Curbside Classic: 1974 Toyota Celica

Paul Niedermeyer
by Paul Niedermeyer

Today’s Curbside Classic is a precautionary tale; a lesson in how difficult it is to predict the future, and how humbling it can be to bet on the wrong pony (car).

In 1972, I worked briefly on a small construction crew in Iowa City. Two of the young guys had just bought brand new cars. They were both painted silver, and were sporty coupes, but couldn’t have been more different otherwise. One bought a base Mustang coupe, just like in this picture, right down to the wheel covers, but with a vinyl top, no less. The other one bought a Celica Coupe, pretty much like this one. And the two of them argued endlessly about which one had made the better choice.

Frankly, I thought they were both nuts to hock themselves at their tender age; I was driving a $75 1962 Corvair, and hit the road with it as soon as I had saved a few hundred bucks, leaving them to dig footings and keep their argument going. But that’s beside the point, mostly. Of course I got caught up in the debate, and you probably won’t be surprised with which camp of the pony wars I had enlisted with.

You didn’t really need to be a very early Toyota fanboy for that. The 1971 – 1973 Mustang was not only the nadir of Mustangs, but pretty much of the the whole pony car segment. It was huge, overwrought, and excessive in every way possible. And though it reflected badly on Ford, all of the Big Three were similarly guilty at the time, with a few exceptions. As I looked at that bloated Mustang with its white wall tires and vinyl top, my personal Detroit DeathWatch ratcheted up a few notches. I just couldn’t see where they were going, other than off an inevitable cliff.

Yes, the Celica was a skinny little underfed Japanese kid (2200 lbs), and its approx. 90hp 2.0L four hardly set the world on fire. For the times, it was lively, and compared to the Mustang, it was actually fun to drive. The stick shift was slick, the engine was willing and at least sounded and felt like it was trying hard, and the manual steering and handling were…well, not up to BMW 2002 standards, but you could toss it around on the back roads and have a ball. It was so slim, one wore it like a suit. In comparison, the Mustang might have been your grandmother’s Grand Torino or LTD coupe: dull, soft, and slow; its de-smogged 302 losing out to the battle of its terminal bulge.

The original Mustang, especially a six with a stick, was much closer akin to the Celica than its 1973 namesake. And Toyota’s timing with the Celica was perfect, even more so a year later when the energy crisis hit. The drastically-downsized Mustang II was Ford’s acknowledgment that the Celica had it right. But by that time, the Celica had won over a lot of loyal fans, especially with its 1975 refresh and the very Mustang-esque Liftback. And with the very handsome 1978 restyle, which was penned at Toyota’s brand-new Calty SoCal studio, it seemed that the Celica was well on its way to becoming America’s new pony sweetheart.

That was quite the trick too, considering that this first gen Celica is very Japanese in style and feel. Yes, inspiration and the popularization of the affordable sporty coupe segment may be largely attributed to the original Mustang, but the execution here, especially the details, are anything but Detroit. Actually, the gen1 Celica was progressively “Americanized” throughout its fairly long lifespan, losing the original up-curved face and its delicate little geisha-butt. By the mid-seventies, Toyota knew clearly where the greatest opportunity for growth lay, and opening up the styling studio in California made that official.

We’re not going to recap the whole pony car wars here, and we all know how the Celica story ended. Not like I predicted in 1972; that’s for sure. But in the mid eighties, two significant events turned the tide: the lightweight Fox-body Mustang GT reappeared with its lusty 302, and the Celica went to a FWD platform. Ford had rediscovered its roots and thrived; the Celica went a different direction, which ultimately petered out. That’s not to say it didn’t leave some highly memorable (All-trac turbo), fun and reliable cars along the way.

I’m a fan of late-sixties – early seventies Japanese design, even when it becomes fodder for the word’s ugliest car contests. It was a time when the Japanese were finding a unique design language of their own, before they either mastered a more universally acceptable look, or opened styling studios in California (and Europe). I don’t know where the Juke was designed, but Nissan is certainly more than willing to mainstream distinctly Japanese vehicles, like Cube. Meanwhile, Toyota’s Scions, some of them specifically designed for the NA market, are stylistic dullards. Toyota’s race to dominate the American market extracted a price.

The owner of this particular Celica is very representative of so many other Curbside Classics. She’s a young woman who works in the cafe at this neighborhood market, and it was her uncle’s car, who had bought it new. Family keepsakes, passed from generation to generation, like genes. It’s her daily driver, having learned what it takes to keep a vintage Toyota on the road. I smile every time I see it (often), even though it humbles me to remember how cock-sure I was about its future in 1972.

Paul Niedermeyer
Paul Niedermeyer

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  • LilysMom LilysMom on Feb 05, 2011

    I just have to butt in here!! Our 1973 Celica ST is STILL sitting down in the garage in pristine shape and let me tell you, all the negative posts above will never, ever wipe out the memory of me driving that car 100 MILES per hour down the Trans Canada highway, blowing though a speed trap at the Saskatchewan-Alberta border because my husband, in a slightly strangled voice, had told me to make sure I had at least two other people in front of me who were going faster! No power? I beg to differ and beautiful to handle as well. So what if it doesn't ever become a collectible, it doesn't matter. I have never again driven such a fun car! And P.S. - we take it into parades and collectible or not, it sure is a hit with everyone there!

  • ClassicTVMan1981 ClassicTVMan1981 on Mar 28, 2012

    I see the original blue-on-gold Oregon plates are still there. CKP-099: first issued March 1974, initial validation lasted through March 1976. Shortly after they changed from gold on blue plates to blue on gold, they also changed initial expiration from being one year from issue date of the plate to two years; as a result, few Oregon drivers had a 1975 sticker on their plates, opting instead for a 1976 expiration date. For example, a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Diesel 2-door coupe with a license plate of GNC-748 was initially issued in July 1978 and the first expiration date was July 1980.

    • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Mar 29, 2012

      One thing I like about OR and CA, and used to about WA - it's possible to find quite old cars with their original plates from new. And if those old plates are in nice shape, it can tell you something about the care the car has had. Just an added factor in scoping out an older car.

  • Honda1 The FJB Inflation Reduction Act will end up causing more inflation down the road, fact! Go ahead and flame me libbies, get back to me in a few years!
  • Cprescott Fisker is another brand that Heir Yutz has killed.
  • Dwford Every country is allowed to have trade restrictions except the US.
  • 1995 SC Are there any mitigation systems that would have prevented this though? We had a ship hit a bridge in Jacksonville a few years back and it was basically dumb luck it didn't collapse. This looked like a direct hit.
  • Cprescott Oh, well.
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