![]() ![]() It wasn’t to take advantage of any pre-existing manufacturing efficiencies, such as the theory that the Tercel was essentially a FWD conversion of the RWD Starlet. I’ve often pondered as to why Toyota went this way. But it worked perfectly, and both the engine and drive-train of these Tercels have achieved legendary status. In any case, it was unusual to see a new small car an engine going against the grain. It’s similar to the Saab 99/900, and even to GM’s original FWD Toronado set0up, although there are some key differences too. This junkyard shot (also by MM) shows this even better. Toyota really bucked the sweeping transverse engine trend in FWD configuration with the Tercel, choosing instead a longitudinal engine, with the transmission below/along-side, and the differential just ahead of it. So did GM get that idea from Toyota? To borrow the name of a well-established RWD model to bolster a brand new FWD one? Well, Toyota needn’t have bothered, because the Tercel arrived rock-solid, despite its rather unusual engine-transmission configuration. Now that was taking a page out of GM’s playbook, like the Cutlass Ciera. The Tercel arrived in the US in 1980, and rather oddly, called the Corolla Tercel. The RWD Starlet and Corolla were kept around for a few more years, but the all-new FWD Tercel was going to become one of Toyota’s most important cars ever, in the then-crucial sub-compact segment. Europe had already embraced the FWD revolution, and in the US, the 1975 VW Rabbit/Golf really forced the issue. ![]() Toyota really was the GM of Japan, but the world was changing, and quickly. Like GM, Toyota had been building a large range of rather conventional and conservative RWD cars, from their little Starlet (above) ( CC here), to their biggest Crowns. Yet they managed to nail it, right out of the box. Well, the Tercel was all-new too, Toyota’s first FWD car. The 1980 X-cars are the poster boys all new, FWD, and highly flawed. We will forever hear explanations as to why GM stumbled and flubbed so many new car, engine, and other technology introductions in the late seventies and eighties: The need to downsize rapidly, the switch to FWD, oil prices, CAFE, EPA regs, etc. ( first posted ) How exactly did Toyota come to be so dominant, mostly at GM’s expense? One little well-built coffin nail at a time. ![]()
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