1985 Toyota Celica - Some Things Never Change

Way back in 1985, my buddy Rich bought a brand new Toyota Celica to replace his well worn 1975 Chevrolet Laguna S-3. He offered me his Laguna for almost next to nothing and ironies of ironies, I've never regretted not buying it. What I do regret is never buying a third generation, 1982-1985 Toyota Celica. 

I wish our subject here was a hatchback like Rich's so it could be a perfect time machine right now but this nice rag top will have to suffice. At least it's red and has the same wheels as his did. Rich was over the moon excited about his new car although he was none too pleased with it's more than $11,000 sticker price. Tack on a grand or two more for the convertible option. Everything is relative and Rich's Celica was more than twice the money he paid for his Laguna when it was new. As much as the price of things have gone up recently, there was nothing like the runaway inflation of the late 1970's into the mid 1980's that all but doubled the price of a car. 

While I really liked Rich's Laguna to the point that I somewhat considered buying it, what I was more impressed with was how excellent the Celica was. Somewhat fussy of design inside and out like many Japanese designs were back then and can still be to this day, the beauty of the Celica was in how it performed. While lacking perhaps in the "off the line" oomph department, understandable given the car had only a four cylinder engine making less than 150 pound feet of torque, everything else about the car was absolutely spectacular. Smooth handling, tenacious braking and jewel like assembly. Why would anyone buy a Camaro when they could have a Celica? What's more, for a just a few grand more you could take care of the lack of power by ordering up to a six cylinder Celica Supra. 

Why didn't more people in the pony car market buy Celica's back then? Well, for starters, these cars were considerably more expensive than a comparably equipped Camaro, Firebird or Mustang. The styling wasn't for everyone either; I'm still torn over whether or not I really like these cars or if I've just grown used to them. The relative lack of beans under hood a sore subject too. Especially considering that GM started offering port fuel injection on their 60 degree V-6 that powered so many base model Camaros and Firebirds back in the day. The Supra option could took care of the power problem but that also meant you had to live with an even longer hood that accentuated the car's off putting styling. Yes, the Supra was a trim option on the Celica before they split the two into separate models. 

I have to tell you, though, even after driving one of these and being enthralled by it, if you gave me the choice between one of these, coupe please, or an IROC of the same vintage, I'm going with the flimsy and obnoxious IROC. I know, I know. Even if I knew then that that was the wrong decision to make. Truth be known, if I had the same choice today, I'd make the same decision. You can take the boy out of the South Shore but you can't take the South Shore out of the boy.