatic.
The car actually caught fire….I think there was a missing heat shield that should have been around the catalytic converter, and the carpet got hot and started a fire…that did the car in. She had a Ford Escort before the Tercel and the first of her two 240 SX’s afterward.
My wife and I looked at a red 87 Tercel EZ. It was a stripper for sure. But the $6000 price made us think it may help us afford to buy a home in a few years. And she couldn’t drive stick so it was up to me.
So we stopped at a local Toyota store and picked out this red unit. I requested a test drive and while waiting for the salesman to return with keys, I looked at the window sticker (such as it was!)
Hold the phone- $6895? Nope. There was an add on sticker that the dealer was showing all the extras they’d added- pin striping, paint sealant, Scotch Guard-what?
So I told the salesman to remove all of those add on features. He argued with me telling me that those were necessary. I then asked how did Scotch Guard work on vinyl seats and flooring? He directed me to the manager who argued more. I told them I’d happily call Toyota and get their thoughts, at which time I was escorted out of the building! I did call Toyota, who referred me to another dealer. They stated that “there were many complaints against this dealer and that action was being taken.”
It sure was-the dealer closed their doors a week later!
Ended up driving a well used Caprice!
Were you trying to buy that car anywhere in the Southeastern US? I worked for a Toyota store in the early 90’s that was under the Southeast Toyota Distributors (or something like that) network. It was quite common for them to advertise a stripper special and when you got to the dealership, there were many “mandatory options” applied to the car.
My favorite was the $275 pin striping (which was actually painted on by a local guy), or the fabric protection (never called it Scotchguard, though) that would bring the price way up from the number in the newspaper.
It was as little fun for the salesperson to explain all of this extra crap as it was for the buyer to hear about it.
I graduated from college in ‘87 and a lot of my friends were buying these or the Mazda 323 sedans. I’ve long regarded this as the “Official Car of Generation X”.
I had an ‘88 323 hatchback equipped very much like the Tercel EZ. Crank windows, sticky vinyl upholstery, 4 speed manual. I could and did ask for more, but this fit my post-college budget way better than the CRX I really wanted.
I had the 5sp hatchback,an ’89 not the cheaper variety, which only had 4 speeds (perfect for delivering roast chicken), but Toyota was cheap so I had to paint even the window surrounds black myself , and dress up the steelies a bit, by putting chrome ring on them as Toyota did in the 70s. I would have preferred that they keep the rear ovehang of your find for the HB because I was hit from behind and there would be a little more buffing as well as more loading capacities .
Funny how cars with manual transmissions all too often didn’t come with a tachometer – but now that most cars are automatic, they’re universally standard. That NEVER made any logical sense. Any insight?
With the almost non-existence of sound deadeaning , a tach was useless for shift point …unless you are deaf.
I recall that in this era, when they omitted the tach (and every other bell and whistle possible), sometimes they came with a little light in the center of the speedo that lit up when you hit the RPM range for shifting.
Its hard to understate how primitive some cars were back then, especially inexpensive cars like the Beetle. My Dad had a ’59, it had the shift marks in the speedometer but never a tachometer…ditto for his new ’68 Renault R10…though both could be had with automatic or semi-automatic I think majority were standard.
Of course today automatics are virtually on all cars, but the tachometer has remained, but it mostly was on sporty cars back in the day…now just about every car comes with a tachometer, this seems to have started maybe in late 80’s or early 90’s just when standard transmissions were becoming more scarce in cars.
Not that you’d never use a tachometer in an automatic car but I’d think most people pretty much ignore them unless maybe they have a “manumatic” that lets you control your shifting with an automatic. I’d say that temp gage, alternator (charge) gage, or oil pressure would be more useful than a tachometer in most cars. What about a boost gage in cars with a turbo? That used to seem to be almost standard if your car had a turbo, but other than sporty cars you don’t seem to see them anymore.
I used to wonder why the bucket seat with the shifter between the seats has become so common, to me it seems to also have happened with cars becoming narrower such that the front middle seat pretty much disappeared, so there’s no real disadvantage to having a floor shift vs a column shift which used to be more common. But some trucks are pretty wide so you’d think the option of a bench seat might be made, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, even though you might otherwise be able to squeeze another person…but I guess the popularity of crew cabs has also made this a moot point…the extra people just sit in the back seat.
I used to attribute the lack of much instrumentation at least in luxury cars as to drivers who kind of were like executive managers, maybe a stereotype, but they don’t care to hear (or see) much detail except the absolute required things, its like “if there’s a problem don’t tell me, tell my mechanic or (someone else who might deal with it)…I just need to know how fast I’m driving and when I need to pull over and get gasoline, that’s it. I’m an engineer so I like to know these details but a lot of people seem to prefer not to know something they’re not going to want to deal with, or just want the “executive summary” (i.e. a light coming on the dash if there’s some problem).
Yeah I know few executives probably used to drive VW Beetles back in the day…the reason they lacked instrumentation was likely because it cost money to include it, and these were very minimalist vehicles. There again, you’re supposed to be watching the road mostly while you’re driving, not studying all your gages (maybe pull over if you think you need to spend more time looking at them)
I appreciate the tan color fabric interior. Today, everything is jet black nylon threads and hot as hell in the sun. Also, with the high level roof, plenty of head room in the rear.
With a 5 speed, tach, flip up sun roof and slightly wider tires, this could have been the terror of the neighborhood!!
Funny to read that the OP lusted after these in college. In The Netherlands, Tercels -like many other Toyotas- were regarded as typical “old people’s cars”. Students who could afford a car in 1987 would typically drive a used Renault 4 or 5 or a 2CV or maybe an older Golf, Kadett or Escort, just never a Toyota.
Interiors were made of stern stuff on older Japanese cars the car wore out first, Toyota developed that inline FWD power train for the Tercel and just kept making them, I got a mid 90s Tercel loaner a while ago it was upgraded from that model slightly it had a rev counter and lockup auto trans, huge kms and the seats were fine, no I didnt like it, if you get out of a luxury C5 Citroen into a clapped out poverty pak Toyota the bullet proof Toyota does not compare well,
My son owns a 1989 hatchback of this generation of Tercel. His is the Canadian equivalent of the EZ with a four speed manual and a carbureted engine. It is definitely a bare bones car but he loves it. It is in that light blue metallic colour that was popular in period. It looks tiny compared to modern traffic. Unlike our old 96 Tercel Sport his little hatchback is not at all sporty with plenty of body roll and long gear ratios in that four speed.
Sort of good timing with the write-up as I recently became the owner of one of its descendants – an 02 Echo. It’s unquestionably a turd with nearly a quarter million miles but I’m sort of determined to keep the damn thing on the road.
My dad worked the kitchen of a pizza delivery joint back in the 80s where the owner provided delivery cars. I hear the story of both an Escort and Tercel entering the fleet at the same time and how drivers would practically fight over the Toyota. Despite it being more a base model than the Escort, it purportedly got around better in the midwest winter snow and ice.
Just had an drive in another loaner a relative of the Tercel well parent company anyway a Daihatsu Sirion, not bad in the realm of loan cars, my old job involved lots of loaners, yes I have a scale. YMMV.
A Corolla Cross will never reach this km and not even two added together. Andy Campbell’s Tercel
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NKp1eLcQSc
I find it interesting that such an economical car without any rust was summarily scrapped .
-Nate
In 1988, five coworkers bought cars.
One bought a 1988 Chevy Corsica
One bought a 1988 Hyundai Excel
One bought a 1988 Pontiac LeMans
One bought a 1988 Ford Festiva LX
One bought a 1988 Toyota Tercel
After two years, the only cars kept were the Festiva LX and the Tercel. The first to go was the Excel with engine problems. The next was the LeMans for being a total POS. Next, the Corsica because it was slow and the interior broke in many places.
The Tercel and the Festiva LX lasted over a decade. The Tercel was traded in after marriage and children, and the Festiva lasted until it was sold in 2016 with 350,000 miles on it.
The Tercel was a very good car!
Too bad those junkyards don’t sell whole cars Jim, looks like you could just take that one off the stands and drive it home. Just needs a taillight and a battery and you’re good for another 100,000 miles.
The character line did make these stand out from other econoboxes at the time. Can’t say I ever actually wanted one in 1988, I was far more concerned with rusted out 1960’s cars at the time.
I have always liked cloth door panels; much better feel and look compared to plastic.
For an economy model, this Tercel looks fine; the interior color combination is pleasing and the seats seem inviting.
My first car—one I bought used in high school and drove for well over 2 years after college—was an ‘86 Tercel DX 2-door hatch, the spiritual predecessor of the Tercel EZ you mentioned. Mine had 4MT, vinyl seats and floor covering, crank windows, and plastic upper sections for the similar two-section door card design of the Tercel you pictured. My Tercel had no tachometer, and the foldable rear bench seats don’t even have head rests/restraints.
Oh how I lusted after the newer Tercels with the “much more powerful” 78hp engines with the same 1.5 liter displacement. Cloth seats and upper door coverings and rear seat headrests? Carpeted floor? That’s pure high-roller LUXURY! My biggest modification splurges were a leather-wrapped TRD shift knob proudly displaying the 4sp shift pattern, and a set of plastic wheel covers I found on sale at K-mart (remember them?) that looked kinda like the standard wheels of the 1st generation Acura Legend sedans. It was a sad day when I lost one wheel cover, but decided to keep the rest because at least from one side my car didn’t look like a complete pauper’s wannabe Legend.
Seeing this Tercel brings back strong nostalgia. My tan-on-tan Tercel’s dashboard design and material looked very similar to this one, which, incidentally, had the much more desirable (to me) and “sporty” round gauges because mine’s instruments were all set in square-ish holes.