The Toyota Tercel, which was the first front-drive offering from the Japanese automaker, hit our shores as a 1980 model, called the "Corolla Tercel". It slid under the existing rear-wheel drive Corolla as Toyota's new basic transportation module and sold for a base MSRP of $4,198.
This allowed the Corolla to be moved slightly upmarket and the Tercel, soon freed of its "Corolla" prenomen, continued for four more generations and nearly twenty years as Toyota's workhorse cheap car.
The one in the picture is a Tercel DX from the middle of its final generation, dubbed the L50, which was sold here from the 1995 through 1999 model years.
The base model still started at only $10,348 in 1996, with the better-optioned DX going for a little more. The DX gave you cosmetic niceties like body-colored bumpers as well as the option of a five-speed manual (base cars still used a four-speed). Under the hood was Toyota's 1.5L DOHC 5E-FE inline four, rated at 93 SAE net horsepower. Performance was adequate, with 0-60 times in the low tens; enough to keep up with traffic, but not a street racer's delight.
Durability was downright Toyota-like, as the nearly thirty year old Medium Red example in the photo illustrates. It was photographed in September of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.
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