Farewell Celica
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I never thought this would happen…
The Celica will be “no more” after this summer. Even in Europe.
I wonder if it will keep selling in Japan… Or even be redesigned in the near future.
I guess, at least in the US, most people who used to buy sporty cars are now driving SUVs. A sad day indeed.
The Celica was always at the crest of the design trend with each redesign.
On this slow news day, let’s remember the car, and the good looking models that helped make the 1st generation a cool thing to get…
Looks great over 30 years later.
That car shows that good taste never goes out of style.
I will never understand the appeal of that car. The Supra is way better even if it a Toyota.
WEll, no surprise the Celica is dead! The Scion Tc is basically the Toyota Celica!
That’s what the BS Toyota PR says.
the TC is the new Celica.
But it is NOT.
The Scion looks like it was designed 10 years ago!
The Celica was always the most modern design out there. The Scion would never appeal to a person whoo values design.
A very good car, (at a great price) but not a design statement…
I also have to mourn the demise of the Celica, It was the first of a great many enjoyable Japanese sport coupes. Eclipses, MX-6s, SXs and plenty of other great little sport coupes followed its footsteps.
Its sad to see such an influential nameplate go but I also largely put the blame on Toyota. For over the past decade, they didn’t really seem to know what to do with the car. I agree that the Tc, despite its blandness really does pick up the mantle.
I don’t agree that the Celica was that much of a design leader however. When it first came out, it seemed like the original Mustang notchback, only smaller. This wasn’t a bad thing, just not exactly “out there” in terms of design. Later versions of the original design started taking on more of a Dodge Challenger character – only smaller. (though the ’77 Liftback clearly went back to recalling the early Mustang fastbacks). The ’78 took on a Chevy Monza look, – only smaller, though it was much better executed, than that sorry GM effort.
The sharply creased ’83, to its credit, with its didn’t really recall anything outside of a whiff of Porsche 928 in its lift-forward headlights. It was a nice clean design to which the Tc is an obvious decendent. The Supra spun off in earnest from this design. Things kind of went downhill from there with somewhat Porsche-like designs that were curvier but also heavier and finally leading to the oddball “ski-boat” current design that was always more strange then sporty. Maybe it’s a coincidence but it seemed that Toyota really got confused about the car once it switched to Front-wheel drive.
Sadly, it has been a difficult time for sport coupes but if anyone could have weatherd it, it was Toyota. And they are. But they realize that there really is no place for a Celica in the brand that Toyota has become and the future of that market now belongs to Scion.
But, as a somewhat better writer than myself asked: “What’s in a Name?”