The Toyota bB was introduced in Japan in 2000 and later became the basis for the first-generation Scion xB sold in the U.S. The Open Deck was the oddball branch of that family tree that removes the rear wagon storage area in exchange for a short bed, external rear structure, and exposed tubular-looking framework. It […]
The Toyota Paseo was the sporty smaller two-door cousin of the Tercel. It was the same basic small-car engineering, but wrapped in a low, swoopy coupe body that looked far more ambitious than its actual performance. Today’s example looks remarkably original and appears to have factory wheel covers, factory spoiler, stock ride height, stock trim, […]
Toyota sold their wedge shaped TownAce/MasterAce R20/R30 van with the names Toyota Space Cruiser in parts of Europe, but because Americans love American cheese and ketchup on fries, they called the Toyota Van for the US Market. The repercussions of this decision reverberates across the automotive landscape to this day. Find this 1987 Toyota Van […]
This next car is an interesting car that should be on your radar, but you’ve probably driven by a few on the highway and not looked twice. Firstly, the Matrix was assembled at the NUMMI plant in the SF Bay Area, making these one of the few cars assembled in California in the 21st Century, […]
This next car is strange. It appears to be a beige manual AWD Camry with a burgundy interior, Celica GT-Four bits, rally coilovers, 241K miles, and the exact kind of sleeper weirdness that makes Toyota nerds suddenly stop scrolling. The All-Trac Camry was built for people who wanted Camry reliability but lived somewhere with real […]
Our next feature is a Tercel DX, one of Toyota’s least glamorous but most honest little commuter cars from the “just keep changing the oil” era. The formula is simple: small four-cylinder, front-wheel drive, manual gearbox, light curb weight, basic interior, and almost nothing expensive enough to ruin your week. The 5-speed manual is the […]
Today’s first feature is the second-generation Scion tC (spiritual successor to the Celica), launched for 2011, and it moved the tC from “cheap Toyota coupe for tuner kids” into a slightly bigger, stronger, more adult-looking hatchback coupe. The big mechanical change for 2011 was the engine: it uses Toyota’s 2.5-liter 2AR-FE inline-four, rated around 180 […]
Toyota is an interesting maker of automobiles. Most of their cars are total slop for the masses — uninspiring powertrains and styling that chases the latest thing, despite the latest thing often being garbage. However, every once in a while, the guys at Toyota make something brilliant. These are the greats — the 2000GT, Supra […]
Today’s next feature is an early 70s Corolla that has been shortened by over 14 inches, which means someone looked at an already small early Corolla and decided it had too many inches of wheelbase. The proportions are hilariously wrong in the best possible way. Shortened body, hood scoop, black paint, red interior, old-school wheels, […]
The Toyota WiLL Vi was a retro-futurist marketing experiment from the early 2000s built on the Toyota Vitz/Echo/Yaris platform. It is strange looking beast with a reverse-rake rear window, ribbed doors, rounded fenders, and a greenhouse that looks like someone described a Citroën 2CV to a Toyota designer over a fax machine. Own one and […]