How Toyota Should Bring Back The Mighty Tercel

Dependability. Consistency. Punctuality. All of these are great attributes to have, but sadly they aren’t as cool as not responding to texts, showing up late or spending all of your cash on frivolous things.

There are few car brands that represent reliability and quality like Toyota. It’s the first car you recommend to non-car friends, and I’ve had a Toyota product as one of my two vehicles for the last quarter century. Still, we need to face a simple fact: generally speaking, most Toyotas aren’t cool. Oh sure, there are Supras, 2000GTs, AE86s and the like but most of their products are bought with the head and not the heart. Do you think that I purchased a certified used 2000 RX300 because I had a poster of it on the wall growing up?

Oddly enough, one of the coolest Toyotas was also one of the company’s boxiest and stodgiest looking products: the Land Cruiser (which is not the crossover mentioned in the headline; that’s coming in a bit). Since 1951, this Jeep rival has stayed true to its functional style-be-damned roots to remain arguably the most durable and bulletproof SUV ever.

There’s another Toyota from years past that’s also cool despite (or perhaps because of) its somewhat dorky looks. This funky product was almost impossible to categorize, but it was able to do so many things with a mere 63 horsepower. In many ways, it was ahead of its time, and that time has now arrived a mere forty years later. Let’s bring back the Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon!

Cruise(r) Control

They might not be bought by a cult that covers their dash tops with toy ducks, but Toyota continues to make legitimate, semi-indestructible off-roaders like the striking new Land Cruiser and the also-rugged 4Runner and pickup truck-based Sequioa (technically, they’re all on the same platform).

If you look in the background of those Toyota television commercials behind red-clad ever-present Jan (how can a person be so perpetually chipper in a fucking car dealership?) you’ll also see a whole bunch of crossover type vehicles. On the website I count at least six; all of them excellent, rational machines and I’d love to own precisely none of them. That’s a shame, since the first Toyota to arguably called a “crossover” was bizarre-looking and remarkably capable ‘lil chunk-‘o-fun.

Not An ATM, But It Was Money

Toyota was a good decade late to the party that the Europeans had started when Toyota released its first front wheel drive compact, the Tercel for 1979. This rather dumpy sedan was replaced with equally lackluster looking hatchbacks for 1983, keeping the rather odd-for-a-new-FWD-compact longitudinal engine (also that penguin at 0:14 in the ad below looks like a robot).

Ah, but as that weird ad pointed out, this was the tip of the iceberg because someone must have looked at this drivetrain setup and realized how easily they could hook up a driveshaft to the back of the transaxle and get a four-wheel drive model.

This option that was made available exclusively on a special bodystyle of the Tercel. If you don’t remember the 1983-87 Tercel wagon, you wouldn’t be alone. Just calling it a “wagon” was a bit of a misnomer since in many ways it really defied that description. Honestly, the name that most people referred to it might jog your memory: “the Money Exchange Car”.

Now you recall it, right? This disproportionately tall box sitting up on its tiny little wheels looked almost like your typical AI mashup of today with proportions seemingly at odds with each other. The asymmetric, squared off grille in front looked like something off of a piece of construction equipment. Massive rear quarter windows didn’t line up with the other side glass, the roof bumped out above the door tops.

The crowning glory and source of the Tercel wagon’s nickname was on the tailgate: an off-center box that looked remarkably like a 1980s “Money Exchange” or ATM machine. The license plate was placed in a sunken area where the screen would be on a cash machine, while the door handle for the hatch seemed to be where dollar bills would be dispensed once you typed your commands into the touchpad that happened to really be the backup light.

Inside, the funkiness continued with oddly-shaped seats featuring upholstery that looks a bit like the lumberjacks that Notorious BIG would wear. The top of the dash received an inclinometer that was similar to what “real” offroaders such as the Land Cruiser might get.

Ah, but the Tercel 4WD could actually be considered a real off roader, despite its size and notably low-powered 57 horsepower engine. The 1.6 liter four was hooked up to a six-speed manual that included five forward cogs as well as a “granny” ultra-low first gear, so Toyota expected you to take them up on at least part of the promise the Tercel wagon’s looks made.

Combined with its tremendous-for-the-outside-dimensions cargo capacity, the Tercel 4WD wagon was an immensely fun and useful little car. Look at this little sumbitch go in the ad below:

The Tercel helped pave the way for the “crossovers” that exist today, yet few (least of all Toyota products) offer such a tough little-car-that-could persona. The Tercel Wagon really deserves a revisit, and Toyota is supposedly working on something now that could create a perfect path to this end.

More Of A Good Thing

As elated as most of us are with Toyota actually producing the latest heritage-focused US-model Land Cruiser, there’s possibly more good news. In 2022, Toyota showed us the Compact Cruiser, supposedly an EV and a scaled-down interpretation of the latest Cruiser.

The Compact Cruiser is actually a unique design with bold, chamfered edges and modern interpretations of the typical ladders-and-skid-plates accoutrements of the off roading lifestyle. It’s all very industrial design looking; rather cartoonish and exaggerated. I obviously love it dearly, and if a guy that digs Lamborghini Espadas and Citroen SMs is into something that means it’s probably too over-the-top to sell in huge numbers.

To complement the Compact Cruiser, I think Toyota might need to do a version that’s toned down a bit, but just stripping off the roof racks and stripes and calling it a day won’t do it. No, they need to find something that balances ruggedness and suburban sensibility in equal measure. Cue the Oh What A Feeling trumpets- I have just the thing!

New Power, Same Dorkiness

Starting with the Compact Cruiser concept, the stubby proportions make it relatively easy to create a variation that pays tribute to the old Tercel Wagon. I’ve kept the flared fenders, but made them body-colored sheet metal to keep an aggressive look that’s still more toned down. The faceted edges used on the Compact Cruiser’s surfaces remain, and the giant rear quarter windows make the new Tercel wagon look a lot more airy in back than the blocked-0ff C pillars of the Cruiser Concept.

Are we putting an ATM on the rear hatch? Damn right, we are. A funky detail is the seam line on the top of the ATM “box”: that’s the rear wiper, and as it pivots around to wipe the rear window and then back to its resting place it would look like a filmmaker’s slate constantly doing “Tercel Wagon, Take One!”

The “lighting signature” matches the original car with the inset parking light, and it flanks a blocky grille taken verbatim from the old Tercel. The skid plate bumper off of the Compact Cruiser could work here as well.

Inside, we’ll have some chamfered-edge details to match the outside with grab handles befitting an off-roader. You can reconfigure the screen any way you’d want, but I would hope the default could be the inclinometer to pay tribute to the original Tercel wagon. Turn the car on, and a video of the Tercels driving into their places on the inclinometer plays.

The charger platform for your phones is a block that can be removed from the car. Of course, like on all of my sketches there will be a “gear” lever. Maybe I’m the only person on earth that doesn’t like touch buttons or knobs for gear selection but I’d be willing to bet money that there are other PRNDLheads out there, yes? Overall, I’m giving it a “tough” look that’s functional and rugged to fit the whole feel of the exterior design and will manage suburban abuse.

Funniest Looking Car You’ll Ever Love

Let’s face it: the Tercel wagon was made for these times. Many people want an a tough-looking vehicle but not something that makes you appear to be a fan of survivalist podcasts. These buyers don’t need Moab-level capability but at the same time aren’t interested in a pure poser. No, the world is finally ready for the little-wagon-that-could, and now it would have the kind of power the old one only dreamed of.

Look out, Stellantis: Jeep might still have more of a hip factor, but Toyota’s dependable-dull off roaders are getting cooler every day.

Let’s Raid The BMW Parts Bin To Make A Real Toyota Supra GT – The Autopian

The Legendary Nissan Patrol Should Come To America As A Boxy, Back-To-Basics Sport Ute Like This One I Just Dreamed Up – The Autopian

Someone Asked Me To Design A ‘Bespoke Boxy Wagon’ So Here’s A Matra Rancho-Style Crossover – The Autopian

Jeep Needs To Build An Off-Road Van And Here’s How They Should Do It – The Autopian