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Toyota starlet 1983 full#
Toyota starlet 1983 plus#

Another feature that never fails to attract the curious is the Cressida's motor-drive passive-restraint system: open either of the front doors and the upper end of the shoulder belt slides forward and down the windshield pillar a little way, the lower end pivoting on its anchor between seal and driveline tunnel. Whether this device sounds as breathtaking as its plethora of controls would lead one to believe it should is a highly subjective judgment call, but the sound is better than average. There is a wildly complicated radio/tape deck with buttons and levers enough to confuse an astronaut.

Toyota starlet 1983 full#

The Cressida comes with a full complement of beads, bells, and whistles to captivate North America's gadget-conscious natives. Everything fits, everything is well finished, and the car is a rolling definition of that see-touch-smell quality so elusive to Detroit's moguls. Furthermore, the Toyota feels solid, all-of-apiece. The car's isolation from both engine and road noise is very good, but that stirring six-cylinder drone can still be heard to good effect when the loud pedal is depressed all the way.

Toyota starlet 1983 plus#

The Toyota's 2.8-liter fuel-injected six-cylinder (shared with the Supra) is torquier, and its four-speed automatic transmission (three plus overdrive) is really effective at converting that torque to entertainment. Its interior lacked the Detroit-hyper decor that characterized the Datsun, for one thing, and its overall feel was tighter, sportier, for another. Price and performance differences to the contrary notwithstanding, we were perversely inclined to prefer the Toyota. This may be true, but the dollar difference, relative to the amount of real-world product content involved, is an awful lot to swallow. Senior Japan watchers on our staff opine that the uncomfortable difference in price is due to the fact that Toyota has always regarded the Cressida as their top-of-the-line luxo-cruiser, no matter how underwhelmed America may have been by that little conceit, while Datsun is playing catch-up with the 810 and its Maxima variant. The wonder increases when we consider that the Cressida comes with independent rear suspension in its home market. The Toyota may have a larger engine, a better automatic transmission, and marginally better acceleration, but $1800? And when Datsun's four-wheel disc brakes and independent rear suspension are thrown into the equation-with their attendant improvements in skidpad and braking performance-one really must wonder what the Toyota bean-counters had in mind. Unfortunately, at $12,699, our Cressida was about $1800 dearer than the comparably equipped Maxima, and that must surely give pause to the prospective buyer.

Tested: 1982 Toyota Celica Supra Adds Performance.

Tested: 1983 Baja Mexico Sedan Torture Test.

It goes without saying that the danger is at least as great for the Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, and Mercurys, already buffeted by the mighty wind from the East. Thus, with the arrival of the Toyota Cressida and Nissan's very similar Datsun 810 ( Car and Driver, April 1981), firms like Volvo, Peugeot, Audi, and Saab had better look to their defenses, because their markets are ripe for exactly the same kind of pillage that occurred downstream among the econoboxes. More than that, it demonstrates that the Japanese are now quite capable of building cars at any level of any market and scaring the bejeezus out of whatever established competitors might have been there ahead of them. The new Cressida is the latest and best step in this orderly progression into the upper-upper-middle price class. None of this has slowed Toyota's growth a bit, but it's the thought that counts. Thus we've seen Toyota come to market with cars like the Celica Supra, the Corolla SR-5, the new Coronas, and the Starlet-which surprised most people by coming in at a higher price than the base Corolla Tercel and apparently ignoring its most obvious U.S. 4A-GE Black Top 1.6L 20-valve inline-four engine swap from AE111 Corolla TRD headerįive-speed T50 transmission with factory AE86 shifter TRD clutch '92 Toyota Hilux power brake booster and clutch pedal AE86 rear axle with limited-slip differential 2.From the August 1981 issue of Car and Driver.Ī few years ago the Japanese automobile industry saw protectionist sentiment growing in the United States and evidently reasoned that one way to slow their market penetration without hurting profits would be to slide their whole product portfolio upscale-pump in more content all the way across the board and move out of the low-buck price-leader competition.